Parables Notes
Notes
Jesus’ parables were ingeniously simple word pictures with profound spiritual lessons.
But the flagrant mistreatment of Jesus’ parables by modern commentators sometimes gets even worse than that. An even more radical view, rapidly gaining popularity in these postmodern times, is the notion that stories by their very nature have no fixed or objective meaning; they are entirely subject to the hearer’s interpretation. By this way of thinking, Jesus’ use of parables was a deliberate repudiation of propositions and dogma in favor of mystery and conversation. One commentator says it like this: “It is the nature of narrative to lend itself to an auditor’s imagination and become whatever the auditor wants it to be—in spite of the narrator’s intention. Narratives are essentially polyvalent, and therefore subject to a wide range of readings.”
The disciples came and said to Him, “Why do You speak to them in parables?”
He answered and said to them, “Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. For whoever has, to him more will be given, and he will have abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him. Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. And in them the prophecy of Isaiah [6:9–10] is fulfilled, which says:
‘Hearing you will hear and shall not understand,
And seeing you will see and not perceive;
For the hearts of this people have grown dull.
Their ears are hard of hearing,
And their eyes they have closed,
Lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears,
Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn,
So that I should heal them.’ ” (Matt. 13:10–15)
That’s why Jesus adopted that style of teaching. It was a divine judgment against those who met His teaching with scorn, unbelief, or apathy.
The more they hardened their hearts against the truth, the more severe their judgment would be, for “to whom much is given, from him much will be required” (Luke 12:48). Thus by concealing spiritual lessons in everyday stories and symbols, Jesus was keeping them from piling guilt upon guilt on their own heads.
In short, Jesus’ parables had a clear twofold purpose: They hid the truth from self-righteous or self-satisfied people who fancied themselves too sophisticated to learn from Him, while the same parables revealed truth to eager souls with childlike faith—those who were hungering and thirsting for righteousness. Jesus thanked His Father for both results: “I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Your sight” (Matt. 11:25–26).
What, then, does that statement in Mark 4:33–34 mean: “without a parable He did not speak to them”? That’s a description of Jesus’ public teaching style only during the final year or so of His public ministry. It refers to that intentional change in teaching style that took place about the same time Jesus’ Galilean ministry entered its final phase. As noted earlier, we’ll open chapter 1 by examining the events that provoked Jesus to adopt that style. It was a sudden and striking shift, and a response to hard-hearted, deliberate unbelief and rejection.
If it seems the stories Jesus told are capable of endless interpretations and therefore devoid of any discernible objective meaning, that’s because truly understanding them requires faith, diligence, careful exegesis, and a genuine desire to hear what Christ is saying.
What is a parable, and how does it differ from other illustrative forms—metaphors, similes, fables, allegories, and the like? A parable is not merely a simple analogy. It’s an elongated simile or metaphor with a distinctly spiritual lesson contained in the analogy. Short figures of speech like “as strong as a horse” or “as quick as a rabbit” are plain similes—simple and straightforward enough not to require an explanation. A parable extends the comparison into a longer story or more complex metaphor, and the meaning (always a point of spiritual truth) is not necessarily obvious. Most of Jesus’ parables demanded some kind of explanation.
The word comes from two Greek roots: para (“beside”) and ballō (“throw”). Literally, it means “to place alongside.” It suggests a comparison between two things that are alike in some way. (This idea is retained even in the English derivative, parabola, which describes a curve where one side precisely mirrors the other.)
Another important distinctive of Jesus’ parables is that they never feature elements of myth or fantasy. They are nothing whatsoever like Aesop’s fables, where personified forest creatures teach moral lessons. The parables of Jesus are all believable, true-to-life illustrations. They could in fact all be true.
What’s clear from the record, however, is that parabolic teaching increased dramatically in the rabbinical tradition during and after the time of Christ. No one was better than He at telling parables, and other rabbis soon adopted the form.
The symbolism in Jesus’ parables is never thickly layered, and rarely even multidimensional. In most cases, the parables make one simple point. Trying to find meaning in every story element is an exercise in bad hermeneutics. Even the most detailed parables (like the good Samaritan and the prodigal son) usually teach fairly straightforward, uncomplicated lessons. Minor elements in the story are not to be laden with spiritual meaning.
As Jesus tells the story, several things become clear: First, nothing is said about the sower and his skill. There’s only one sower in the story. The key difference between the seed that bears a hundredfold harvest and the seed that is devoured by the birds has nothing to do with the method the sower uses when he casts the seed.
Second, nothing is said about the quality of the seed. It all comes from the same source. The seed that survives and bears fruit is the very same kind of seed that gets choked out by weeds. There’s no problem with the quality of the seed.
The lesson Jesus is teaching is all about the soil. This is a simple story whose meaning on the surface is not the least bit mysterious. But following the plot of the story isn’t the same as understanding what it refers to. The true significance of what Jesus is teaching is not immediately obvious. The parable needs to be explained.
Luke 8:9–10 picks up the story at that point:
Then His disciples asked Him, saying, “What does this parable mean?”
And He said, “To you it has been given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but to the rest it is given in parables, that
‘Seeing they may not see,
And hearing they may not understand.’ ”
This, then, is the key that unlocks the meaning of the parable: “The seed is the word of God.”
The sower in the parable of the soils isn’t expressly identified, because his identity is simply not important. He represents anyone who distributes the seed. That’s anyone who proclaims the Word of God, whether by preaching, personal evangelism, in an individual testimony, or whatever. The sower is whoever disperses God’s Word or the gospel message.
Here, then, is the lesson of this first parable: A person’s response to the Word of God is dependent on the condition of that person’s heart. Furthermore, fruit is the only evidence that one has heard the Word rightly.