The Parables of Jesus: Friendly Subversive Speech Introduction 4 Tell it Slant Typology and Parables The Four Gospels and Parables Messianic Consciousness Matthew’s Sermon of Parables 1 The Parable of the Sower 13 “Holy Seed” Isaiah’s Open Secret Jesus’ Interpretation Good-Soil Understanding 2 The Parable of the Weeds among the Wheat 22 Mustard Seeds and Yeast Echoes of Asaph Jesus’ Explanation 3 The Parables of the Hidden Treasure, the Pearl, and the Net 32 The Joy of the Gospel The Net New Treasures 4 The Parable of the Good Samaritan 37 Setting the Scene Augustine’s Allegory The Expert Who is my Neighbor? Messianic Edge 5 The Parable of the Friend at Midnight 50 Midnight Request Global Neighbors How Much More! 6 The Parable of the Rich Fool 55 Do We Practice What We Preach? The Meaning of Life All Kinds of Greed The Fool Jesus’ Hierarchy of Needs 7 The Parable of the Faithful Servants and the Exuberant Master 67 The Master is Coming! The Master Serves 8 The Parable of the Faithless Servant and the Furious Master 73 Managerial Responsibilities Managers of the Mysteries of God’s Revelation The Master’s Fury 1 9 The Parable of the Barren Fig Tree 80 Fig Tree Judgment Repentance Productivity 10 The Parable of the Great Banquet 86 The Narrow Door Jesus Will Not Be Managed Tension Around the Table Mundane Excuses The Host 11 The Parable of the Tower Builder and King at War 94 Christ-less Christianity Counting the Cost Who Among You? 12 The Parables of the Lost Sheep, the Lost Coin, and the Lost Sons 101 The Compassionate Father Prodigal Fathers The Loving Father Survival or Salvation? 13 The Parable of the Shrewd Manager 116 The Prodigal Manager Kingdom Strategy The Jesus Way 14 The Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus 123 Worldly Wealth The Invisible Man Moral Pain The Chasm Between Heaven and Hell 15 The Parable of the Hard Working Servant 135 Earthy Discipleship Labor of Love 16 The Parable of the Persistent Widow 138 The Unjust Judge The Justice-seeking Widow The Just God 17 The Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector 143 Luke Sets the Stage Contrasting Profiles Mercy over Merit 18 The Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard 151 By the Numbers “What is in it for us?” Landlord Leaders Latecomers 2 19 The Parable of the Two Sons 161 Binary Logic The No that becomes a Yes 20 The Parable of the Tenants 166 Prophetic Truth The Vineyard Psalm 118 21 The Parable of the Wedding Banquet 173 Royal Wedding Invitation The Wedding Banquet The Great Refusal 22 The Fear-of-the Lord Parabolic 184 The Olivet Discourse The Fear-of-the-Lord The Parable of the Faithful and Faithless Servants The Parable of the Ten Virgins The Parable of the Talents The Parable of the Sheep and Goats Select Bibliography 201 3 Introduction The Parables of Jesus: Friendly Subversive Speech Jesus reached a communicational impasse following the Sermon on the Mount. Matthew quickens the pace of the narrative. Miracles are performed, people are healed, and the disciples are sent out on a mission to proclaim that the kingdom of heaven has come near (Matt 10:7). All the while , opposition is growing. The religious leaders have dedicated themselves, allegedly for the good of the nation, to the downfall of this non-conformist rabbi from Galilee. The Pharisees accuse him of working for the devil. They ask him for a sign to prove his authority. Jesus answers, “A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.” Even Jesus’ immediate family attempts an intervention. Confused and embarrassed they want to bring him home. When his mother and brothers show up to speak to him, Jesus ignores them. He points to his disciples and says, “Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother” (Matt 12:46-50; see Mark 3:21). Jesus’ ability to communicate was hitting the wall. I backed into the reason Jesus switched to parables out of personal frustration. I was teaching four consecutive Wednesday nights on the Sermon on the Mount at a church about an hour away from my home. Fighting heavy traffic to get there on time made me more tense than I wanted to be. The people were good natured and friendly but they seemed unfamiliar with basic Christian truth and not all that interested in changing. After a long day they were tired, too. They seemed quick to write Jesus’ teaching off as overly idealistic and rated their subjective response to the Sermon on the Mount as more important than anything I could say. Each evening I left a little more discouraged than the week before. On the last night, I wrapped up our session with the story of the two men, one who built his house on the sand and the other who built his house on the rock, and I said my cherry goodbyes. I felt pretty discouraged. Had I wasted everyone’s time for four weeks? But then, as I was walking to my car, it suddenly hit me, “This is why Jesus shifted to parables.” 