Ask About Jesus, But Then Will You Stay?

20 September 2025  Luke 8:4-15

“…but to the rest, they are made known through parables so that they may look but not see, and hear but not understand.” Luke 8:10

Jesus only taught the people who asked, and all the people who asked didn’t stay.

Jesus didn’t teach crowds. He fed them, He healed them by the score, but He didn’t teach them. He only taught the ones who asked. So “when a large crowd gathered, with people from one town after another journeying to see [Him]” (Luke 8:4), Jesus told a story about a bizarre farmer who didn’t seem to care about preparing the ground, but cast seed wildly, some falling on rocks, some falling on the path to get trampled underfoot, some falling amid thorns and weeds that would surely keep it from growing, and only some falling on good soil. And then He stopped: “Amen. Have a nice day.”

Nobody got the point of the story, not even the disciples. But only some asked, and them Jesus taught, because Jesus didn’t teach crowds.

Not everyone who asked about Jesus’ stories stayed. The rich young man asked, but he didn’t stay, because it appeared it was going to cost him too much (cf. Matthew 16:19-26). The Pharisees asked Him things again and again, but most of them didn’t stay. They plotted to have Jesus killed instead. Judas asked, but he didn’t stay – he helped the people who had Jesus killed. If you come to Mass, you’re asking, but not everyone who comes to Mass stays – it happens all the time. People get baptized, or have their first communion, or get confirmed, and after that the next time they’re in church, they are the guest of honor at a funeral.

Not everyone who asks stays, but Jesus teaches everyone who asks.

Nabeel Qureshi asked. He was a devout Muslim. Subhana rabbi al-ala, “Glorified is my Lord the highest” – he prayed this 132 times a day from the time he was a child. As a man, however, he heard the Gospel and began to wonder, and his prayers became hot and confused:

Glorified is my Lord… Who is my Lord? Who are You, Lord? Are you Allah, the God of my father and forefathers? Are you the God I have always worshipped? The God my family has always worshipped? Surely You are the One who sent Muhammad as the final messenger for mankind and the Quran as our guide? You are Allah, the God of Islam, aren’t You?

Or are you Jesus?

I don’t know who You are anymore, but I know that You are all that matters. You created this world, You gave it meaning, and either You define its purpose, or it has none.

At Your feet I lay down everything I have learned, and I give my entire life to You. Take away what You will, be it my joy, my friends, my family, or even my life. But let me have You, O God.(Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus, pp. 22-26)

He asked, and he stayed. It cost him his family, his friends, eventually his life. But he stayed.

Jesus didn’t teach crowds. He only taught the ones who asked. God, the bizarre farmer, casts His seed wildly, and some has fallen on you. If you are reading this, you are asking what it means. Will you stay?