He who has ears to hear, let him hear! Mark 4:9 (NKJV)
Parables, Poking and Provoking – Part 1
In 2 Samuel 12, we find David in a very precarious position. As readers of his story, we know his secrets, but his kingdom didn’t. We know that he was sleeping with another man's wife and that after finding out she was pregnant with his child, he arranged her husband's death. But his kingdom didn’t. Few may have known, but David was harboring secrets, and these secret longings and undisciplined desires had turned him into a cold-blooded murderer.
God had revealed to Nathan the prophet David's actions. But rather than confronting David, Nathan told him a story. A Parable. There was a rich man and a poor man. The rich man had all that money could buy. The poor man had nothing save one female lamb. This lamb grew up in their home as part of their family, precious like one of his own daughters. The rich man received a traveler into his home, and rather than dipping into his own resources, he took the poor man's lamb, slaughtered it and presented it as his gift-meal to the traveler.
“David exploded in anger. “As surely as God lives the man who did this ought to be lynched! He must repay for the lamb four times over for his crime and his stinginess!”
“You’re that man!” said Nathan.” 2 Sam 5:12.
Parables are not children’s stories, little moral lessons or feel good fables that leave behind little nuggets of wisdom. Parables have been used in Rabbinic tradition, and many others to provoke and probe and poke around into the value systems and reasonings of individuals and cultures. The word parable comes from “para” which means “to come along side or compare” and “ballo” which literally means “to throw” or “see” with. A parable is a story you throw out alongside someone's life to provoke a different perspective or way of seeing from the hearer.
Which is what Nathan did to David with his parable. He threw him a story, and when David saw how evil and selfish the rich man was, and how he had done the same thing to Uriah, he could no longer justify his actions. It awakened him to his true position and provoked him to repentance. It revealed to him a truth that was perhaps lurking deep within his own heart, a truth he was too scared to dig out on his own.
Fast forward to the New Testament and we read that Jesus, like all Rabbi’s, employed the use of parables to throw out ideas and truths and trails of hope for his listeners to peel into. When asked what his parables meant, he almost always replied to the question with another question… He wanted those listening to use their brains; to think outside, in, around and through the conditionings and constructs of their hearts and minds to discover and uncover deeper meaning and more startling truths. To not just HEAR them, but EXPERIENCE them.
The historical context of parables gives them great power. Over the centuries, we have lost some of that context and sure, we still get something out of them: the Good Samaritan teaches us to help the oppressed, the Prodigal Son teaches us the Father's love. But when you dig into the context, the richness of these stories come to life and they blossom into these uncomfortable, provocative messages designed to interrupt our hearts and lives and mess around with our constructs of the world and God. And then once we see and hear parables in their original form, they transcend their own context and can speak to us still today.
In ’Short Stories by Jesus,’ Amy-Jill Levine writes, “The message of Jesus and the meaning of the parables need to be heard in their original context and that context cannot serve as an artificial and negative foil to make Jesus look original or countercultural in cases where he is not. Yes, today we like what is “countercultural” or “radical” or “unique” — but those are our values and are not necessarily what the parables are conveying. Instead, the parables more often tease us into recognizing what we’ve already always known, and they do so by reframing our vision. The point is less that they reveal something new than that they tap into our memories, our values, and our deepest longings, and so they resurrect what is very old, and very wise, and very precious. And often, very unsettling.”
So as we read into these parables, what will you see?
Go to Part 2 – Samaritan Lessons
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