Unqualified Evangalists

   Jesus was not a resume reader.  If you know your scriptures you will know that he didn't pick the best of the best, the most qualified, the preachers and teachers.  His closest comrades and loudest spokesmen were not theologians or Talmud experts or Levites.  The fisherman on whom he built his church was a zealot and a temperamental fellow.  One of his disciples betrayed him.  Jesus did not appear to practice what we deem as appropriate and important discernment of character.
   Jesus did not thoroughly vet each candidate.  In Luke 10 he sends out 72 disciples to preach the good news of the Kingdom in towns throughout the land.  Not only do they go unequipped, they are directed by Jesus to go unequipped.  Jesus did not outfit people with things they didn't need.  He sent out disciples with no money, food, or even sandals.  They went out with much more important things like truth.
   Jesus is not in the business of finding the most qualified man or woman for the job.  This is what is meant in 1 Samuel 16:7 when God says, "man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart."  We look for qualifications that we can see, quantify and test, and we are not very good at testing hearts.  But Jesus is very good at testing hearts.  He chose the lowly and uneducated, the despised and dirty, the outcasts of decent religious circles.  Jesus does not need highly qualified evangelists because he doesn't need someone mucking up the Gospel with their own junk and ideas.  He needs only a willing heart, someone who will take the only true Gospel with them wherever they go and give it away without qualification.  Because the Gospel is free, simple, and it's for everyone.

The Secret of the Kingdom

Jesus says often, in conjunction with a parable, "He who has ears, let him hear."  In case you didn't realize it, this means you.

In Mark 4:3-8, Jesus tells the parable of the sower.

"Listen! Behold, a sower went out to sow.  And as he sowed, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured it.  Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil, and immediately it sprang up, since it had no depth of soil.  And when the sun rose, it was scorched, and since it had no root, it withered away.  Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain. And other seeds fell into good soil and produced grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold."

That's it; that is the parable.  Unsurprisingly, people are unsure of what it means.  Mark 4:10 says, "And when he was alone, those around him with the twelve asked him about the parable."  So a contingent of people has stayed after the crowds have gone and are asking Jesus what he meant.  Jesus goes on to tell them the meaning of the parable, but first he tells them this:

"To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside everything is in parables, so that "they may indeed see but not perceive, and may indeed hear but not understand, lest they should turn and be forgiven."  - Mark 4:11-12

What in the world is he talking about?  There are so many things wrong with this statement I'm not sure where to begin.  Is he saying that only the disciples have been given the secret to the Kingdom?  No, because there are others besides the disciples there, namely "those around him with the twelve."  And who exactly is "outside," and what are they "outside" of?  The kingdom?  Why would Jesus want them not to perceive and understand, since that is how they will "turn and be forgiven?"

I don't understand everything about this passage, but I know this: there's nothing wrong about it, because Jesus is the one saying these things.  Here is something else I know: those "outside" are outside by choice.  Jesus is telling us, just as he is telling those with him in this story, at this place, that those of us who have stuck around to spend time with him are the ones on the inside.  If we have chosen Jesus, we have received revelation of the Kingdom.

It's interesting because, even though these folks who have hung around with Jesus after the crowds have left are asking him what the parable meant, he implies that they already know what it means.  He tells them that they have been given the secret, while those outside have not, and then he goes on to explain the parable.  But if they had the secret, why would they ask what he meant?  And why would he go on to explain it?

I think that the answer is that the Kingdom has been given to us, but that doesn't mean it's not still a mystery.  I know that I'm a part of the Kingdom and that the Kingdom is mine, but I don't completely understand it.  There are times when I encounter something - a song, a poem, a comment from a friend- and realize that the Kingdom is in it and I didn't even suspect it was possible.  That is the secret of the Kingdom, the mystery: that it is bigger and less quantifiable than we ever thought or will ever realize.  Even though its ours and we've been let in, we won't grasp the breadth and depth of it because it isn't of our making, but that doesn't mean we can't get snapshots of its magnificence here and there.

God's Kingdom is beyond comprehension because He is beyond comprehension; to me that is the lesson in this passage.  Jesus is saying: you get it but you don't; it's yours but it isn't.  To me this is the mystery of God in a nutshell, that it's just within and just beyond comprehension.  If you can't live with mystery you will not be happy in the Kingdom of God, because living with mystery requires faith; it requires us to live without all the answers, knowing that God will work it all out and that He is who He says He is.

This ties in beautifully with the parable of the sower, which reveals the fate of various recipients of the Word.

"The sower sows the word.     "And these are the ones along the path, where the word is sown: when they hear, Satan immediately comes and takes away the word that is sown in them.     "And these are the ones sown on rocky ground: the ones who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy.  And they have no root in themselves, but endure for a while; then, when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately they fall away.     "And others are the ones sown among thorns. They are those who hear the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful.     "But those that were sown on the good soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold."

The fate of each of "the ones" has everything to do with how they receive the word, and so has everything to do with faith.  If you aren't in a place to ward off Satan, or you can't endure tribulation or persecution, or you can't deal with the cares of the world or resist the desires of your flesh, the word of God gets stolen from you.  In each case faith in the Lord is the difference.  The good soil is not an accident of placement, it is ground made fertile by faith, and faith made strong by getting comfortable with mystery, with the knowledge that God knows everything and so it's best to trust in Him.   So the secret of the Kingdom is that it's a secret.  If you go looking for the secret of the Kingdom as a thing you can discover, quantify and replicate, you won't find it.  But if you go looking with the intention of finding out who God is, if you stay behind with Jesus after the crowds of looky-loos have left, you'll find out what the secret is, you'll learn what the parables mean and, most importantly, you'll get to know who Jesus is.