How Many Times Do I Have to Tell You?

Parents tell their children to clean up there room; do the dishes; fold or put away their clothes; take out the garbage, or a myriad of other chores, and shortly after giving those instructions, the kids are still on their ipad; phone, or other device, and no movement has been made to show signs of life, for them to accomplish the assigned tasks. Then the parents utter those famous words, "Didn't I just tell you to clean your room; etc...", to which the child usually responds with a blank look, and a dumbfounded response of, "What?". This interaction goes on for an abbreviated period of time until the parent, out of frustration, exclaims, "How many times do I have to tell you?".

In many instances, the kids may have simply tuned out the parents, or there may be a measure of rebellious indifference, but often times, just because the parent is talking, and there is sound coming out of their mouth, it does not mean that there is productive communication taking place. Years ago, Dr. Dobson, the founder of Focus on the Family, talked about engaging your child, by having them repeat back to you, what you just said. In trying this technique with my children, over the years, I have been amazed at how little they heard me say, or what they thought I said, to the point that what I thought was being communicated was totally different from what was being received, if anything was actually being received at all!

The game "telephone", is where you whisper something to one person, seated in a circle, and they in turn whisper to the next individual, until the words, usually dramatically misinterpreted, go around the circle, until they get back to the first person who originally spoke them. If you have ever played the game "telephone", you can easily understand that words alone can be distorted, in what a person thought you said, let alone the message intended.

Jesus could be interpreted as echoing the parental cry when He said, "How long shall I be with you? How long shall I suffer with you?" (Matt.17:17, KJV). "How long must I be with you? How long must I put up with you?" (Beck). Lamsa's translation from the Aramaic says, "How long shall I be with you? and how long shall I preach to you?", conveying the thought of, "How many times do I have to tell you the same things, over and over again?"

First

In Luke 4:16-30, is the first account of Jesus speaking in His home town of Nazareth, with the result that when they in the synagogue heard His words, they "were filled with wrath" (Lk.4:28, KJV), "...filled with a rage which boiled over in a sudden and angry outburst" (Wuest, literal rendering), and they literally tried to kill Jesus, by throwing Him off a cliff. What was His response? Jesus, "came down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and taught them on the sabbath days" (Lk.4:31). Notice that Jesus taught them on the sabbath days; not just on the sabbath day, but on the sabbath days! [plural]. He didn't just go there one time, but He stayed there, and repeatedly taught them.

Second

Mark 6:1-6 records another time that Jesus "came into His own country" (Mk.6:1), "and when the sabbath day was come, He began to teach in the synagogue" (Mk.6:2). He evidently preached the same message, or one similar to Luke 4:16-21, and told them that He was anointed; and that mighty works are wrought by His hands ["...what wisdom has been given to Him, that even such power takes place through His hands?" (Apostolic Bible)] (Mk.6:2); and they all knew His family (Mk.6:3); and Jesus said to them, "A prophet is not without honor, but in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house" (Mk.6:4), which is what He had told them previously (Lk.4:24).

The result was that they were offended at Him, and in Mark 6:5:

"He was not able to do there even one work of power, except that He laid His hands on a few sickly ones and healed them" (Wuest).

"He could not do any mighty deeds there, except that He put His hands on a few ailing people [suffering with minor diseases] and cured them" (Williams).

"He was not able to do even one work of power there, except that He laid His hands on a few sickly people and cured them" (Amplified).

 "He was not able there any mighty work to do, except on a few infirm people having put hands He did heal them" (Youngs).

The positive aspect of this is that, in Luke 4:29, which is the first recorded instance of Jesus being in His own country, they tried to kill Him, and so He "taught them on the sabbaths days" (Lk.4:31). Jesus took the same action, with the limited success in Mark 6:1-5, and "went round about the villages, teaching" (Mk.6:6).

