October 23 - Jesus Taught Parables, Jesus is a Parable

4:1 Again Jesus began to preach beside the lake. But such a huge crowd gathered around that he got into a boat and sat there, while the crowd remained on the shore. 2 Jesus taught them many things in the form of parables and, in the course of his teaching, said, 3 “Listen carefully. Imagine a sower going out to sow, scattering the seed widely. 4 Some of the seed fell on the edge of the path, and the birds came and ate it. 5 Some seed fell on rocky ground where it found a little soil, and sprang up immediately because the soil had little depth— 6 but then, when the sun came up and scorched it, it withered for lack of roots. 7 Some seed fell into thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it produced no crop. 8 And some seed fell into rich soil and grew tall and strong, producing a crop thirty, sixty, even a hundredfold.” 9 Jesus ended by saying, “If you have ears to hear, then listen.”

         21 He also said to the crowd, “Would you bring in a lamp and put it under a bushel basket or hide it under the bed? Surely you’d put in on a lampstand! 22 Things are hidden only to be revealed at a later time. They are made secret only to be brought out into the open. 23 If you have ears to hear, then listen!”

         24 He continued, “Listen carefully to what you hear. The amount you measure out is the amount you will receive—and more besides. 25 To those who have, more will be given; from those who have not, what little they have will be taken away.”

        26 Jesus said further, “The reign of God is like this: a sower scatters seed on the ground, 27 then goes to bed at night and gets up day after day. Through it all the seed sprouts and grows without the sower knowing how it happens. 28 The soil produces a crop by itself—first the blade, then the ear, and finally the ripe wheat in the ear. 29 When the crop is ready, the sower wields the sickle, for the time is ripe for harvest.” 30 Jesus went on to say, “What comparison can we use for the reign of God? What image will help to present it? 31 It is like a mustard seed which people plant in the soil: it is the smallest of all the earth’s seeds, 32 yet once it is sown, it springs up to become the largest of shrubs, with branches big enough for the birds of the sky to build nests in its shade.” 33 Using many parables like these, Jesus spoke the message to them, as much as they could understand. 34 Everything was spoken in parables, but Jesus explained everything to the disciples later when they were alone.

                Jesus spoke in parables. While earlier we explored how during his lifetime Jesus’ fame spread as a healer, his method of teaching also was his hallmark. And just like the healings, Marcus Borg reminds us that more parables are attributed to Jesus than any other Jewish teacher. It seems that by and large when Jesus taught he did not use syllogisms or logic or didactic methods. He told stories.

                But a parable is not just any story; it is a particular kind of story. It is an identifiable form. Borg notes several characteristics of parables: 1. It is a story, something happens in a parable. 2. It is a made-up story. Parables are fictions that impart truth. 3. Parables were repeated. Like a good joke they were told time and time again. And like a good joke, while the kernel remains constant the form or details may vary. One can imagine Jesus using the parable of the mustard seed on a number of different occasions, and possibly drawing different points out from it. 4. Parables invite the hearers into the story. They do not often themselves offer a tidy little answer to the situation they embody. They leave room for the hearers to enter and engage in the story (sound familiar, Studio designers?) Parables presume and invite conversation.

                One of the first methods I was taught about parables is that each parable has one particular point to make, and once you’ve got it, you’ve got it. It think some unimaginative Sunday School teacher must have come up with this method, one who didn’t want us students coming up with lots of messy questions and ideas about Jesus or God’s kin-dom. The one-point idea is wrong.

                This is a better short-hand for the nature of a parable: it is a window through which we see the world as God sees it. Though not in Mark’s gospel, the parable of the Prodigal Son let us see unconditional love that accepts both wayward children and resentful ones. The parable of sower lets us see that the seed is scattered, not often placed carefully, so that in God’s way of seeing you never know which seed will take root and flourish. With parables you can look around, explore, ask questions, and get involved. And this is one of the reasons we have a window up front for this series on the Gospel of Mark.

                One more idea about parables that is pertinent for this Sunday has to do with the story of Jesus himself. While the life of Jesus does not fit all of Borg’s criteria for proper parables, Jesus himself can be seen as God’s parable. Jesus is a story that God told to let us see into the Kin-dom. (I do not believe that Jesus is the only story God ever told this way, but for us as followers of Christ, it is our significant example.) And, to deposit layer upon layer like a sedimentary rock, Mark tells the story, too, often shaping and retelling it in his (or their, since I believe it was a group effort) own voice and purpose: telling us just who those early believers believed Jesus to be. And if the life Jesus is a kind of parable, then we, too, are invited into the story. We can look around and tell what we see and experience. We are invited to add our own layers, too.

                So this may be a day storytelling. We can do that in lots of different ways. I have a DVD of Tex Sample telling some of his best stories, stories where he sees God in life (his book “Earthy Mysticism” is another treasury of these kind of parables). I wish we could get Dr. Sample himself here to tell a story, but I have not been able to make contact with him directly. The scripture included above are some of the parables Mark included (I edited out the explanation of the parable of the sower to save space).

                What are stories that show something of the Kin-dom of God to you? What do you see of the Kin-dom in Jesus’ stories? What does Jesus show you of the Kin-dom? Have you ever been someone else’s parable?

                Parables are about showing God’s Kin-dom. The twenty-four hour news cycle shows us plenty in this world that is not about the Kin-dom. We engage in reconstructing hope for the world, and for ourselves, by entertaining the notion that there is more to see here than the TV can show. We need a glimpse of the Kin-dom.

Good News: Jesus taught in parables, Jesus invites us into the conversation.

Subject: Parables still happen, and even Jesus’ ancient ones are not yet exhausted.

Igniting desire: The desire to see and hear God today, to experience the Kin-dom.