The Secret of the Kingdom of God

When he was alone, the Twelve and the others around him asked him about the parables. He told them, “The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you. But to those on the outside everything is said in parables.” - Mark 4:10-11

Jesus had just finished telling a big parable about different kinds of soils. His closes friends (the Twelve, as they were called) and a bunch of others went and hung out with Jesus afterwards and admitted that they didn’t get it. They asked for help understanding. And then Jesus dropped this bombshell: “You finally got it!”

In Jesus’s words, they have '“the secrete of the kingdom of God.” You can imagine their faces, can’t you? They are saying things like, “What do you mean we have got the secret to all this - all we’ve got is questions!” And Jesus looks back at them with a big smile and says, “Yep!”

Yes, you heard it right: Jesus is saying that the secret to the kingdom of God is asking questions.

Too bad that hasn’t been taught in our churches, right?!

In the community of Jesus, curiosity (and the humility is suggests) is a far higher value than certainty (and the arrogance it can sometimes accompany). Another way to think of it is that Jesus is more about question people than answer people.

How do you feel about this approach to honoring questions? In your life, what has been your approach to asking questions - has it felt embarrassing or freeing, forced or natural, valued or discouraged?