Jesus spoke all these things to the crowd in parables; he did not say anything to them without using a parable. So was fulfilled what was spoken through the prophet: “I will utter things hidden since the creation of the world (Matthew 13:34-35).”

I am always intrigued by the conversation between Jesus and His disciples in the first chapter of the Acts of the Apostles. By this point in time, Jesus had suffered a cruel death on a Roman cross, was declared dead and buried in a tomb, and on the third day was resurrected. He now stood in their very presence.

They have a question for their Lord, “Will you now restore the kingdom to Israel?”

For three and a half years, and now for an additional forty days, these followers have sat under the Master’s teachings, and they still haven’t grasped the main point of why Jesus came…