Purpose of Parables
August 29, 2008
Why? Why did Jesus do that? I mean I’m all for parables. I dig analogies, metaphors, illustrations, etc. But I’m sure he left many people scratching their heads. That’s frustrating.
Real faith is always about the heart and real faith is always active. So maybe the parables tell us something and ask us something. They tell us, well, whatever the point of the story is. And they ask us, “Do you want to understand?” What’s in your heart and what are you doing about it?
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Epiphanist | August 30, 2008 at 7:17 am
Are you still talking to me? The parables are about the Kingdom. My thinking is that the Christ would not define the kingdom in any of the terms that people used to understand their religion – like scripture or the law, priests, temples, prophets and so on. The Kingdom wasn’t like any of those things. Christ explains this to the disciples in a roundabout way. The ironic thing is that the cultural context of some of the parables has been lost and rather than clarifying the meaning of the Kingdom they now muddy the water and allow scope for some of the strange people who push strange points of view. My favourite is probably the Pearl of Great Price, but I also like the Foolish Virgins and the Woman who Loses a Coin. These parables indicate to me that the Kingdom requires an attitude or a stance to enable the operation of the Spirit. This view is not supported by the church, for example, who would rather that the church is the realisation of the Kingdom. There is also the view that the Body of Christ is the Kingdom, this view seems to me well supported by the Parables. I wrote a series of articles about the Kingdom which are available on my site. How is your prayer going? I would like to offer some encouragement. hoping
2.
Dana | August 30, 2008 at 9:05 am
Yes! Thank you for sharing these thoughts! I love it. The part about Jesus not using terms that were being used to understand religion–that was a keen observation. And yeah, it’s true that the cultural context has removed us from the impact of the parables (much like many of the proverbs of the OT). The immediacy of the illustrations that once created understanding now invite confusion. Interesting. I’m going to look for those kingdom articles on your site.
Prayer…it’s going. I’ve learned something over the past year. When you don’t know what to do, just praise. I sing to God, I read Psalms aloud. Praise opens.