Parables!

My uncle was a storyteller. I remember after a holiday dinner, we would sit at his feet in the living room while he told war stories. Years later, in the book Spearhead, my uncle’s stories came to life as the Sherman tank and the crew, including Clarence the gunner, led the fight for Cologne, and the tragedy of war. As a kid, all we remember were the fun war stories he told. Why did Uncle Bob tell stories? Why does everyone tell stories? They captivate our attention and take us into the story. A good storyteller makes you feel as if you were there.

Somewhere in Christ’s ministry, he began telling stories. But they weren’t just stories; they were parables. The Greek meaning of the word “parable” means comparison, illustration, or analogy. In Hebrew, it referred to a comparison or analogy used to teach a moral lesson. Often, parables use comparison to emphasize a point.  Parable telling didn’t originate with Jesus; many of the rabbis used parables, and we have parables from the Old Testament. Nathan used a parable with King David in 2 Samuel. Isiah 5:1-6 uses a parable.

Spiritual truths, parables told by Jesus, were intended to convey a deeper meaning, to engage the heart, and to bring about change in the behavior of those hearing the parable. Jesus used them like a spiritual thermometer. Perhaps a better way of saying it is, Jesus often used a parable to answer a question, without answering the question.  The young man who asked him who his neighbor was never did get an answer. Jesus told  a parable. In verse 37, Jesus wrapped up the parable by telling him to “Go and do likewise.” I wonder if he caught on and went and lived a life of mercy to others.  The word parable in the Greek is described as coming alongside or comparing.  There is a great reality that Jesus wants us to get. Not everyone got it back then, and not everyone gets it now.

If you count  parables used in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, there are well over 30. Did Jesus switch to using parables to add color to his communication with people, or perhaps did he realize some of his oration was going over the heads of his listeners? Or was he continuing in the tradition of the rabbis before him? We don’t know, but we do know that when we can relate to a story, we remember it longer. Jesus seemed to tell the stories, the parables, and what people heard told him if their heart was open to his message, or if they were blinded by their ignorance, or a hardened heart.

Matthew 13:10 “The disciples came to him and asked, “Why do you speak to the people in parables?” This question follows the parable of the farmer sowing seed. In verse 9, he adds, “Whoever has ears, let them hear.”  What Jesus doesn’t mean is that some people in the crowd were deaf. He didn’t mean some of the people had no ears to hold their sunglasses up on their heads. He was fulfilling a prophecy from Isaiah  6, “Be ever hearing but never understanding, be ever seeing but never perceiving.”  We have all had teenagers look at us when we are talking to them, and we realize they are hearing every word we say, but not having a clue what we said. Jesus was referring to the choosing to hear, the heart that chooses not to engage, and the mind refusing to believe. Mark 4:34 tells us” He did not say anything to them without using a parable. But when he was alone with his own disciples, he explained everything”.  Perhaps, Jesus had learned that telling stories made people lean in, listen, and go home scratching their heads.

Jesus wanted people to think. Therefore, he gave them stories that engaged their hearts. Parables are easy to remember and to pass on. But Jesus went a step beyond just telling stories, and he usually added a few other thoughts after the story.

Take, for instance, the parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector. Matthew 18:9-14  ^“To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable:“Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’“  But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’“I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

If we were sitting in the grass listening to Jesus, he might well keep asking questions to make us think. Questions such as, who are we like? Do we identify with what we don’t do, rob, do evil, be untrue to our covenants, and hold tight to the lists of what we do, such as fast and tithe?  Are we proud of our achievements, or are we humble in confessing? What does being justified mean to us? Did Jesus forgive the tax collector if he went back to collecting taxes and did not change his behavior?

The parable told should leave us asking more questions than Jesus answered. The stories should engage our hearts, prompting us to ask who we are in the parable and what Jesus is asking us to consider.  There is a little bit of Pharisee in all of us.

Jesus knew how to engage people’s attention and their hearts. He told parables that they understood in their culture and community.  Interestingly enough, the book of John, does not use the word parable, but instead uses the ways that Jesus shared as comparisons using words and images such as the Gate of the Sheepfold and the good shepherd. He uses comparisons such as the bread of life, light of the world, and only uses the word paroimia, which is different than parable as defined as a cryptic saying, allegory, or proverb. John told Jesus stories in a different way from the Synoptic gospels. Why did John do things differently? For the same reason, if I asked you to make an apple pie, it would be different than mine. John showed us a different way that Jesus spoke to people.

For many of us, the parables are incredible moments of seeing Jesus encounter things we can relate to in our culture. The Samaritan, the foolish builder who built on the sand, the rich fool, I can read them and this is what I remember.  The Samaritan, the one on the edge of society, perhaps the one I would never expect to love with both arms, put me to shame with the mercy they showed while I was standing by the side, caught up in judging the situation rather than acting.  The wise and the foolish builders, the one cut corners, didn’t go by the plan, didn’t read the blueprint, and got caught in a quick fix, but a long-term problem.  The rich fool counted his chickens, and then the chicken coop blew away.  The parables, when we listen and consider who we are in the parable, what we heard Jesus saying, and mostly checking to see that our heart is open to dialogue, open to the Holy Spirit prodding us and open to changing our behavior, that’s when the parables come alive and leap off the pages of the Bible.