The Parables of Jesus:
                         The Stories Jesus told in the Gospels.
 

Introduction: Using Images to speak about God and God in the world.

We are all very familiar with the great parables of the Gospels, from the story of the Good Samaritan, the Prodigal Son to the Parable of the Sower. These were one of the main ways that Jesus proclaimed and taught about the Kingdom of Heaven and remain one of the most enduring and popular parts of Scriptures for all people of all ages. Much of the style and meaning of this form of teaching and story telling has its origin in the culture of the Jewish and Semitic people, a fact that can often cause confusion and misunderstanding for the modern western reader. As many of our Gospel passages are composed of the parables of Jesus, this short note seeks to highlight some of the key insights into understanding more fully this form of biblical teaching.

Biblical statements about God and God’s actions in the world are expressed in a language of images that moves in the rhythmic cadences of Hebrew poetry. God is not simply powerful but one who "he brings down to Sheol and raises up" (1Sam 2:6). God does not simply free a people but leads them out of a house of bondage "with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm" (Deut 5:15). The Hebrew Bible imagines a God who lays the foundations of the earth and shuts the sea with doors (Job 38:4), a God who seeks an unfaithful people with the longing of a rejected lover (Hos.2) and remembers a people with a mother’s love (Isa. 49:14-15). The Biblical God speaks through images that touches hidden depths of human experience and cover the whole gamut of human emotion. (The Gospel in Parables by John Donahue, SJ.)

Jesus is heir to this style of Jewish expression and at the same time his statements are new and sometimes even puzzling to the modern ear. What does Jesus mean when he says:

"You are the salt of the earth, you are the light of the world" (Mk 9:50)
"Leave the dead to bury their dead" (Matt 8:22)
"For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light" (Matt 11:30)
"To him who has more will be given; and from him who has not, even what he
has will be taken away:" (Mk 4:25).

On the one level parables invite us to reflect on the sayings themselves and to seek to come to a fuller understanding in light of the context in which they are written, but equally they should also invite us to contemplate our lives in the present moment and the underlying teaching. It is because of this freshness and newness the parables continue to speak to and challenge us.

Three things to remember with the Parables:

  • One problem we have in making contact with the imagination of Jesus and letting his words and images touch our lives is that we no longer have access to total original context of the parable/teaching. Fundamentally, parables were spoken, most likely in the context of a dialogue with others such as opponents or disciples. So we have no idea how they were spoken, the tone used, the gestures that accompanied them. We are simply left with the parable as written text and with sometimes vague and limited details of the context.
  • Each of the parables/teachings of Jesus must be placed in the overall context or core of his mission: to proclaim the advent of the Kingdom of God as a present reality and a future event. Jesus’ teachings were aimed at proclaiming God’s sovereign rule and his summons to people to open their hearts now to the claims of God, present in his teaching and ministry.
  • The accounts of the teachings/parables of Jesus, their location and context in each of the Four Gospels are deeply influenced and "nuanced" by the needs, concerns and interests of the individual Evangelist (or protégé) who edited or redacted the parable to answer those needs or concerns of the faith community to which they were writing. We need also remember that if, as scholars now believe, the Gospels were either written or finalized in written form sometime as late as the end of the apostolic period, 70-100BC, then it is most likely that each evangelist had access to various sources (up to four), either written or oral, from which to draw details. Here are some brief details of each of the four Gospels.
  • Gospel of St. Mark:     This is the shortest and now recognized as the oldest of all the Gospels, written around 70 AD in Palestine or in Rome. The Christian Church is slowing moving away from its Jewish roots. No longer is it a sect within Judaism, already it has opened its embrace to Gentiles and process of welcoming Gentile converts. The emphasis of the Gospel is that Jesus is the Messiah, this is finally revealed at his trial before Pilate "Secret Messiah". Great emphasis is placed on suffering and the cost of discipleship. This is the period of Roman persecution under Nero.                     Sources: Mark.  
    Gospel of St. Matthew:     Written around 80-90 AD most likely for the Christian community of Antioch of Syria. Addressed to a primarily Greek speaking Jewish community, the Gospel is deeply influenced by Judaism in that it portrays Jesus as the Messiah of the OT who had achieved more than Judaism could ever have imagined. The Church has replaced Israel as the locus of divine activity in the world and become the new means by which the Kingdom of God is to be completed in the world. The Gospel is well written, divided into five sections that parallel the first five books of the OT. In some ways it resembles the form of a catechism or handbook for daily living of the Christian vocation.
    Sources: Matthew, Gospel of Mark and Q (a collection of sayings of Jesus, now lost)

    Gospel of Luke:     This Gospel must be read in conjunction with the Acts of the Apostles. Written in Greek by one who is conscious of the historical aspects of the Christ event, Luke seems to have access to several sources, but is intent on producing one reliable report in two volumes. While it seems like a history of the life of Jesus it is really a history of salvation; of how the Holy Spirit came into human history, definitively through Jesus and passed from the Risen Christ to his Church. Luke’s Gospel is characterized by its universality and inclusiveness of Gentiles, women, those on the fringes of society, e.g. Tax collectors, sinners, prostitutes etc. This gospel was written around 80 AD.
    Sources: Luke, Mathew, Mark and perhaps Q.

