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The word originally
meant “[something] thrown down beside [you].”
We might paraphrase that to say, “putting something on the
table.” That is, a parable is usually
a story that sets up a situation in which you are the one who has to give the
verdict. You are the judge, but as
with many of Jesus’ parables, you wind up judging yourself in the
process. Many of the Gospel parables
are devilishly complex and subtle, and Jesus intended it that way. We tend to reduce the punch line down to a
simple solution, but all too often “those who have ears to hear” hear
something downright subversive. It is
dangerous to read the Bible. Jesus did not speak to
the crowds without a parable, but then virtually no one else ever did before or
after him. There are a few parables in
the Old Testament, but no others in the New Testament, and seldom has anyone
tried to “parabolize” since Jesus.
It’s as if he perfected the genre so well, no one else has been
willing to try it. That’s too bad. Yet, we are not
impoverished. The odd and subversive thing
about Jesus’ parables is that you can read them for years and they keep
changing. Maybe it’s you and me who
are doing the changing, but there continues to be a freshness to each parable
once we empty our minds of previous interpretations and listen again as if
for the first time. Parables are a main reason why stories are told in sermons. Funny, sad, puzzling stories always seem to
have the Gospel imbedded in the details.
We tend to listen when we know we are part of the story. |
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