You Are Not Meant to Understand

five theses on Jesus's parables

Vincent Van Gogh The Sower in the Rain 1890

1. Jesus was not, by any measure, a simple teacher. Everything he said eluded interpretation and frustrated comprehension. In the Gospels, no one really understands anything he says. Those who listen best—Mary, John, Peter, the Canaanite woman—know they do not understand and that that unknowing is the beginning of…