Daily Devotional

I grew up during a time when “Password” was a TV game show or a device to keep girls from joining our “Superheroes Save the World” club. Today I live in a world that is inundated by passwords. There are passwords for everything. Every application on my phone requires a password before I can use it.  Every website where I transact any kind of business restricts access unless I put in the correct password. Sometimes, I can bypass using a password by clicking on the box “Remember Me” but that only works for a short while. While I know that password creation applications are all the rage these days, I am still under the illusion that I can keep all my passwords in my head. So, there is a predictable pattern that I follow when I want to visit a website. I find myself on the log-in page, enter my username (which I usually get right) and then I begin to plug-in various passwords that I have used in the past with the hope that one of them will work. I must be careful not to make too many attempts because then I will be marked as a hacker and get locked out. So after two or three failed attempts I flee to my place of refuge and rescue: “Reset Password.”

In Mark 4, Jesus seems to suggest that there is also a “password” for receiving the kingdom of God. In this chapter, Mark shifts attention to Jesus’ teaching. Jesus often teaches through parables—short, simple stories drawn from everyday life. These stories are meant to communicate a simple truth and call for a response from the listener. He begins his first parable talking about a farmer sowing seed and how the seed reacts with four different types of soil- the roadbed, rocky soil, thorn-infested soil and good soil.  In the agrarian culture of Jesus’ audience this story would have been very familiar. It is even possible that those listening could have looked around and seen a farmer in the distance acting out Jesus’ story before their eyes. Jesus ends his teaching with this cryptic warning: “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”  Then the crowd disperses but not everyone. Let’s pick up Mark’s narrative:

“And when he was alone, those around him with the twelve asked him about the parables. And he said to them, ‘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 turn and be forgiven.’” (Mark 4:10-12 ESV)

Here Jesus quotes Isaiah 6, where the LORD gives Isiah his commission: “Go and prophesy to the children of Israel, but understand  that the result will be that the people will look like they are seeing and hearing but the message will not get through; but preach it anyway.” By citing this passage, Jesus reveals another purpose of parables: they can also serve as instruments of judgment, dividing people into two groups—those who are inside and those who are outside. What distinguishes these groups? At first, it may seem that Jesus is referring to the spiritual elite, the disciples, those called to be “with him so that he might send them out to preach and have authority to cast out demons” (Mark 3:14b). But Mark has already told us that others were there besides the disciples. He describes them as “those around him.” When we read the text carefully, there appears to be only one thing that distinguishes the insiders from the outsiders: the insiders remain after the crowd has left. Just as the seed in Jesus’ parable falls on different kinds of soil, the parable itself falls on different kinds of listeners. Some in the crowd were likely farmers. Perhaps they thought, “This man has never worked on a farm in his life. Who is he to teach me about farming?” Others may have found the story mildly interesting, but they had other things to do, and the heat made it easy to move on. But a few—only a few—heard the story and thought, “There must be more to this. He cannot be talking only about farming. I do not yet understand it, but I want to find out.” So they took the bold step of asking Jesus, “What does this story mean?”

It is to that small company of seekers that Jesus declares “To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God.” Not to wise ones who discerned the meaning of the parable, not to the spiritual elite who had some source of special insight, but the secret of the kingdom of God is given to those who don’t know, to those who admit that they don’t know, to those who don’t know but want to know and are bold enough to ask to know more.

            So what is the password into the Kingdom? From what I can discern from this passage, I can paraphrase the password in three simple words: “I don’t know.” Saying “I don’t know” puts me in a position of humility where I am open to learn more. It’s very similar to the promise that Jesus gave in the first of the beatitudes in the Sermon on the Mount. “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:3) We see the prophet Ezekiel using this password in answering the LORD’s question; ‘“Son of man, can these dry bones live?” And I answered, “O Lord GOD, you know.”’ (Ezekiel 37:3) I think we also see the apostle Paul, taking a similar stance after he asks the Lord for the third time, “Please take away this thorn in my flesh.” In the place of not knowing, in the place of humility, in the place of weakness, he is able to hear: “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Corinthians 12:9)

This is very encouraging to me because the older I grow, the more I am confronted with all the things that I don’t know. After of reading and studying the Bible for more than fifty years, there are still many parts that baffle me and that’s okay. When the tidal waves of life sweep over me and I strain to find a clue pointing to the meaning behind the wave, I find a place of peace and rest when I say the password “I don’t know, but I trust in you.”