Preaching the parables

How do parables work and how we can let them speak for themselves? How can we let them do their cutting, exposing work as we preach them?

In all of the synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke) the parable of the sower, together with its explanation and the quotation from Isaiah 6, seem to function as an introduction to the parables – what they’re all about, how they work, why Jesus is using them.  It doesn’t tell us everything about parables or necessarily apply to all the parables but it is an introduction and one we need to take seriously. 

• Parables are about the kingdom (Mk. 4:11) – they are not morality tales, they are about the secrets of the kingdom – especially the Messianic secret of Jesus the Christ who will inaugurate his kingdom as he is crowned with thorns (Mk. 15:2,9,12,17-19,26,32).  This does not mean that the parables are necessarily ‘an earthly story with a heavenly meaning’ as some of us have been taught to understand parables.  The story of the sower is an earthly story but the kingdom that it is really talking about is heavenly and earthly.  It is the kingdom of a king who is fully God and fully man, who suffered spiritually and physically to bring us into a kingdom-relationship with himself which starts now in the earthy everyday-ness of life and will continue eternally in the New Heavens and the New Earth.
• Parables divide (Mk. 4:11-12) – ‘a filter, or a sieve’ (Melvin Tinker, Tales of the Unexpected, p. 11) – some are given ears to hear (Mk. 4:9) and the real meaning is divinely revealed (Mk. 4:11), to them more will be given (Mk. 4:23-25); to others the parables will drive them further away (Mk. 4:12) – as in the days of Isaiah’s ministry the turn to symbolic and metaphorical language is a sign of judgment.  Preaching the parables is a fearsome business – it will not leave the hearers the same – it will open eyes or harden hearts.
• Parables may sometimes (but by no means always) be allegories (various details in the story having a particular meaning – e.g. Mk. 4:14-20) but even when it is an allegory not every detail has a hidden meaning (e.g. there being more than one bird, the trampling of the seed (Lk. 8:5), whether the yield is hundred, sixty or thirty-fold (Mk. 4:20).
• Parables very often have a twist – a shock or a sting in the tail (or ‘sting in the tale’ as one book on the parables was titled).  The shock in the parable of the sower is the massive fruitfulness of the seed when it does find good soil.  A decent wheat grain yield is 1:15.  But this super-seed gives staggering yields of up to 1:100 (Mk. 4:20).  The problem is definitely not with the seed.

 Now let’s look at Luke 18:9-14:

• Luke tells us to whom the parable is spoken and why (Lk. 18:9).  He does the same thing at Luke 18:1 and 19:11.  That’s very helpful!  Let’s not miss those pointers.  We’re supposed to identify with the Pharisee in Luke 18:9 – it is supposed to convict us.
• It’s a study in contrasts – as so often in the parables and especially in Luke’s (cf. Lk. 16:19-31).  There is a great reversal brewing – the lowest will be highly exalted and the highly exalted will be laid low (Lk. 1:52-53).
• It’s not ‘an earthly story with a heavenly meaning’.  The story tells of two people relating to God and that’s exactly what it is about – two ways to relate to God.  
• It’s not an allegory.  The tithes in the story don’t ‘mean something’ – they are real tithes.  The Pharisee thought his tithing would impress God and people hearing the parable, then and now, think that their tithing will impress God.   In a similar way the parable of the Good Samaritan is not an allegory – ‘going down to Jericho’ or the ‘two coins’ don’t ‘mean something’ they are just part of the story.
• The sting in the tale is that it is the irreligious, despised, probably-corrupt revenue authority official who goes home justified (instantly, completely, permanently in the right with God) rather than the upright, fasting, tithing, most-religious-looking man in town.
• The parable is saying one thing.  Jesus gives us the punchline (Lk. 18:14).   He does this in many of his parables and in Luke it’s often made even more obvious with an ‘And I tell you...’ (Lk. 16:9; 18:14; 18:8).  Again this is very helpful!  This is Jesus’ theme and aim sentence so it makes sense to make it our theme and aim in our preaching.

One final thought – let’s tell the story.  The power of the parable comes in its narrative power.  It draws you in then swings you round with the twist before knocking you out with the punchline.  Wherever possible let’s just tell the story, make it live and preserve the surprise so that it comes with its full force to convict us, humble us and lift us up to Jesus.