_________ Chapter _________
Three
Parables—Communicating Truth
Through Story
The Gospels contain accounts where Jesus uses a peculiar style of teaching that conveys truths pertaining to the kingdom of God. The original audience knew there was more to the simplicity of these stories than immediately apparent. The parables had a ring of cultural familiarity to them. They were concise in length and contained a deep meaning. They were spoken in such a manner that the people hearing them were left either shrugging their shoulders or eager for more. The Lord’s parables made believers out of some who had possessed a benumbed indifference towards Him. Conversely, some people chose to crystallize their unbelief. On occasion, the parables offended some who solved the not-so-veiled puzzle. The Gospel accounts also reveal how Jesus’s storytelling prowess baptized still another crop of listeners (the Pharisees) in the indignant waters of their self-righteousness. Most within this particular crowd were clearly ungrateful for Jesus and spurned Him just to save their spiritual faces.
Far from rhapsodizing about the powerful beauty of His salvation message, Jesus frames these teachings into stories packed with challenging intent and spirit-shaping content. Such stories were not entirely safe to hear, and neither could they have been dismissed as tired “heard-before” grumblings, the kind that came from rabbis perched upon their soapbox pulpits. Yet the question remains as to how such relatively short stories could grab the conscience and force one to think so long and hard.
Truth is, great stories and storytellers accomplish such ends.
I am a lover of great stories, perhaps like yourself. As someone who enjoys reading autobiographies and researching information, I appreciate engaging stories, especially those that penetrate the heart and cause the reader to do a little introspection. The story could be a tale and involve a mouse or a hobbit’s house; it could involve history or ministry. Whether they’re fictional or of the “real-life” variety, stories—even simple ones—help to colour in some of the black and white perceptions and understandings we have of people and life in general.
There’s nothing like a story to enlarge insight, stir thoughts, and motivate our actions. Even a nondescript story can be masterfully transformed into a memorable, touching, and even educative experience when put into the hands of a compelling storyteller. Great storytellers have a knack for communicating a story in a manner that evokes the sorts of thoughts, emotions, and responses they desire to draw out of their listeners.
Klyne R. Snodgrass states, “Stories are one of the few places that allow us to see reality, at least the reality the author creates. There, to a degree we cannot do in real life, we can discern motives, keep score, know who won, and what success and failure look like.”5
A parable, in a general sense, is a story—albeit a very compact one. We needn’t wade through a gamut of paragraphs, plots, chapters, and characters in order to digest a parable. A parable, in fact, doesn’t give us the whole story concerning the story it tells. Parables, by nature, lead us to a destination but often challenge us to imagine possibilities along the way.
Stories from the Master Storyteller in the Gospels
Jesus’s parables are stories based on human needs that contain “kingdom” agendas and lessons. They generally consist of two levels: the story level (which appeals and relates to a common experience) and the truth level (the spiritual reality behind the story). In their basic makeup, Jesus’s parables aim to awaken spiritual understanding, prod the conscience, and move people to righteous action.
Jesus excelled when it came to the art of storytelling and communicating in general—especially as one who taught with unequalled authority and wisdom (Matthew 7:28–29). This explains why the Lord could be spellbinding and effective in conveying spiritual truth within the context of a simple story.
Jesus linked everyday life scenarios within His culture to spiritual realities. He did this to illustrate truths, punctuate principles relating to the kingdom of God, and, ultimately, to influence lives. Whenever the Saviour taught in parabolic form it was done for the purpose of weeding out the crowds following Him. He used parables to separate those who were decidedly deaf to God’s call from those whose spiritual ears remained attuned to His teachings. Simply, the parables of Jesus functioned as a means to elicit a reply from those whom the parable’s underlying spiritual truth was meant to impact.
Parables were “told to address and capture the hearers, to bring them up short about their own actions, or to cause them to respond in some way to Jesus and His ministry.”6 In one sense, the Lord taught in parables so that those around Him who lacked spiritual understanding would actually remain in that condition.
Jesus put it like this:
“[The disciples] are permitted to understand the secrets of the Kingdom of Heaven, but others are not. To those who listen to my teaching, more understanding will be given … But for those who are not listening, even what little understanding they have will be taken away from them. This is why I use these parables, For they look, but they don’t really see. They hear, but they don’t really listen or understand.” (Matthew 13:11–13, NLT)
Jesus knew that true, keen, and learned students would seek clarification from their teacher. Therefore, the Lord’s parables worked to expose any individuals who had a genuine interest in what He had to say and had blended in among the throngs of people following Him. Jesus’s parables also possess an element of secrecy that He intended to exclusively make known to those who were among His disciples (Luke 8:10).
The Lord is all business when it comes to imparting life-and-death spiritual truth. Jesus appears to have no interest in merely scoring retinues of roadies for His evangelistic tours. He teaches not just for the sake of attracting listeners but for the ultimate purpose of redeeming and changing the lives of those whom His heavenly Father has given Him. The Saviour of the world doesn’t pander to the hysteria and robust fanfare that shadow His ministry. He doesn’t seek followers who follow Him for the superficial pleasure of hanging out with someone as audacious and compelling as He is. The Lord desires followers who are interested in spiritual truth—specifically, the truth embodied in Him as the heaven-sent Lamb of God.
Reflective Questions
1. Were you read stories at bedtime as a child?
2. How often do you read stories of “everyday” people in the newspapers or on the internet?
3. What were some of the factors that made Jesus such an amazing storyteller for His time?
4. What is your favourite parable of Jesus’s and why?
5. What parable/s do you find difficult to understand and why?
6. How would you explain why some people gravitated closer to the Lord on account of His parables, while others lost interest in or pulled away from Him altogether?
7. Can you find parallels between the teachings in Jesus’s parables and His greater body of teachings throughout the Gospels?
8. Do you feel storytelling is as valued in our culture as it was in Jesus’s day? Why or why not?
5 Klyne Snodgrass, Stories with Intent: A Comprehensive Guide to the Parables of Jesus, 2nd ed. (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2018), 1.
6 Gordon D. Fee and Douglas Stuart, How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth, 4th ed. (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2003), 138.