Jesus spoke all these things to the crowd in parables; he did not say anything to them without using a parable. So was fulfilled what was spoken through the prophet: “I will open my mouth in parables, I will utter things hidden since the creation of the world.” (Matthew 13:34-35)
I will open my mouth with a parable; I will
utter hidden things, things from of old— (Psalm 78:2)
Parable: a simple story used to illustrate a
moral or spiritual lesson, as told by Jesus in the Gospels.
To begin, Psalm 78 was written by Asaph, who
(as nearly as I have been able to figure out) was a musician contemporary with
David. It’s interesting to note that Matthew describes Asaph as a prophet. He didn’t
write any of the books that we call “the prophets.” It may not mean anything to
anyone now, but it’s interesting trivia.
Now, the educational part. According to Gorden
D. Fee and Douglas Steward in How To Read The Bible For All It’s Worth, the
word parable is the Greek term that refers to “a range of figures of speech in the
riddle/puzzle, parable category, not just for the story variety called ‘parable’
in English.” (p. 151.) Parables can include true parables, similitudes, metaphors,
and epigrams. The purpose of the parable, they say, is “as a means of calling
forth a response on the part of the hearer.” (p. 152, emphasis in the
original.) A parable is an indirect way of making a point.
Often, when we read that Jesus spoke in
parables, we think of it as a means on His part of preventing those who heard
from understanding – and they didn’t. When He was with the disciples, He
explained the parables, but the disciples often still didn’t understand them. But
there’s another way to see them. If you don’t read and don’t writer, there are
three ways to aid memory: a story/joke, a poem (meter, rhyme, repetition,) and
song. They all stick on the mind, and years later you may realize something you
didn’t before. I’m not sure this was a general way of teaching, but it was
effective.
When I first started writing again, I wrote
non-fiction. I changed to fiction because I hoped that by illustrating the
ideas in a story, people might think about them more, tell others about them, or
understand the ideas better.
If we are going to imitate Christ, one of the
things we may wish to do is work on how we can best indirectly communicate to
people in our society and time in a way that will be memorable (in a good way)
and provoke a good response. I’m hoping my stories do this, but I tend to be
rather direct when I’m talking to people. I’m thinking that this calls for
creativity. It doesn’t mean we have to be “sweetness and light” all the time
any more than Jesus was – but, can we/I learn to present our ideas in a way
that is indirect, and therefore perhaps more lasting?
Comments
Post a Comment