Thought for Today

2 Chronicles 13:22 The rest of the acts of Abijah, his behavior and his deeds, are written in the story of the prophet Iddo.  

Jeremiah 35:13 Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Go and say to the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, Can you not learn a lesson and obey my words? says the LORD.    

Matthew 13:34 Jesus told the crowds all these things in parables; without a parable he told them nothing.   

Luke 8:10 He said, "To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God; but to others I speak in parables, so that 'looking they may not perceive, and listening they may not understand.'  

“παραβολή, ῆς, ἡ as a rhetorical figure of speech, setting one thing beside another to form a comparison or illustration; (1) in the Gospels parable, illustration (MT 13.3); (2) in Hebrews a prophetic symbol, type, figure (HE 9.9)” (Friberg, Analytical Greek Lexicon)

A parable is defined as, “a simple story used to illustrate a moral or spiritual lesson, as told by Jesus in the Gospels.” (Bing search) My computer word processor offers as synonyms: fable, story, tale or legend. Interestingly, the word parable only occurs once in the Old Testament, Psalm 78:2, and there talks about “dark things.” In the New Testament, parable only appears in Matthew and Luke. Yet, that word is very important for Christians because of the truth of Matthew 13:34 above.

The word is on my mind this morning because I am planning out the next topic for our Bible Study. We will be looking at the parables of the New Testament, organized around The World of the Parables, by R. Alan Culpepper.

Many Christians today first encounter the concept of parables in Sunday School, often at a  very young age. I’m not sure when I was first taught that “a parable is an earthly story with a heavenly meaning,” but it was at a very young age. I remember wondering as a youth why Jesus didn’t just come out and directly say what he meant. Why tell everything in parables? Even in my youth, some of the parables seemed so obvious and direct, I could not understand why Jesus didn’t just offer the lesson in plain language. Why ‘gussie it up’ in a parable?

Do you ever wonder that still today? Why tell stories about sowers, seeds, prodigal sons and all the other parables Jesus taught? Most of us today are more educated than Jesus’ original audiences. Many of us today live in cities and towns. We have paved roads, electricity, computers, etc. Our modern technology has already put men on the moon; we are planning to do so again; and, we are doing advanced planning to visit Mars. Almost everyone today is aware of the benefits and dangers of AI. Why do we read those ancient parables? Is there any message in those old parables for our modern world?

Part of the answer for me is in another definition offered for parable: “A short story based on common experiences that contains a meaning.” (Westminster Dictionary of Theological Terms, pg. 200) There, the phrase ‘common experiences’ stands out. Even as a youth, I planted a garden and understood about good soil, poor soil and the need for watering. Even as a youth, I could observe how some of my peers could hear, understand and apply for themselves the lessons we learned in school and at home. Some of my peers were obviously the “good soil” of the Parable of the Sower (Matthew 8, Luke 8)

As an adult, I have observed the Parable of the Prodigal Son acted out in countless families. I have even come to understand the anger and frustration of the good son. I see the truth of the Parable of the Good Samaritan in the world all around me and the doubts, suspicions and fears between folks who look different, who have accents, etc.

I’m sure that as our Bible Study examines the world of the parables we will once again find new meanings and applications for the lessons Jesus taught his followers 2026 years ago. The subtitle of the book is “Meeting the People Who First Heard Jesus.” As we do so, I’m sure we will find that those people were much like all of us today. Irrespective of  where we live, how we earn our living, or any of the aspects of our modern life, people are still people. God’s children still have the same basic needs, the same basic problems and the same basic desires that our ancestors had.

Reread Jesus’  parables, unpeel the layers of meaning, trust God,

Pastor Ray