All these things Jesus spoke to the crowds in parables.
(Matthew 13.34)
Parables. What to do with Jesus' parables? So often, Jesus offers us riddles and dark sayings to chew on. Not facts or propositional statements, but parables.
Parables – short fictional narratives, cryptic stories about planting, harvest, mustard seeds, hidden leaven, hidden treasures, and costly pearls. These stories of Jesus invite us on an imaginative quest to seek, search, and learn more about God’s kingdom, God's reign. With whit and wisdom, Jesus uses parables to announce the coming of God’s kingdom. (As a brief reminder, “The kingdom of God/heaven” is the truth and message that Yahweh, the one true God, is King. And Jesus’ announcement of the kingdom focuses on how God establishes his rule through Jesus).
Isn't it interesting that Jesus most often tells stories that conceal, when speaking of God’s kingdom. Jesus’ parables leave us asking, “What’s he talking about, what does he mean?” And this was true for Jesus’ first disciples, as well. When Jesus told stories they asked, “What’s he saying? Why does he speak this way?” And this shouldn’t surprise us, because Jesus’ parables are not aimed at conveying information.
The aim of a parable is transformation. A parable helps “shape a heart that is willing to enter an ongoing, interactive, persistent relationship of trust in the teacher. It beckons the hearer to explore new territory. It helps form a heart that is humble enough to admit it doesn’t already understand and is thirsty enough to ask questions….a parable renders its hearers not as experts, not as know-it-alls, not as scholars…but as children” (Brian McLaren, The Secret Message of Jesus, 46).
And so, parables are theology in the truest sense of the word. Parables reveal the nature, plan, and rule of God, proclaiming what’s been “hidden from the foundation of the world." This, in turn, draws us into an intimate, loving encounter with God, through which new and unexpected ways of living are revealed to us. We are transformed through the renewing of our minds and hearts.
By way of analogy, Jesus’ parables are like a house, in which we’re invited to take up residence. They urge us to look on the world through the windows of our new residence, and allow our view of the world to be re-formed by God. Jesus calls us to see the world in a new way, with a willingness to sacrifice everything for God’s kingdom. That's what the parables are all about - laying it all on the line for God and his kingdom purposes.
