BibleProject - The Purpose of Parables – Parables E1

Episode Date: March 16, 2020

View full show notes and images from this episode → Resources N. T. Wright, Simply Jesus: A New Vision of Who He Was, What He Did, and Why He Matters, 87-88.Our video on How to Read the Parables of JesusShow Music: Defender Instrumental by TentsWhen I Was A Boy by Tokyo Music WalkerOyasumi by Smith the MisterVelocities by Sleepy FishShow Produced by Dan Gummel. Learn more about BibleProject at bibleproject.com. Powered and distributed by Simplecast.

Hey, this is Cooper at Bible Project. I produce the podcast in Classroom. We've been exploring a theme called the City, and it's a pretty big theme. So we decided to do two separate Q and R episodes about it. We're currently taking questions for the second Q and R and we'd love to hear from you. Just record your question by July 21st

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Today's Monday, March 15, 2020, and the world is figuring out how to deal with the novel coronavirus called COVID-19. And I'm sure this is affecting your life in some way. The West Coast of the United States, where we are located, have banned gatherings of 250 people or more amongst other precautions. And Tim and I, we were talking about this.

We have both worked on church staff in the past, and we know how impacting a church cancellation is on the local church. There's a direct connection to the people attending on a Sunday and how much the church receives and gifts that week. And so we want to encourage you if you're part of a local church that can't gather to consider making an extra effort to continue to give to your church during this time. Also, if you're on our email list this week,

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all, this is a time for us as followers of Jesus to remember we have a hope that transcends all of this. And it's an opportunity to practice his vision of generosity and self-giving love to others. Okay, now on to the episode. Hey, this is John at the Bible Project and today we're kicking off a new series on how to read the parables of Jesus. Even if you've never read the Bible, Oggs are, you've heard one of Jesus' parables. A couple famous ones are the Good Samaritan and the Prodicle Sun. These parables have stuck in our culture because they're memorable.

But why did Jesus tell parables? One reason was he wanted to introduce us to the way he views the world. So they're not primarily just moralistic tales, telling you what could be a good person, but they do often address ethical values. But what was his announcement of the kingdom of God, except that this is life in a whole new upside down ethical value set?

Parables that we often think are about morals are actually usually about the new value system of the Kingdom of God. The parables of Jesus also introduce us to how he thinks about himself and what he's doing in his time and place in human history. Instead of reading a parable and saying, how is this about me and my relationship to God? It's reversing it and saying, how is this about Jesus and his inauguration of God's kingdom? And if I'm a part of God's kingdom too, then this teaches me something about the new world and the new value set of God's kingdom that I'm a part of. And that's how it then starts to speak to me. But it's not about me, it's about Jesus. So today we're going to start the frame or perhaps even reframe our understanding of how the parables of Jesus work. That's all ahead. Thanks for joining us. Here we go.

How do you want to begin? I think we are beginning. Here we are. Begin at the beginning. We are starting a new conversation right now in this moment about a new video that we're going to create in the How to Read the Bible series. We are going to talk about how to read the parables. The parables of Jesus, specifically. Are there any other parables in the Bible series. We are gonna talk about how to read the parables. Yeah. The parables of Jesus, specifically. Are there any other parables in the Bible?

Yeah, a lot, as it turns out. We'll talk about the word parable in the course of the conversation, but in the series, these are gonna be about the parables that Jesus told. Which, as it turns out, are variations of parables in the Hebrew Bible, but usually with the twist,

a Jesus twist. So we're focusing on the gospels and the presentation of Jesus as a teller of parables. In the How to Read the Bible series, we've been going through different genres of literature. And as well as different sections of the Bible, kind of simultaneously doing both. Because some sections of the Bible have all sorts of different genres within it. Yeah, that's right. So we talked last about how to read the Gospels, which has a lot of different types of literature in it, I guess. Yeah, it's mostly narrative, but with long speeches and parables. Yeah.

And occasional poems woven in, especially in the gospel of Luke. Yeah. So parables are very, are a remarkable part of Jesus's life. Yeah. They have an important role in every gospel account. Yeah, he's a teller of stories, though mostly in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. A little less so in John, though in John, he talks a lot, and he uses lots of short word pictures, but the longer, more elaborate, fictional tales, mostly in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Yeah, and they're capturing and presenting something that apparently impressed everybody

who ever heard Jesus teach was that one of the main ways of communicating was through short, creative, fictional stories. Now he must not have been the only one who was using this communication device. Nope, as we'll see there are important precedents in the prophets of the Hebrew Bible, and in Jewish teachers from the time of Jesus and after him. But his parables have a distinctive stamp because of what they are about. This is to anticipate the conversation that we're about to have.

