Speaking In Parables

" To what shall we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable can we use for it? . . . With many such parables, He spoke to them as they were able to understand it. Without parables, He did not speak to them, but to His own disciples, He explained everything in private." - [Mark 4:26 - 34].


A parable is a a story with a hidden significance. It is often described as "an earthly story with a heavenly meaning."

Jesus, we know, spoke oftentimes in parables. I have often wondered why He would do this? After all, He is God's only Son, cannot He say whatever is the unvarnished Truth?

Sometimes, the Truth hurts. I saw this with my own mother. She spoke "in code". Perhaps she was a lady of "that generation, ladies who were not supposed to be too smart, too outspoken, too forward. If she wanted me to wear a raincoat, she would tell me, "It might to rain today." That was it, no further direction or information. If I came home soaking wet, she would look at me, astonished. Hadn't she TOLD me to wear a raincoat?

When my father died suddenly, after he and my mother had been married for 52 years, my mother could barely speak of it. She held her head up, lips tightly clenched, and kept working around the house- washing, cooking, cleaning. My father died almost 3 months to the day before his birthday. On his birthday, my mother told me, as we were eating sandwiches, "He would have been 75 today." Chewing my sandwich, I made a great effort to stay calm and focused. I nodded at her. I waited for more information, but as usual, there was none. That is what passed for her Grief.

About eight months after my father had died, came their wedding anniversary. My mother said to me, " It would have been our anniversary today." I said to her, "I suppose it feels like your time with him was only an instant?" My mother nodded at me, "It was not long enough." That was it, her Grief expressed, again, like the flick of a whisker.

 Jesus did not want to speak too plainly because the Truth about society, then, was too painful for people to confront directly.  Jesus always told the Truth, but the Truth came out in parables and ironies. It was a Truth that was softened around the edges, the only Truth that most people could stand hearing at the time.

 Jesus' parables turned the world order upside down. Jesus touched the leper. He spoke to Samaritan-- and a woman at that -- at the well. That was shocking for the time. He ate with the poor, and with the dreaded, extortionist tax collectors. His parables were dangerous, daring commentaries. The Pharisees believed that Jesus' parables were blasphemy.

In the Parable of the man born blind, Jesus healed the man with mud and His own saliva. The Pharisees threw the man out of the Temple, declaring that the man was born blind because he was a sinner at birth. Jesus said, "For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind." Probably, only a few of His listeners understood what He was really saying.

Would we say that at least the disciples understood exactly what Jesus was saying? After all, Jesus spoke to them "without parables. He explained everything [to them] in private." Well, Jesus did try very hard to help His disciples to see the Truth. But, even as Jesus recognized when the time had come for Him to enter Jerusalem, the disciples would have none of it.  Matthew 16: 21 says, "From that time, Jesus began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed, and be raised up on the third day. [But] Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, 'God forbid it, Lord! This shall never happen to You. . . .' "

It has been suggested that Jesus spun his Truths out slowly, so that He could remain on this earth a bit longer, for more listeners to hear His message.

It is also clear that the Parables were meant to give earthly metaphors and similes of the Kingdom of Heaven, because Heaven is a place that no mortal can fully understand or grasp. Try to fully explain an encounter that you may have had with the Divine. You will find that mere mortal words can do no justice to what you have seen or felt.

Some find the Parables and stories maddeningly ephemeral. I am thinking of Jesus appearing on the road to Emmaus, walking along with two disciples. His disciples did not recognize Him at first, so Jesus almost had to prove His identity by "explaining to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning Himself." -[Luke 24: 27]. A friend of mine says that she is upset that Jesus' explanations are not in the Bible, and that she would give anything to have heard all that!

In the end, John closes his Gospel with, "And there were many other things which Jesus did, which if they were written in detail, I suppose that even the [whole] world itself would not contain the books that would be written." -[John 21:25]. And so, God and Jesus are just that BIG!

I believe that this mysterious, infinite quality of Scripture is what makes it endlessly fascinating. The Scripture does bear repeating, re-reading, studying, hearing, speaking. Sometimes, I feel kind of stupid for not understanding everything in the Bible right away. Then, I think of Jesus' disciples, and I realize, they did not understand it all right away, either! We are mean to take Scripture bit by bit, "as we are able to understand it."

The parables are meant to unfold like beautiful flowers, like a sweet rain pouring down on us when we need God's Wisdom the most. We, too, do not always recognize Jesus on a difficult road. What a blessing, though, that Jesus and His parables are set forth right at our fingertips, in the greatest Book in the world!


(c) Spiritual Devotional 2015. All Rights Reserved.