The Problem with the Parables
Why I Have a Love/Hate Relationship with the Crazy Stories Jesus Told
Like parents, pastors are not supposed to have favorites. I would destroy the morale and guarantee my kids would spend a lifetime in therapy if I said I favored one over the other. Now, there are days when I prefer the company of one over the other, but that is a post for another day.
Pastors are not supposed to have favorites but we do.
One of my favorite things I get to do is baptize newly minted Christians. It does not matter to me: babies, kids, teenagers, adults, and senior adults. I consider it an honor to be able to stand next to them as they profess their faith, pray over the water, pour the water over their heads, and anoint them. I would not trade that part of the pastor gig for anything.
Another favorite is teaching. Babies, kids, teenagers, adults, and senior adults it does not matter. My ministry started teaching fourth and fifth graders about Leviticus and Jesus. It was a strange combination, but it worked. We went from 12 to 70+ kids in a matter of two weeks. That growth had nothing to do with me or my ability to write a curriculum. No, this was the work of the Holy Spirit nudging our community to take more seriously the call of discipleship. I love seeing the work of the Holy Spirit in a community and individuals, and teaching is one of the places I get a front-row seat for such action.
Pastors are not supposed to have favorites, but we do.
Now, my not-so-favorite things…
Are you kidding me!?! I’d never post that list because, inevitably, I’d have to discuss the list during my annual evaluation, or I’d receive a phone call from a bishop after being outed by one of my beloved readers.
I have favorite Bible stories.
Jacob wrestling with God and demanding a blessing, that’s good stuff.
Elisha and the she-bears is always a crowd-pleaser when it comes time for the children’s sermon.
I love the wedding at Cana when Jesus turns water into wine. This is my favorite miracle.
Peter denies Jesus only to be the rock upon which the church will be built. That is good stuff.
But if I am being honest, I have some not-so-favorite stories from the Bible. And I blame Jesus for all of this.
Like any good teacher, Jesus loved to tell stories. The Dude loved to talk, walk, heal, and then talk some more. He had a way of answering the questions in just the right way, leaving his audience scratching their heads while at the same time having the Grace of God - forgiveness you cannot earn - revealed to them.
Every time I read one of these stories, I will quote Rob Bell saying, “raise a glass, so good!”
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More often than not, the stories Jesus’s audience scratching their heads are parables. Parables, simply put, are earthy examples of Biblical truth.
Here are a few of my favorites:
Parable of the Good Samaritan
Parable of the Prodigal Son
Parable of the Lost Coin
Parable of the Sower
Parable of the Fig Tree
On the parables of Jesus, Robert Capon wrote,
“Parables are told only because they are true, not because the actions of the characters in them can be recommended for imitation. Good Samaritans are regularly sued. Fathers who give parties for wayward sons are rightly rebuked, Employers who pay equal wages for unequal work have labor-relations problems. And any Shepherd who makes a practice of leaving ninety-nine sheep to chase after a lost one quickly goes out of the sheep-ranching business.
The parables are true only because they are like what God is like, not because they are models for us to copy. It is simply a fact that the one thing we dare not under any circumstances imitate is the only thing that can save us. The parables are, one and all, about the foolishness by which Grace raises the dead. They apply to no sensible process at all - only to the divine insanity that brings everything out of nothing.”
And here’s where I begin to get uncomfortable. If Capon is right, and parables are “true only because they are like what God is like, not because they are models for us to copy, " why didn’t Jesus just come out and say that?!?! Because Jesus was continually pointing to the Grace of God and the fulfillment of the Kingdom of God, why couldn’t he have been just a little blunter in his storytelling?
Don’t get me wrong; there are plenty of times when Jesus was blunt.
Like when a woman caught in an adulterous situation was about to be stoned.
The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery; and making her stand before all of them, they said to him, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery. Now in the law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” They said this to test him, so that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” - John 8:3-7
Or, when he was being arrested, Jesus told his disciples to lay down their swords (although why they had them would be an exciting sermon to explore because if they had swords with them, they had not been paying close attention).
Then they came and laid hands on Jesus and arrested him. Suddenly, one of those with Jesus put his hand on his sword, drew it, and struck the slave of the high priest, cutting off his ear. Then Jesus said to him, “Put your sword back into its place; for all who take the sword will perish by the sword. Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels? But how then would the scriptures be fulfilled, which say it must happen in this way?” - Matthew 26:50-54
So Jesus knew how to say what needed to be said, so what’s up with parables?
Because pastors are not supposed to have favorites, but we do, we also have our least favorite, our love/hate stories that we must contend with, and for me, I have a love/hate relationship with the parables of Jesus
Crackers & Grape Juice published a book titled Crazy Talk: Stories Jesus Told. This book is an exploration of the crazy stories Jesus told. I contributed to the book because, as a pastor, I cannot avoid the stories I struggle to understand or the stories I prefer to avoid.
Proclaiming the word of God is dangerous work.
Jesus got killed for the outrageous, irresponsible, and offensive stories he told, so the least I can do is take these stories seriously. But come, they often make no freaking sense. Or worse, everyone in the sanctuary knows what the parable means (or at least they think they do), and then the preacher’s task is even more complicated.
What drives me nuts about the parables of Jesus is the very thing I love about the parables of Jesus: there’s no one “take away.” An example, last week, I preached on the parable of the prodigal son. You know this story even if you have never read this story.
How do you preach this text? What’s your angle?
The answers to those questions are countless, just as how God’s grace is revealed to us. And this is where the parables, whether I love or hate them, are critical for understanding God's Kingdom.
The Kingdom of God catches us off guard just like a good story, and yet, at times, we know the story without knowing the story. And when we think we see the story, the Holy Spirit will spin us around, reveal a new word, and send us out into the world, transformed, that we might be part of the transforming work of God.
So while I’m not supposed to have favorites, I do. And while I’m not supposed to shy away from complex texts, I do. But (and this is a big but) if I am willing to trust that the Holy Spirit is at work and that the act of preaching is less about me and more about the Kingdom of God, then the parables (or whatever part of the Bible you have a love/hate relationship with) are not that scary.
Preachers, what’s your least favorite part of the Bible to teach/preach?
People in the pews, what’s your least favorite part of the Bible to read?
I’d love to hear from you and how you are engaging in the texts, you have a love and hate at the same time.
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there are no problems with the parables