The Importance of Understanding in Jesus Christ

What are the feastsIn Leviticus 23, a feast is a designated period — not a single day but a span of time with its own structure and sequence. The Feast of Weeks spans seven weeks. The Feast of Tabernacles spans seven days. A feast may contain one or more annual holy days, but the feast itself is the full period, not any single day within it. Synonyms: festival, appointed time, moed. More of Leviticus 23 actually for? The first answer most of us reach for is the obvious one: God commanded them — the calendar, the appointed times. That’s true. But there is a deeper answer in the same passage of Proverbs that begins “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom”:

…knowledge of the Holy One is understandingIn the New Testament this is synesis — a bringing-together: scattered pieces drawn into one cohesive whole, not a quantity of information accumulated. In plain terms it is connecting the dots — understanding is unification, not accumulation. Synonyms: synesis, unification, insight, discernment See The Importance of Understanding in Jesus Christ More. — Proverbs 9:10 NIV

Knowledge of the Holy One — of ChristNot a surname but a title: the Greek Christos, rendering the Hebrew Mashiach (Messiah) — "the Anointed." The anointing that set apart Israel's kings, priests, and prophets all converges on the one person it was pointing to. Synonyms: Messiah, Anointed, the Anointed One, Mashiach, Christos. See also: Logos More — is understanding. Not leads to, not produces. Is. The feasts are observed because they are knowledge of him. And what that observationIn plain English, to observe means to see attentively — to give careful, focused attention to something. This is precisely what the Hebrew shamar points at: watchful, protective attention toward something valued. In religious usage, particularly in the Church of God tradition, "observe" has been reduced to performing an external requirement. The original sense — attentive seeing that allows something to reveal itself — is what the feasts and sabbath are actually asking for. Synonyms: shamar, keep, watch, guard. More generates isn’t information; it’s understanding in a very specific sense. Which raises the question of what understanding actually is.

What the Word Means

The Greek word translated “understanding” throughout the New Testament is σύνεσις — synesis. It is usually rendered as understanding, discernment, insight, comprehension, realization. All of those carry something of the idea. But the primary etymology of the word is different: unification. A sending together. A junction — as of streams. A mental putting together. Bringing what was scattered into one cohesive whole.

The modern vernacular: connecting the dots. Putting the pieces together. All the scattered ideas, all the accumulated fragments, coming together in one picture. That’s what understanding is — not a quantity of information held, but a unification of what was separate.

This changes what it means to seek it, and what it costs to get it. But first — why does it matter so much?

The Sower

Jesus told the parable of the sower to a crowd (Matthew 13:3-9), then explained privately to his disciples why he spoke in parables at all: the knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom had been given to them, but not to the crowd. “Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand.” What determines whether the seed takes root?

The seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop. — Matthew 13:23 NIV

The difference between the four soils isn’t what they hear — all four hear the same thing. It is whether they understand it. And the “word” throughout the parable is Logos(λόγος): The Greek word translated "Word" in John 1:1 — but unlike rhēma (an individual utterance), logos means the ultimate organizing principle, the logic and source of all meaning. John's choice announces Jesus not as a messenger but as the living structure by which all things were made and hold together. See The Word That Isn’t Just a Word. See also: Christ More — the same word John uses:

In the beginning was the Word [Logos], and the Word was with God, and the Word was God… And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. — John 1:1-4, 14 ESV

The seed sown in the parable is not a teachingFrom the Hebrew Torah — instruction, direction — rooted in yarah, to aim as an archer toward a target. Never primarily legislative. The stone tablets were hidden inside the ark, inside the most holy place, mediated by a priest. The promise was always to move that instruction from stone to flesh — from concealment behind a veil to working from within the person. Synonyms: Torah, nomos, instruction, teaching, commandment, mitzvah. More about Christ. It is Christ himself — the Logos — received or not received, taking root or not taking root, understood or not understood. The four soils are four ways of receiving him. The one who understands is the one who produces fruit. One hundred, sixty, or thirty times what was sown.

Do We Value It?

Get wisdom, get understanding; do not forget my words or turn away from them… Though it cost all you have, get understanding. — Proverbs 4:5-9 NIV

Though it cost all you have. That phrase sits there and most of us read past it. It’s worth stopping. Do we actually value understanding — the synesis kind, the unification kind — enough to count what getting it might cost? Or do we observe the feasts, accumulate knowledge, and assume we understand because we’ve been at it long enough?

Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions (Proverbs 18:2). And teachers without it are a specific danger:

Desiring to be teachers of the law, without understanding either what they are saying or the things about which they make confident assertions. — 1 Timothy 1:7 ESV

Confident assertions made without understanding what is being said. The tragedy isn’t malice — it’s the certainty. And certainty is what stops the questions, closes the soil, and keepsFrom the Hebrew shamar — to watch over, guard, protect, give attentive care to. A shepherd shamar the flock. The keeping the feasts and sabbath requires is the attentive, protective engagement that creates the conditions for seeing what they reveal — not external compliance with a schedule. Synonyms: shamar, observe, guard, watch over. More the seed from taking root.

Counting the Cost

For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it? — Luke 14:28-30 NKJV

So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be my disciple. — Luke 14:33 NKJV

“Counting the cost” is typically framed as a question of commitment — are you ready for what the life of faithFaith (Greek pistis, Hebrew emunah) — trust and faithfulness, not mere belief or assent to doctrine. Scripture's own definition: faith is the substance of things hoped for (Hebrews 11:1) — the hypostasis, "that which stands under," giving the unseen its standing and reality. Synonyms: trust, faithfulness, assurance. More will require? That framing is real. But the surrounding context in Matthew 13 pushes the cost question somewhere deeper:

The kingdom of heavenNot a future political territory but a present reality. Jesus said it plainly: entos hymōn — within you (Luke 17:21). Entos means inside — it's the "inside of the cup" in Matthew 23:26; "among you" is the softer rendering, leaning more on theology than on the Greek. The kingdom is not something to watch for out there, pointed to "here" or "there" — it is already within. Synonyms: kingdom of heaven, kingdom of Christ, basileia. More is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it. — Matthew 13:44-46 ESV

All that he has. What is all that we have? The most personal, most defended thing we carry is our understanding — our accumulated view of God, of Scripture, of how things work. The one who finds the treasure doesn’t negotiate. He sells everything and buys the field. Including, especially, whatever he thought he already knew.

Making Room

No one puts new wine into old wineskins. If it is, the skins burst and the wine is spilled and the skins are destroyed. But new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both are preserved. — Matthew 9:16-17 ESV

Cleanse out the old leavenIn the biblical symbol-system, leaven is amoral — neither good nor evil in itself. It represents doctrine, teaching, knowledge, influence: the system that permeates whatever it enters and transforms it from within. The type of leaven matters; "the leaven of the Pharisees" is their doctrine, not leaven as a category. Synonyms: yeast, leavening. See Does Leaven Really Mean Sin? More that you may be a new lumpGreek neon phurama — a fresh batch of dough (1 Corinthians 5:7). Not the old lump cleaned up but a new one entirely: the old self and its accumulated leaven put out, and a new lump able to receive the understanding Christ gives. See What Is A New Lump? — A Demonstration More, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our PassoverThe LORD's Passover, kept on Nisan 14 (Lev 23:5): the lamb slain and its blood marking the houses spared in Egypt (Ex 12). The New Testament presents Christ as the Passover lamb (1 Cor 5:7), making it the opening act of the feast year. Synonyms: Pesach. See Was the Passover a Sin Offering? — at the Cross More lamb, has been sacrificed. — 1 Corinthians 5:7 ESV

Old wineskins cannot hold new wine. Old leaven and new lump cannot coexist. The understanding that comes through Christ — the synesis, the unification — cannot be added to the old view like a patch on worn cloth. The old view has to go. Not as an indictment — it may have been held sincerely and faithfully. But the new simply will not fit alongside it (see What Is A New Lump? — A Demonstration).

The Result

If we observe the feasts because we are commanded to, without seeing how Jesus Christ demonstrated them, we have no understanding. Not limited understanding — none. The command-based motivation keeps us at the level of the crowd in Matthew 13: hearing, but not hearing; seeing, but not seeing.

The motivation that actually works is different. It isn’t fear of consequences. It is seeing the beauty of what is being shown in the feasts — seeing what he did, is doing, and will do — and wanting to look more closely. That sight is itself a form of understanding, and it produces more. Whoever has will be given more.

The understanding of Jesus Christ may require us to forsake a great deal — some things in this life, some relationships, some priorities. But above all else, it requires us to forsake our old views of God. Everything we thought we understood, everything we were certain about before the picture began to come together — it has to go. We can start with a clean slate (see Was the Passover a Sin Offering? — in Ancient Israel).

That is the cost. And it is worth everything.