Modern Parables
How do you read Jesus’ parables? Think about that for a few minutes.
Do you read to seek an answer? Do you read with a question in mind? Or do you read while holding onto what you already believe the true meaning to be? You might even ask the question of why did Jesus insist on using parables in the first place? It would have been so much clearer and more direct to simply tell us what to do and what not to do. To tell us what to believe and what not to believe. But Jesus didn’t do that. Jesus decided to teach using open ended stories. Stories that raised questions, and often didn’t make any sense. Stories that continually turned his listeners' presuppositions upside down.
Stories have that power.
Stories are imbued with multiple different meanings and lessons. How many times and in how many ways have classic works of literature been analyzed by students and scholars alike? Stories are able to reach people where they are in a way which direct instruction simply can’t. They are readily remembered and passed down from generation to generation. In many ways, stories can take on a life of their own. Jesus utilized the power of storytelling with the parables, which are some of the most memorable parts of the New Testament. Yet many of the parables as we find them are left open, without a defined moral or lesson or meaning. Some, of course, are accompanied by some sort of translation for the benefit of the disciples, but many are not. More than that, put yourself in the shoes of the original listeners. For them, Jesus’ parables were consistently left open, making room for multiple meanings from stories that were sometimes only a sentence or two long.
And that’s the point.
Parables weren’t told in ways that clearly led to a direct meaning. If that were the case, Jesus would have simply said what he meant without the ambiguity of the parables. Parables are meant to be open ended stories—prompting us to theological reflection and making room for God to speak to us in whatever way we might need. The point of Jesus’ parables are the questions that they encourage us to ask, not any one specific “true meaning”. The way I might read and understand a parable may be drastically different from a mother supporting a family with next to nothing in the mountains of Guatemala. And yet, God uses those parables to speak to both of us. When we try to constrain the parables to a singular meaning, we are in essence attempting to limit God, to place God in our own box and expect God to follow our own rules. But God doesn’t fit in any boxes.
The parables of Jesus have always been the parts of the gospel narratives which I have been drawn to the most. I believe this is because stories resonate so deeply with who I am and who I believe God has called me to be. For these next two years, it is my goal to give a renewed look towards the parables Jesus told—to retell them in a way which reminds us that these stories pushed directly against societal norms at the time of Jesus’ teaching, and in many ways, flipped the normal order of things upside down. In doing this, I will retell the parables through a modern lens, attempting to preserve those aspects which make the parables what they are. It is my hope that you hear these stories anew, providing space for God to speak to you in new ways through these stories Jesus told so long ago.