The Haves and Have Nots, in Jesus’ Book

“He who has, to him will be given: and he who has not, from him will be taken even that which he has” (Mark 4:25, BBE).

In a materialistic sense, people often view each other as “The Haves” and “The Have Nots.” Jesus used a similar expression when teaching about spiritual riches. He highlighted two groups of people: those that have, and those that do not. However, there is a fundamental difference in Jesus’ approach to these classifications. It’s this: rather than looking down on the “Have Nots,” He is ever beckoning to them. Searching for them. Inviting them in. Alluring them. With unrelenting love, provoking them to want Him too.

As Jesus woos us, how He longs for us to be hungry for Him! This was the motivation in His heart as each day of His earthly ministry, He would artistically weave a symbolic story for the multitudes… and then offer them absolutely no explanation of its meaning. As He came to His fascinating close, He would look around at them with a penetrating gaze of passion and summon them in deeper. “He who has ears, let Him hear!” He urged them emphatically.

He repeated this line frequently, adding it onto the end of His parables. He truly did yearn for them to use their spiritual faculty of hearing in energetic pursuit of revelation. Each one of His repetitions was a call of awakening, reaching out to every human spirit present, searching for an inner response of reciprocation to His ardent desire to bring them all in close.

Here’s the clincher. There were a select few privy to the greatest amount of “Having.” They were the hungry souls that Jesus brought into His inner circle. His close friends. They were the privileged ones drinking in His most intimate self-disclosure and His most profound illumination.

I love how the Wuest translation expresses this truth: “…In private, He was in the habit of fully explaining all things to those pupils who were peculiarly His own” (Mark 4:30). In private. In the secret place. Alone with Him. That, dear seeker, is where He will share His deepest heart with us.

Did you know that Jesus will bring you into His inner circle if you ask Him to? How much of Him do you want today? Are you peculiarly His own?

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When we seem to be lacking in spiritual appetite, how can we become hungry for Him?