Pearls, Pigs and Parables

God’s truth is the most precious thing on earth. It makes one wise unto salvation. It’s the one true window we possess into the wondrous unseen world of heavenly things. Besides the souls of men and women, it’s the one treasure of this world that shall never pass away.

In our Christian literature-soaked culture, it’s hard to fathom that, in whole regions of our planet, people are risking more than their lives in order to possess even a fragment of this Book of Books.

Perhaps the most amazing thing about the Christian Scriptures (Testaments Old and New) is that, in spite of their divine origin and profound wisdom, so much of this Book is so easy to comprehend. Its overarching theme and story-line reads like a simple fairy tale. Yet its history, teaching and directives are so practical and all-encompassing, that the most scholarly minds are still plumbing its depths after thousands of years!

Clearly, the Bible is a message from the keenest and deepest Thinker in the universe. Of course, as has often been admitted, ALL truth is GOD’S truth...we know many useful things about our world through our secular observations. Yet there are essential truths God has shared with us in the Scriptures about humanity, Himself, history, hope for the future--things we could learn in no other way. Pearls of great price, indeed!

Unfortunately, most people today fail to recognize God’s written revelation as the precious string of pearls it is. Many who feel themselves too self-sufficient, worldly-wise, scientific and sophisticated, view those who love God’s Word as “Bible-thumpers,” bigoted hayseeds and unschooled hicks. The combined childlike simplicity and timeless profundity of the Scriptures leave them uninterested, unimpressed, unmoved.

To most folks, the Bible is a purely human invention, a crutch for feeble minds; at best, it’s just one arcane religious tome among many. To them, the possibility that their sovereign Maker has a message they desperately need to hear, is too remote a possibility to bother about. If honest, they would say, “That book was useful in years gone by, before mankind ‘came of age’ and realized we’re nothing but creatures sprung up by chance from primordial slime. But we’ve grown up. We’ve gone beyond supernatural explanations and old-fashioned myths.”

Interestingly, this was the attitude of many of the skeptics in Jesus’ day when He was ministering throughout Galilee and Judea. Jews of the party of the Sadducees were especially prone to dismiss Jesus as just one more troublesome fanatic who spoke of a supernatural realm and a coming divine kingdom, where all human power structures would be subject to God’s judgment, and the down-trodden poor would be rewarded and comforted at last.

The Pharisees weren’t much better. Unlike the Sadducees, they believed in the supernatural and the possibility of miracles. But they saw God as One who could be appeased and manipulated by “playing the system” of rules and regulations, most of which their traditions had added on to God’s own requirements of obedient Jews. They listened carefully to Jesus’ teachings. But they did so with the primary goal of confirming their own preconceived interpretations, or else, finding fault with His teaching so they could accuse Him of sedition or heresy.

One of the most insulting epithets that I can think of is to call somebody a “pig” or a “swine.” To most people, this would be associated with one who is inhumanly selfish, rotten, dirty or vile. Pigs are animals which are known as rooters in the mud and the slime. This is a name thrown at police officers by those who run afoul of the law. It’s used by tyrants to describe people they have no use for and wish to denigrate as less than human. I’ve even heard it used to characterize women who are hopelessly committed to lives of prostitution.

When Jesus wanted to make a point about those who had no use for His words, He drew the picture of casting a valuable string of pearls into the pigsty. He warned His followers against casting pearls before swine, and giving holy things to dogs (Matthew 7:6). Both dogs and pigs were unclean animals to the Jews, and the Lord was clearly saying that some hearers of the truth are so hardened in their hearts and confirmed in their rejection of what is holy, that the clear presentation of God’s truth to such people only provokes them to even more violent rejection.

This is one of the reasons, I believe, that Jesus’ primary mode of teaching, especially among large crowds, was by way of parables. Some of His most chilling words are recorded in Mark 4:11-12...

“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 should turn and be forgiven.’”

Elsewhere, Jesus taught that one must become as a little child to enter His kingdom. Little children typically will sit on a parent’s or grandparent’s lap and happily drink in the stories and instructions he or she is given. An innocent little child won’t get hung up on doubts and objections and needless adult-style worries when confronted with uncomfortable truths.

Sadly, though, most folks bring a great deal of mental and moral baggage with them as they are exposed to the precious pearls of God’s truth. And far too many of them consider themselves too sophisticated and “mature” to humbly submit to what God has to tell them. They see themselves as above and beyond the need for repentance and a new birth such as Jesus offered to Nicodemus in John chapter 3. These know-it-alls find it offensive that a simple carpenter from Galilee (or one of His untaught followers) would seek to instruct them in matters of spiritual importance.

In Romans chapter one, Paul writes that the sinful proclivity of mankind that chiefly causes God to display His holy wrath against us, is that of suppressing His truth in unrighteousness. Even the mere awareness of God’s presence in our universe, revealed in creation and in our own consciences, is so repugnant to us, we do all we can to repress it, deny it, explain it away, push it down and out of sight. And when we can’t do that, we twist that knowledge into a false deity-- some idol we can fashion and control.

Jesus’ words of warning must be heard. Even now, God is scattering the seed of His Word all around us. It is a day of grace. But, that grace will not be offered forever. If my heart is resisting the simple call of Christ to repent and believe and follow Him, the day may come when He’ll consider me dog-like or pig-like enough to keep His pearls away from me forever.