    Gospel of John:     The Fourth Gospel is totally different from the Synoptic Gospels, in style and content. Characterized by its High Christology: from the very start Jesus is the "stranger from heaven" the one who exists from the very beginning. He is the God-man, the Savior who has descended to earth and will ascend and return to the Father. At all times Jesus is aware of his mission and waits until the hour is right to fulfill that mission. Jesus’ divine identity is central to the Gospel. Jewish leaders are portrayed as being constantly opposed to Jesus, leading us to believe that it was written for a community struggling to survive in a hostile Jewish world. Scholars suggest it may have been written around 90 AD perhaps in the cosmopolitan city of Ephesus (modern Turkey), which had a bustling port and a large Jewish community.
    Sources: John.

     
            The Literary Form of the Parable:
     
     

    "At its simplest the parable is a metaphor or simile drawn from nature or common life, arresting the hearer by its vividness or strangeness, and leaving the mind in sufficient doubt about its precise application to tease it into active thought"       (Parables, CH Dodd)

    Behind our English "parable" stands the Greek parabole (from the preposition para, "alongside of" and ballein"to cast, place or throw".

    Etymologists define a parable as one thing being understood in juxtaposition or comparison with another. "The Kingdom of God is like…."

    NT scholars use the word parable to translate the Hebrew masalwhich is much broader than a mere comparisons and includes proverbs, allegories and sayings such as "Physician heal thyself" and even some discourses in the OT.

    For our purposes a parable usually has three components:

    The Unknown which is being illustrated….. eg. the Kingdom of God
    The Known that is compared for illustration…..eg. the Sower, Mustard seed etc.
    The Point of Comparison between the Known and Unknown.

    This point of comparison can be expressed as:

    A. a Simile using "like" or "as":
    e.g. The Disciples are "as lambs in the midst of wolves".

    A parable is an extended Simile with one point of comparison,
    usually at the beginning.
    B. a Metaphor (from the Greek "metapherein" to carry across): e.g. "You are the salt of the earth" NB. Here only one thing is named and the proper contextual information is needed to fill in the full meaning. An allegory is an extended metaphor with several points of comparison, which need to be decoded in order to be fully understood.

    "Parables are drawn from nature or common life"     the parables of Jesus are characterized by their concreteness and gritty reality. They give us a glimpse of 1st century life in Palestine, a world of subsistence farming, landed gentry, restive tenants, travelers and the plight of widows and those on the margins of society. The whole gamut of human capacity is there from the pragmatic schemer, the capricious landlord, the impatient son, the persistent widow and the uncaring rich man.

    The parables present stories about ordinary people and ordinary events in a way that people from every age and culture have seen in their own lives or personally experienced with its hopes and challenges replayed in these short vignettes. There is little scripture quoted, yet the underlying emphasis is on the summons that God issues to each one to embrace the standards of the Kingdom.

    " Parables arrest the hearer by their vividness or strangeness"         yet this gritty reality is quickly shattered in the unfolding parable, expectations are turned upside down, our initial sympathy is quickly dissipated, our desire to draw moral conclusions and ethical paradigms for living begins to take second place to a vision of a reality that is at the root of the Kingdom of God. It is this vision that should arrest our thought.

    "Parables when read leave the mind in sufficient doubt about their precise application
    to tease it into active thought"     each parable admits of several interpretations and meanings. A good example of this is the parable of the Lost Sheep (Matt 18:12-14 and Lk 15:4-7), in the former Matthew interprets the parable as exhorting Church leaders to care for the weak in their flock while Luke sees it as justifying Jesus’ mission to the lost.

    The parables are open enough to allow the hearer to identify with each and any of the characters, to grumble with the vineyard workers, to feel the pain/resentment of the older brother or the indifference of the unjust judge. It is only there that they may be then open to the message of forgiveness or judgment. All too often we are more like the smug Pharisee than the humble tax collector and yet we immediately jump to identify with him, adopting the attitude of the Pharisee as we do so!


    Of course nothing can substitute for actually reading the parables as they appear in the Gospel passages and then using that time for  prayer and reflection:
     
    The Parable of the Mustard Seed
    (Mt 13:31-32, Mk: 4:30-32)

    The Parable of the Prodigal Son
    (Lk 15:1-10)

    The Parable of the Unjust Judge
    (Lk 18:1-8)

    The Parable of the Pharisee and the Publican
    (Lk 18: 9-14)

    The Parable of the Vineyard
    (Mt 20:1-16)

    The Parable of the Marriage Feast
    (Mt 22:1-14)

    The Parable of the Sower
    (Mt 13: 1-9, Mk 4:1-9, Lk 8:4-8)
     
     

     

    The Parable of the Talents
    (Mt 25: 14-30)

    The Parable of the Unmerciful Servant
    (Mt18: 3-35)

    The Parable of the Good Samaritan
    (Lk 10:29-37)

    The Parable of the Great Supper
    (Lk 14:15-24)

    The Parable of the Rich Fool
    (Lk 12: 13-21)

    The Parable of the Pounds
    (Lk 19: 11-27)

    The Parable of the Ten Virgins
    (Mt 25: 1-13)

     



    Understanding the Gospels:  Some basic insights to get started!

    The Parables in the Gospels: Stories Jesus told.

  • An Introduction to The Gospel of St. Matthew
  • An Introduction to The Gospel of St. Mark
  • An Introduction to The Gospel of St. Luke
  • Index of Sunday Gospels


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