Little Bit of Greek |
 |
"Jesus spoke all these things to the crowd in parables; he did not say anything to them without using a parable."
Last fall, Keith and I decided to teach a Bible study together. A priority was to pick a topic that was straightforward and easily organizable. Coordinating co-teaching is complicated, we wanted our subject matter to be simple.
Keith suggested Jesus's parables.......which, I now know, are the opposite of simple and straightforward.
Jesus's parables are SO hard to teach! First of all, experts are all over the place on what each parable means, so it's tough to figure out a starting place for your own study. Secondly, they are intentionally confusing. (Seriously!)
Parables are stories about the world designed to make you think (then rethink!). They don't fit neatly into systems because they're offering commentary on what Jesus is doing in the Kingdom of God-- which is a bit outside our human ability to comprehend.
Parables present a whole new way of seeing the world. They don’t answer the questions we bring to God, they tell us what we don't even know we need to know about how God and his creation work!
So how should you read this portion of the Bible? Remember three important things:
1. Jesus's parables further his mission to bring his kingdom. These confusing stories were the means by which Jesus ushered in his kingdom. They weren't illustrating abstract principles, they communicated God's heart to a waiting world, changing listeners' hearts in the process.
So instead of reading a parable asking "How does this apply to me?", start by investigating what the parable reveals about Jesus and his kingdom. This revelation will for sure have implications for you, but you're downstream from the story's main point.
2. Jesus's parables were delivered at a specific time and place. If Jesus had been born in 20th-century New York City, he'd surely have talked less about agriculture and more about...traffic? tourists? light pollution? (Idk, I'm from Missouri. I like the farm stories!
This means that to read the parables well, we need to understand the historical context and the original audience. Notice their recorded responses, interpretations, and follow-up questions. Resist the temptation to map your values and expectations onto the original audience’s experience.
3. Jesus's parables demand a response. By choosing to present info about the Kingdom of God as open-ended stories, Jesus invites his listener to engage with him and determine for themselves where they stand. When you read the parables, notice the effect they're having (on you and on the original hearers). Is it reminding, provoking, refining, confronting, disturbing?
When Jesus describes the kingdom, he makes pretty extraordinary claims→ positioning himself as the one who forgives sin and judges right from wrong, upsetting assumptions, challenging the status quo. For people who are really listening, a neutral response is not an option. Either they hear, believe, and their whole life changes. Or they walk away in denial.
The question stands. There's no middle ground when it comes to God's Kingdom. So, what do you say?
No neutral response doesn't mean 100% certainty! On Monday's episode, Keith discusses the role that doubt plays in the Christian faith: |
). But Jesus was in first-century Palestine trying to meet his listeners where they were. Though they still didn't always know what he was talking about, we have to do even more legwork than they did to understand. 
No comments:
Post a Comment