The Message of Jesus Christ Blog

Why Parables?

“Jesus told the crowds all these things in parables; without a parable he told them nothing. This would fulfill what had been spoken through the prophet:

      ‘I will open my mouth to speak in parables;

       I will proclaim what has been hidden from the foundation of the world.’”            (Matthew 13:34-34) 

      Why parables? Are they not just snappy little object lesson? A pictorial tale make with a moral or a religious teaching?

      The word depicts a comparison. Literally, something is “cast alongside.”  The comparison gives a way of understanding things in a new light. At the same time, it communicates something different or new. Songs like “Wade in the Water” sung by people longing to escape slavery in this country before the 1860’s may have been thought by the slave owning population of the South to be just a “spiritual.”Those “in the know” might hear the description of the Underground Railroad. 

      I suppose I like Dr. Eugene L. Lowry’s working definition of a parable best. He says a parable is a story that “means more than it says.”  That sounds a little like the description that Matthew gives us. He says that Jesus spoke in parables, little narrative slices of life, as his routine way of talking about the Kingdom of God. He didn’t teach without a parable. And then Matthew offers an explanation: It fulfills a prophecy in Isaiah: “I will open my mouth to speak in parables; I will proclaim what has been hidden from the foundation of the world.” 

      As a reader of a parable we have to make a decision. Do we just read the words and accept them and move on? Or, do we look for the “means more than it says” level? Either is possible. But, a parable is not really a parable unless it places things “alongside each other for comparison!”

      That’s what makes a parable more than a simple object lesson. We have to interpret it’s meaning by looking this way and that; this way at a loaf of bread and that way to the Kingdom of God; this way to a field of wheat and weeds, and that way to the Kingdom of God; this way to seeds falling on a pathway and being eaten by birds, and that way to the Kingdom of God.

      And, we have to take what we learn by those comparisons and lay it alongside our own lives for the real revelation to occur.

      We are in the season of Lent. Lent is a time for reflection, personal growth and preparation for Easter.

      Meditation on the parables of Jesus, casting them alongside our lives, would be a worthwhile spiritual exercise for the season.

      “Those who have ears to hear, let them hear!” (Matthew 11:15)

Waiting For the Dough To Rise

“He told them another parable: ‘The Kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened.’”         (Matthew 13:33)

I can remember my mother and grandmother making bread. Consequently, this little parable touches my experience! I can remember the warmth of the kitchen, the kneading of the dough, and the smell. Does anything smell better than bread dough rising and baking?

Jesus, of course, was not about nostalgia. He was teaching about the Kingdom and how the Kingdom works. And, it does not work the way 21st century, hurrying Christians want it to work.

We want to live in the world of the “instant.” There is almost nothing left in life that is not touched by our demand for instant gratification. Computers, once hailed as being a great producer of leisure time, in reality have increased the speed of our lives. We expect instant communication, instant response. Entire meals can be cooked in just minutes in microwaves ovens. Our eyes can be tested and lenses made in just one hour. 

Now, don’t get me wrong. I am a product of the times and culture – certainly not ready to give up microwaves or abandon my friends on Face Book. Many of the conveniences of our modern technology are welcome.

But, don’t let the “instantaneous” nature of the current age fool you. There are things that cannot be produced without spending the time. No matter how talented a musician, the time spent in practice cannot be denied without the quality of the performance going wanting. Some things require the investment of time.

In this light, Jesus’  little parable is instructive:

• It is the leavening that makes the difference in the loaf.
• It takes time for dough to rise.
• The leavening, like the Kingdom, works within, changing what is outward. Hidden in the dough, the yeast is the transforming agent
• The leavening works because of its nature. It requires certain conditions. But, yeast can be trusted to work when the conditions are met.
• You can’t make it work. How would one force yeast to be yeast?
• When conditions are right and the yeast works, it makes all the difference in the world.

There are a multitude of books on techniques for the spiritual life. The spiritual life, however, may be less about technique and more about time.

Soren Kierkegaard spoke of the “immediate man.” When the “immediate man” prays, he says, he chooses his words to make God aware of his needs and to assure his success. The real person of prayer, Kierkegaard says, just waits and listens.

The Kingdom is like trusting the dough to rise.