On the Use of Parables

• Twentyeighth Sunday in Ordinary Time

on Matthew 13:10-17, 

in which Jesus speaks about using parables.

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• [I sat down and played the first half page of] Beethoven's Piano Sonata #14 in C#minor, quasi una fantasia, Opus 27 No. 2. 

(you can listen to it by clicking --> here <--) (this is not me playing, by the way) 

(also by the way, props to Mrs. H, my piano teacher from when I was in grade school. You are one of the reasons I LOVE piano music)

What's it mean? What feelings does it evoke?

The name happened 30 years after it was written, and 5 years after Beethoven's death, when a music critic likened the effect of the first movement to that of “moonlight shining upon Lake Lucerne,” 

and the name stuck. “Moonlight Sonata”

Contemporary French composer Hector Berlioz called it a “lamentation.”


“It is one of those poems 

that human language does not know how to qualify.”

• You might call a parable a poem
that human language does not know how to qualify.

• Chapter 13 begins with a parable (first use of the word parable in Matthew).
Then this question from the disciples, why parables? And Jesus' mysterious answer: “because they haven't received the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but you have. For those who HAVE, will receive more... and those who DON'T have, even the little they have will be taken away.” 

I don't know about you but that response makes me a little uncomfortable... it bugs me.

• But before that, what is a parable?

• Historically, parables were treated as allegory: 

representational stories with “secret” meanings.
However, in early 20^th century theologian Charles Dodd came up with what is now pretty much the standard definition of a parable: 

a metaphor or simile from common life, arresting the hearer by its vividness or strangeness, and leaving the mind in sufficient doubt about its precise application to tease it into active thought.

That is,

a story using a familiar setting,

also awkward or unexpected,

and “sticky”

(recall Iyaz's song, Shawty's like a melody in my head that I can't keep out, got me singing now, 'na na na na' every day, like my iPod's stuck on REPLAY...)

A parable will make you go “Hmmm?” and ruminate on it. 

What does it mean? Do I 'get it'?

A parable is like a living thing, like music...

It is evocative, demanding interaction, 

and defying being neatly qualified and quantified.

• Back to Jesus' answer... 

Understanding a parable requires three things:

One, it's a gift. Jesus says that some have received and some have not.
(gifts are not given equally... some have athletic gifts, some music, some business, etc... and gifts are given to be shared with others)

Two, understanding requires effort, pondering, attention.
Those who are not willing to wrestle for an answer won't get an answer, also those who give up. Understanding is reward.

Three, understanding requires humility, for you have to put ego aside and say maybe multiple times “I may be wrong...”

• Such are the disciples Jesus seeks: 

humble ones who will follow and persevere, and share their gifts.

• And the result of wrestling with Jesus' parables (remember they're sticky, like music that sticks in your head and invites you to remember)... the result is that you're drawn into relationship with Jesus, drawn into relationship with God.

We get the picture that those who persevere gain more understanding,
they grow and mature and draw nearer to God,

and those who do not persevere or who lack humility, 

who try to go it alone, well, they are like someone who tries to hold the wind, or cling to sand... it will escape them.

• Be in relationship with Jesus. 

Listen and wrestle and nurture and persevere.
And praise God for understanding and relationship.

• Hymn 314 In the Garden

Matthew 13:10-17 CEB Oct. 12 / 28^th Sunday of Ordinary Time

10 Jesus’ disciples came and said to him,
“Why do you use parables when you speak to the crowds?”

11 Jesus replied, “Because they haven’t received the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but you have. 12 For those who have will receive more and they will have more than enough. But as for those who don’t have, even the little they have will be taken away from them. 13 This is why I speak to the crowds in parables: although they see, they don’t really see; and although they hear, they don’t really hear or understand. 14 What Isaiah prophesied has become completely true for them:

You will hear, to be sure, but never understand;
        and you will certainly see
but never recognize what you are seeing.

15     For this people’s senses have become calloused,
        and they’ve become hard of hearing,
        and they’ve shut their eyes
            so that they won’t see with their eyes
            or hear with their ears
            or understand with their minds,
            and change their hearts and lives that I may heal them. [Isaiah 6:9-10]

16 “Happy are your eyes because they see. Happy are your ears because they hear. 17 I assure you that many prophets and righteous people wanted to see what you see and hear what you hear, but they didn’t.