4 Tell it Slant A combination of hard-hearted resistance and popular messianic fervor triggered the need for parables. Jesus chose parables to get around these obstacles of resistence and resentment. He used a communicational strategy that penetrated people’s defenses. He introduced the gospel by means of earthy, secular stories about sowing seed, finding treasure, and casting a net.1 His characters were farmers, merchants, and fishermen. He chose metaphor over syllogism and the poet’s terse art over the philosopher’s elaborate abstraction.2 Parable Tell all the Truth but tell it slant Success in Circuit lies comes from the Greek word parabolç: para - “beside” + Too bright for our infirm Delight The Truth's superb surprise ballo - “to throw.” Jesus used simple stories to set up a As Lightening to the Children eased comparison between life as we know it and the life made With explanation kind The Truth must dazzle gradually possible by the gospel. He juxtaposed realities to create Or every man be blind. Emily Dickinson a positive tension and reveal the gospel. Jesus’ stories, like a good joke, turn on a “sudden perception of incongruity.”3 It is that twist of plot that ought to unsettle the complacent and shake the soul. He juxtaposed the invisible truths of the gospel with the everyday images of ordinary life. He drew out the meaning and significance of faithfulness by picturing a wise and faithful steward. He highlighted prayerfulness by picturing a persistent widow. He captured the joy of salvation in the homecoming of a lost son. He compared the worldly strategy of a shrewd manager to the kingdom strategy of a faithful disciple. He used a proud Pharisee to illustrate self-righteousness and a remorseful tax collector to show true repentance. Jesus intentionally chose the medium of parables to separate the admiring crowd from his faithful disciples. He accommodated those who only had ears for a moralistic tale, but he penetrated the hearts and minds of those who were open to gospel. “Whoever has ears, let them hear” (Matt 13:43). Parables are time bombs that only explode after they have penetrated our hearts. Their purpose is to turn admirers into followers. 1 The study of parables is an interesting case study in biblical scholarship. New Testament experts tend to approach the subject in the abstract. They debate the interpretation, analysis, and classification of parables as a whole. They discuss whether parables may have one, two, or three points and argue over an allegorical versus analogical interpretation. Lectures on the parables can miss the impact and the meaning of the parables altogether. 2 Bailey, Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes, 279. 3 C.S.Lewis, The Screwtape Letters, 54. 5 Jesus didn’t invent parables. They have been used by the prophets as effective tools to bypass people’s defenses. The prophet Nathan used a parable when he confronted King David. He told the king a story about two men, one man was very rich man with a very large number of sheep and cattle, and the other man was very poor with nothing except one little ewe lamb. David thought he was hearing the evening news, but Nathan was making up the whole thing. “Now a traveler came to the rich man, but the rich man refrained from taking one of his own sheep or cattle to prepare a meal for the traveler who had come to him. Instead, he took the ewe lamb that belonged to the poor man and prepared it for the one who had come to him” (2 Sam 12:4). David was outraged. His verdict against the unjust rich man was decisive: “As surely as the Lord lives, the man who did this must die.” But then with perfect timing, Nathan jumped from his parable to the truth. He said in a tone we can only imagine, “You are the man!” The story of the little ewe lamb did exactly what a parable should do by casting truth in a new light. Parables use familiar situations, sayings, or stories to highlight meanings that lie below the surface. The hidden point embedded in the parable is not obvious on the surface of the discourse. The saying or the story remains simple but the underlying truth is either obscured or revealed depending on the listener.