Whether people were receptive to  Jesus depended upon the condition of their hearts. People with open hearts received what Jesus taught them and wanted more. People who were closed to Jesus had what Isaiah called “calloused” hearts.

“In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah: ‘You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving. For this people’s heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise, they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.” Isaiah 6:9-10

What makes a heart calloused?

Holding on to pet sins, being skeptical and doubtful, feeling angry with God and blaming him for our sorrows—these things harden our hearts. Sometimes we just want to run our own lives so we close our hearts to the Lord.

God doesn’t fight with us for control of our lives, but he does try to steer us away from sin and its consequences. Jesus used parables to penetrate calloused hearts so people could get on the road to faith.

The Parable of the Sower and the Seed

Jesus was glad his disciples asked him to explain the parable of the sower and the seed. Their curiosity meant their hearts probably had “good soil” where truth could take root and grow.

He explained that the seed was the word of God. People who heard the Word but let the devil tempt them away before they could believe were like the hard soil of a beaten path. The Word hit their hearts and bounced off.

People who got excited about the Gospel but didn’t grow spiritually were like the seed falling on rocky soil. When adversity came their faith withered and died.

Some people heard the Word, but their lives filled up with the worries, riches and pleasures of this world and they made no effort toward spiritual growth. Their life might look good from the outside, but on the inside it was choked with weeds and there was no room for the Kingdom.

But people who have “a noble and good heart, who hear the Word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop,” were the ones with good soil where the Gospel could take root. The disciples who wanted to understand the parables had good hearts.

The Lamp on a Stand

Jesus’ parables were like a light that illuminated truth. People who wanted to live in the light were drawn to his teaching, but people who didn’t want the light to expose their hearts turned away. How people responded to Gospel revealed the condition of their hearts.

“For there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed that will not be known or brought out into the open. Therefore consider carefully how you listen. Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what they think they have will be taken from them.” Luke 8:17

If people were open to truth and willing to grow, their store of truth would increase. If they resisted the truth they heard, what they learned would be lost.

Seeds and Weeds

The people Jesus spent most of his time with lived close to the land. They knew about farmers sowing seeds, watching the crop come up, dealing with weeds, and rejoicing over the harvest that provided food.

After a farmer sowed the seed there wasn’t much he could do but wait for it to grow. In the same way, a person who sows the Word isn’t responsible for whether it takes root and grows. Jesus taught people the Word; then he waited to see what they did with it.

Sometimes weeds grow up with the crop. Jesus understood that problem. In congregations there are always people who belong to the kingdom living side by side with people who belong to the enemy.

When the workers in the parable asked the farmer if they should pull up the weeds, he told them to let the wheat and weeds grow together until the harvest, then he would instruct the harvesters to separate the weeds and burn them. This was a picture of the end of time and Judgment Day when the Lord’s angels will separate those who belong to him from those who don’t.

“So it will be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of the kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil.” Matthew 13:40-41

Meanwhile, the person who sows the Word only needs to tend the good crop, the Lord will take care of the rest.

Mustard Seeds and Yeast

There’s a mustard plant that grows in North Africa and the Middle East called Brassica Nigra. It starts as a tiny seed and grows to eight feet tall. It’s sturdy enough for birds to perch in its shade.

Jesus said the Kingdom of God was like that mustard plant and it certainly is. What started as a tiny movement in Jerusalem two thousand years ago has now become a global phenomenon encompassing hundreds of nations, tribes, people groups, and languages.

Jesus also said the Kingdom was like a bit of yeast worked into a lump of dough that multiplies until it fills the whole lump. This has happened, too. The Good News about Christ has reached almost every part of the world, jumping from one life to another as the Gospel is shared. It moves quietly and almost invisibly, but once the Kingdom takes hold, it changes everything.

Kingdom of Treasure

Where is the Kingdom of God located? The Kingdom of God is everywhere, but it’s only visible to those who are watching for it.

Jesus said discovering the Kingdom was like digging around in a field and uncovering a beautiful buried treasure, or rummaging through a big bag of pearls and pulling out the largest, most glowingly perfect pearl you’ve ever seen. When you find a treasure like that you sell everything else you own so you can purchase it.

Jesus was living Kingdom life when he gave these illustrations. He saw treasure in the lives of the people he healed and made whole, and he said to himself, I will give everything I have for this. I will give my life.

Kingdom of Fish

Jesus used another easy-to-follow illustration one day when he wanted people to understand the Kingdom. His parables were a treasure trove of old and new stories.

“Once again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was let down into the lake and caught all kinds of fish. When it was full the fishermen pulled it up on shore. Then they sat down and collected the good fish in baskets, but threw the bad away.” Matthew 13:47-48

The fish represented people who will be gathered up at the end of time and separated—the good and the bad. The fishermen in the crowd understood the necessity for that; they only kept the good fish they caught.

But the “fish” in this story were actually people, because that’s how it will be at the end of the world. God will keep the good people with him for eternity and throw the rest out. People don’t like to hear that, but it’s true. And the discomfort we feel with hearing it now is nothing compared to the weeping and gnashing of teeth there will be on Judgment Day.

Storm at Sea

Jesus asked his disciples to take him across Galilee in a boat one evening and on the way a furious squall came up and nearly swamped the boat. Jesus had gone to the back of the boat and was asleep on a cushion when his alarmed disciples woke him up.

“Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?” Mark 4:38

Jesus got up and rebuked the wind and told the waves to calm down. Then he turned to the disciples and asked, “Why were you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?” Mark 4:40

The disciples didn’t have the faith Jesus had. He could sleep through a storm at sea because he trusted his Father completely and whatever circumstance the Father put him into was fine with him.

But the Father had Jesus calm the sea for the sake of the disciples, to alleviate their fear and to build their faith. And it worked. The disciples moved to a whole new level of thinking about Jesus.

“In fear and amazement they asked one another, ‘Who is this? He commands the winds and the water and they obey him.’” Luke 8:25

Creation obeyed Jesus because he was its Creator, but Jesus obeyed his Father when he calmed the storm, because Jesus always – only – did what the Father told him to do.