"He kept going around the villages in the encircling country, teaching" (Wuest)

"He made a circle of the villages and continued teaching" (Williams)

"He made His way round the villages, continuing His teaching" (JB Phillips)

"He was going round the villages, in a circle, teaching" (Youngs)

Third

The third recorded account of Jesus returning "into His own country" (Matt.13:54) is found in Matthew 13:54-58. Again, the response was not overwhelming, as they doubted His ability, in Matthew 13:54:

"...where hath this man this wisdom, and these mighty works?" (KJV)

"What is the source of this wisdom and these miracles?" (Wuest)

"Where did He get all this wisdom and these miraculous powers?" (Moffatt)

The result was demonstrated in Matthew 13:58:

"He performed very few miracles there because of their lack of faith" (Phillips)

"He performed but few mighty deeds there because of their want of faith" (Wey)

"He did not do many wonderworks there because of their lack of faith" (Williams)

"He did not do many works of power there, because of their unbelief" (Amp)

"Their unbelief kept Him from doing many great works there" (Beck)

The contrast between Mark 6:5 and Matthew 13:58, is that in Mark's gospel, "He was not able to do even one work of power there" (Amp), but in Matthew's gospel, Jesus, "did not do many works of power", or "performed very few miracles" or "mighty deeds", but He obviously did do some.

[We know that the account in Matthew 13:54-58 is a separate account from Mark 6:1-6, and happened after the occurrence of Mark 6:1-6, because in Mark 6:7, "...He called unto Him the twelve, and began to send them forth two and two, and gave them authority over unclean spirits", and in Matthew 10:1, speaking of the same commissioning, it is recorded, "...when He had called to Him His twelve disciples, He gave them authority against unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease". Mark records Jesus sending out the twelve, immediately after the events of Mark 6:1-6, when "He came into His own country" (Mk.6:1), while Matthew says that the sending out of the twelve, had already happened, three chapters earlier, in Matthew 10:1ff, prior to Jesus, once again coming, "into His own country" (Matt.13:54).]

The importance of the events, is that there are three recorded instances of Jesus coming into Nazareth, or "His own country", and each had vastly different results:

1) On the first occasion, they tried to kill Him.

2) The second time, He couldn't do any works of power, except healing a few people with minor diseases.

3) The third recorded event, he did do a few mighty works, but not many.

Again, after the first two recorded instances, Jesus went "round about the villages, teaching" (Mk.6:6). Jesus was saying the same message, over and over again, which produced increasing effectiveness. Jesus method of developing faith in people, to produce the miraculous, was to continue to teach the same things; to say the same things; to keep telling them, over and over again.

"If You Have Faith..."

1) In Matthew 17:20, referring to the healing of the epileptic son, Jesus said, "If you have faith, as a grain of mustard seed, you shall say to this mountain, 'Move from here to that place', and it shall move, and nothing shall be impossible to you" .

2) In Matthew 21:21, referring to the cursing of the fig tree, Jesus said, "If you have faith, and doubt not, you shall not only do this which is done to the fig tree, but also, if you shall say to this mountain, 'Be removed, and cast into the sea', it shall be done".

 3) In Luke 17:6, referring to forgiveness, Jesus said, "If you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you might say to this sycamine tree, 'Be plucked up by the root', and it will obey you"

Jesus kept saying the same things; speaking the same things; teaching the same things, over and over again.

Sower and the Seed

Most people are familiar with Jesus' teaching of the Sower and the Seed recorded in Matthew 13:1-23; Mark 4:1-20; and Luke 8:4-15, and perhaps we simply assume that these are all the same occurrence, because the teaching is the same. However, Matthew and Mark both speak of Jesus being by the sea side and Him entering into a boat, and the multitude were by the sea on the land (Matt.13:2; Mk.4:1), while Luke, who is normally very detailed, makes no mention of Jesus being by the sea, in a boat, while the multitudes were on land. It could be that this recorded teaching all references the same event, but it is also probable that Luke records the same teaching, but at a totally different timeline, emphasizing again, the fact that Jesus kept telling the same things, over and over again.

How many times does the Lord have to tell us the same things, over and over again? Like parents teaching children, He keeps telling us, over and over again, until we get it. Whatever message you constantly hear, whether from the pulpit; television; or media; over and over again, good or bad, will be what is evidenced in your life.

You are God's Best and God's Best is Yours