The Parables

2 Things Capture the Hearer of a Joke

1. The hearer’s knowledge of the points of reference
2. The unexpected turn in the story

The key to interpreting the joke is to identify the points of reference. When that’s done, we can also better understand the unexpected turn of the joke. It is like explaining a joke. The power of the joke is in its catchy ending which works only because the points and, ultimately, the main point of the joke are obvious. If we don't understand the points of reference for the joke... we miss the whole joke. So too, for the parable.

The Parables in History

Parables were first told and heard not read.

We have first read them, which means we have not heard them in their original form.

Like jokes Parables are better heard than written.

Parables

The Hidden Treasure & the Pearl
(10:45- 21 CR Session 3, Pt1)

The Sower

The Weeds

The Net

1. Two men in debt and their money lender - Luke 7:36-49
1. Listen to the parable and surrounding account.
2. Identify points of reference for the whole text.
3. What is the unexpected turn in the parable?
4. How does the parable relate to the setting Jesus is in?
2. The Good Samaratan Luke 10:25 -37
1. Listen to the parable and surrounding account.
2. Identify points of reference for the whole text.
3. What is the unexpected turn in the parable?
4. How does the parable relate to the setting Jesus is in?

The Nature of the Parables

• a story, pure and simple
• has a beginning and an end
• has a plot

True parables:

• The Lost Sheep
• The Prodigal Son
• The Great Banquet
• The Lost Coin
  
• The Workers in the Vineyard
• The Rich Man and Lazarus
• The Ten Virgins
• The Shrewd Manager
  

Some parables are illustrations drawn from everyday life used by Jesus to make a point

• the Yeast in the Dough
• the Mustard Seed

Jesus also used Metaphors and similes

• You are the salt of the earth
  
• Light of the world
  

Identifying the Audience

Given the importance of defining the points of reference it is really important to try to identify the audience. Identify the points of reference intended by Jesus that would have been picked up by the original hearers. Try to determine how the original hearers would have identified with the story, and therefore what they would have heard.

The Parable Problem

Mark 4:10-12

When he was alone, those who were around him along with the twelve asked him about the parables. 11And he said to them, “To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside, everything comes in parables; 12in order that ‘they may indeed look, but not perceive, and may indeed listen, but not understand; so that they may not turn again and be forgiven”

Jesus seems to be suggesting that the parables contain mysteries that only the specially enlightened can decipher.

No part of scripture has found such odd and eccentric interpretations as the parables, the only part of Scripture exceeding that being the book of Revelation.

Parables were clear in their meaning to those hearing them.

Specifically in the case of the Good Samaritan, the “expert in the law” to whom Jesus was speaking clearly understood it!

It was the reality that the whole meaning of Jesus’ ministry was to non-believers like a riddle that they just could not solve. It eluded them. Most of Jesus’ ministry was not actually grasped, even by the apostles—until after the crucifixion, resurrection, ascension, and giving of the Spirit which then gave them a retrospective perspective, a huge “Now I get it!”