Sometimes it happens . . . you’re reading the Scriptures and you find yourself in the text . . . not just observing it, but interacting with it . . . or rather, it interacting with you. It probably isn’t very good “rules of interpretation”, but as you read, the “literal context” fades and the words you’re reading are being spoken directly to you. The “historical object” of the teaching is displaced and you find yourself in the middle of the story . . . you become the subject of the teaching. And though, it might seem an “unconscious act”, I’m wondering if it isn’t one of the ways the Spirit energizes the word of God such that it becomes “living and powerful.” I had one of those “living and powerful” encounters this morning.

Address? Matthew 13:10-17. Context? Jesus teaching His disciples in parables . . . in particular the parable of the sower. Familiarity factor? Pretty high. I’ve read this passage once or twice before . . . have heard it preached on once or twice before. Maybe that’s why I “drift” from seeing it as a conversation between Jesus and the disciples who were with Him, and find myself reading it as Jesus talking to this disciple . . . sitting in this chair . . . some 2,000 years later. They ask Him, “Why do you speak in parables?” And instead of answering them, He speaks to me . . .

“To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven . . . For to the one who has, more will be given, and he will have an abundance . . . blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. For truly, I say to you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.” (Matthew 13:10-12, 16-17)

And I am overwhelmed with a sense of privilege . . . and with a sense of thanksgiving for His grace.

To me it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven. In His sovereign, gracious determination, He purposed to remove the scales from my eyes . . . to take the plugs out of my ears . . . to replace my heart of stone with a heart of flesh attuned to the things of God . . . and has let me in on the secrets of heaven. Once dead to the things of God because of the permeating presence of sin, through His blood He redeemed me . . . through His Spirit he re-birthed me and rewired my spiritual DNA, bringing me into an awareness of things that transcend this earth . . . that transcend the here and now . . . things concerning the kingdom of heaven.

And for the one who has, more is given . . . abundantly more. Oh, there is so much more to know of Him and His ways . . . but, I also know so much more now than I did when this journey began. Faithful, by His grace and enabling, with little . . . given more. Acting upon limited understanding . . . graciously given more understanding. It’s what makes the Word of God a life-long pursuit. It’s depth’s never fully plumbed . . . it’s treasures never completely discovered. There’s an abundance to be discovered . . . to be revealed . . . to be leveraged in the process of transforming me through the renewing of my mind so that I might discern the ways and will of God (Rom. 12:2).

And the secrets which have been revealed . . . and are being revealed . . . are things that many seekers of God in past ages sought to understand. I was reading in Exodus this morning, as well . . . and of the greatest of all prophets, Moses, “whom the LORD knew face to face” (Deut. 34:10-12). But despite His face to face relationship with the God of glory and all the signs and wonders he was privileged to participate in, He left this earth not knowing perhaps the greatest secrets of the kingdom . . . the nature of Messiah . . . the means of eternal deliverance from the bondage of sin . . . the dynamics of fellowship with God through the indwelling Spirit. Though Moses told the people that God desired a “treasured possession among all peoples” and a people to be to Him “a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Ex. 19:5) . . . Moses could not have imagined the church . . . the body of Christ . . . the bride of the Lamb . . . the living, breathing, worshiping, habitation of God through the Spirit.

Yup, a bit overwhelmed. What privilege . . . what responsibility . . . what a blessing! And there I am, right in the middle of the story . . . by His grace . .. and for His glory.