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More Random
Thoughts From This Disciple |
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A Reflection on “Knowledge”
and “Understanding” There is a difference between
knowledge and true understanding. It is
one thing to be able to spit a piece of information back out so that you get
an A on an exam or spit something out that makes you sound wise and
all-knowing; it is quite another to truly understand the ins and outs of how
something works and know the intricacies and fine details of any idea. Knowledge can bring about understanding if
there is a will to do so, but understanding knows the subject
intimately…understanding has truly experienced the subject. Ahh, there is a difference between
knowledge and true understanding.
Most of us have probably come to this conclusion ourselves after years
of experience. I knew it to be true
by the time I was a senior in high school.
Ashley taught me the
difference. Poor Ashley. Late one warm summer night, a group of
friends and I were laying on our backs in a park, watching the stars and
talking. Ashley was there too. We were probably talking about politics or
religion or the meaning of the universe which our drama teacher told us the
answer to: a bean burrito. We were
probably trying to figure something out like that when Ashley…completely out
of the blue asked, "why are some stars brighter than others?" We all rolled our heads in her direction
and stared at her. Was she
serious? Ashley, the soon to be valedictorian
of her class? Little Miss perfect
marks in all of her science classes, including physics Ashley? How could something as simple as size and
distance have slipped by her?
Finally, one of us piped up and tried to explain to her about size and
distance and some brightness variance according to composition. But, she just stared at us with those
bright green eyes of hers. O.K. it
was time to get out the big guns, it was time to get out teacher's aids, it
was time to tell the parable of the empty soda cans. After going to our cars and
grabbing our empty cans, a couple of us stood close to her with the cans
outstretched and the others of us stood back at varying points until we
stretched to the end of the parking lot.
"This is what stars are like," we told her, "some are
closer and look bigger and others are farther away and look
smaller." We didn't even go into
star age or composition. We took old
information and presented it in a new way to her. And slowly, this girl who had excelled in her science classes
but only had knowledge, finally gained a little bit of understanding. You could see it in her eyes; they grew
bigger as she finally understood. Knowledge is nothing compared to
understanding. Understanding the kingdom of God
is very similar. It is all good and
well to tell people that the kingdom of God is both then, beyond life as we
currently
know it, and now,
secretly hidden in the events of ordinary life. It is fine to tell people that the kingdom of God is marked by
signs such as forgiveness, healing, love, and qualities such as giving one's
self for the sake of the other. All
of these qualities come about in Christ's followers because our true redeemed
nature is to be like God and these are the qualities of God as seen in Jesus
Christ. It is fine to share all of
these things. But, in the end it is
all knowledge. Rarely does knowledge
truly touch and transform your life.
Few people have found salvation in Christ by being told by a sidewalk
preacher "Jesus died for you."
Understanding is what opens our eyes big and excites the soul. Like the parable of the soda cans,
parables are given to us as gifts to open our souls wide to understanding
God's kingdom. The help us understand
old truths in new ways. Like other knowledge, it is
interesting to know facts about parables.
Facts such as: a farmer wouldn't intentionally plant mustard seeds in
a field meant for crops, this is not where mustard belongs according to
tradition but, this farmer does anyway; or, that the woman isn't actually
hiding yeast in the dough, this is much too cleaned up of a story, she is
actually hiding leaven in the dough (leaven is a moldy, skanky piece bread
that has been sitting in a damp area for weeks); or that the man finding the
treasure appears to actually be robbing someone because he finds something
wonderful and precious on someone else's land, hides it, and then buys the
land from that person. These are all
fascinating pieces of knowledge. But,
knowing these tidbits doesn't bring
us any closer to
God's kingdom. Only understanding has
that power. And in a world of confusion,
where we're pulled multiple ways and places in life, terrorized by certain
groups, trying to find the Godly thing to do in response, we desire to be
grounded in life; we desire to understand the kingdom of God. I can't just give you understanding
of the kingdom while you read this the same way I could tell you about the
facts behind the parables. It doesn't
work like that. Understanding is
participatory. It takes thought,
bewilderment, and puzzling over on the part of the hearer. Parables are participatory. Like the soda cans, understanding comes
through experiencing them. With that said, wouldn't a person
gain understanding if this
happened? What if a girl grew up in a
family where she was never good enough.
No matter how perfect she tried to do things, her parents just were
not happy. They preferred to heap
praises on her oldest brother. He, on
the other hand, could do everything perfectly. He was great at everything, athletics…academics…being the life
of the crowd and his parents made sure he knew it. She never got the type of praise they heaped on him. Just criticism and the constant urge to be
more like her brother. She was just
an ugly, second rate child, hidden away behind her brother's greatness. What if this girl was told the old parable
of the leaven and the dough? How,
like a woman, God can take a rotting, unpretty, imperfect, moldy piece of
bread, hide it behind three measures of dough and make over a hundred
beautiful loaves of bread. Do you
thing that she would understand and feel good enough to be welcome in God's
kingdom? What if questions and confusions
of life; why is there suffering…why did my son have to die before me…why am I
still here…why isn't God showing any sign that He exists…why aren't you doing
something…why am I so petty and miserable…why should I continue on; what if
these unanswered questions have wiped away all hope from a man beaten by the
sadness and cruelty of life? And, he
no longer has the strength to continue the search for answers and a good life? What if this man was told the parable of
the merchant who searched and searched and searched and searched through
glass topped cases and boxes, never finding his pearl; rummaging high and low
with boxes falling all over and just as he slumped down on the floor in
sadness, a glimmer in the corner of his eye draws his attention to the box
beside him and he finds the most beautiful pearl, so beautiful that the man
giddy with joy sells all that he owns just so he could have this wonderful
glimmering gift? Do you think that he
would understand and have enough hope to wait and see if God glimmers him an
answer? What a young man never felt loved
by his parents because they were always too busy to pay him any
attention. They didn't treat him much
different than the friends he brought over to the house because, in truth,
they were probably just as connected.
What if he remembers sitting, looking out the window, hoping they
would come back from work, give him a big hug, and take him outside to play
ball? A day dream of course. Now, out of the house he is just one more
person in the crowd; without close friends or parents he is just one of many
on the street. What if someone told
the young man the parable of how God and the angels pull in the net of the fishing
boat and dump all the fish and garbage the net drug out of sea on the floor
and eagerly God searches and picks and searches around the pile until God
finds every last fish that needs God's attention? Do you think he would understand and feel found in the streets
of God's kingdom. What if a church wanted to grow
and truly change people's lives, but they didn't know how? And, what if they were told that they
don't need to know and be able to quote scripture verses like Jack Van Impe
on T.V. And, what if they were told
that they don't need to convince complete strangers that Jesus died for them
during a visit in their house. What
if they were told that knowledge isn't helpful, they just need to understand. This is more than enough to share with the
hurt girls, searching men, and lost young adult. Would they confident enough to share these parables and their
own parables and open the eyes of others to God's humble kingdom? |
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