But at the baseline, Jesus as a teller of stories has resonated in the memory of both the people who are with him that we have in the four gospels. But also, then, that's just, it's a feature of Jesus as a teacher that people love throughout history. These parables, these parables are beloved to generations of followers of Jesus for millennia now. It's a really cool part of his teaching

because it feels very accessible. It feels accessible and it allows you to dwell on it and kind of keep mining it for insight. In a way that's very rewarding. That's right. They're easy to work with you. Yes. I mean, the reason why they were remembered, the people who heard him and why they're in the gospel narratives is because they were easy to remember.

Which is why it's exactly why they're easy for us to remember once you hear one. It's kind of hard to forget the main outline of the parable of a good Samaritan or of the lost, the prodigal son, the lost son. So just think all these famous of the two trees at the end of the sermon on the mount, two trees. That's like a little parable, a bad tree, can't produce good fruit, good tree, can't produce fruit.

Yeah, some of them are really short. They're just kind of like one line. The two houses, the one who builds their house on the rock, the one who builds their house on the sand. Yeah. But then you get long ones like. Yeah, full of stories. Yeah, the vineyard.

Character plunders. Vineyards. Yeah. So my eight year old asked me today, well, I'm working on, I said, we're going to start writing how to read parables. And he said, what's a parable? So we could start there. Yeah, yes.

Well, okay, we'll actually, here, we'll give a dictionary definition. Okay. Just because we're just starting with the basics. This is Merriam Webster Dictionary, famous American English Dictionary. Okay. Just because we're just starting with the basics. This is Merriam Webster dictionary, famous American English dictionary. Yeah. It's also free online, which makes a handy to use. Parable. Usually a short, fictitious story that illustrates a moral attitude or a religious principle. Moral attitude or religious principle. Yeah, short, fictitious story.

And illustration, so in other words, in this definition, the point of parables is to take something that is unclear or less than clear or maybe not persuasive, like a moral attitude or a religious idea and to make them more understandable, more persuasive, they're explainer stories. Totally! That's probably another reason why I love them. Your former life and your current life is to make explainer videos.

Yes. And this is kind of like the ancient explainer story. Yeah. So that's the Merrim webto, webto dictionary, explainer stories. Now short, fictitious. Fictitious make sense. They're not real stories. They have to be short to be a parable.

Oh, usually short. They're usually short. So if they're long, it's no longer a parable. It's now a... Actually, some people make the difference between allegory and parable based on the length and the number of symbolic characters, which makes a certain amount of sense. But we'll talk more about that too.

I guess that's helpful for how modern English uses the word parable now. However, it does beg the question, does this accurately describe what Jesus was accomplishing through his parables? Short, yeah, fictitious, yep, yep, check. Stories, explainers. Explaners. Yes, stories, yeah, but illustrations. Were they explaining moral attitudes or religious truths?

Yeah, was Jesus trying to explain things and make them more clear by means of the parable? Got it. You know what's funny is that multiple times in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, when Jesus tells parables, the authors usually note that people didn't understand that they were puzzled. So if anything, and he didn't try to go clear it up. Yeah, in fact, Jesus drew attention to the fact that they were less than clear. For those of you who are slow here. Yeah, in fact Jesus drew attention to the fact that they were less than clear. For those who have ears low here.

He even said, in one important moment, he said, the parables are on purpose, not clear. Where does he say that? In Mark chapter 4, the version we'll read it later on. But for Jesus, they did something other than just make something that's unclear, clear. They did something different in Jesus' mind. So this definition actually doesn't quite help you, doesn't set you up well to understand what the parables are about,

and why Jesus chose parables. And that's actually where I want to be in our conversation is the what and the why of Jesus' parables. Because you could use a short, fictitious story for many different reasons. Correct. Yeah, that's right. And if you're using it to reshape

how someone thinks about something, Yes. Then we think of that as a parable, or maybe even sometimes referred to as an allegory. Yeah. And generally, you would imagine that you're doing that so that someone is more clear in how they think about it. So that now they understand it with more clarity and precision.

But for Jesus, he doesn't seem to be preoccupied with that. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, the parables serve the purpose of his larger mission. The parables are one of the many ways that Jesus accomplished his mission of inaugurating the reign of God, the Kingdom of God. And inaugurating the reign of God. That's very... Bringing gods, heavenly, reign into reality here on earth. Which for him involved creating a renewed, a new covenant, people among Israel that lived by

the true heartbeat of the Creator, that lived by a totally different value system. And the parables were one of the ways that he invited people into that new reality that he was creating. Yeah. Jesus saw himself as creating a new reality of God's reign. Yes. God was taking creation somewhere new and on purpose through Jesus. And creating a new kind of human family. New kind of human family. New kind of society around himself. And the parables served a strategic purpose in that mission, alongside his exorcisms and his healings

and his symbolic families that he created that would eat these symbolic meals together of celebrating the kingdom arriving. Jesus had a whole package that he was bringing to every town that he went into and the parables were one of the ways that he brought it about. That's interesting way to think about it, the package. So Jesus would be in a town with new people

and he would do miracles. Yeah. He would tell parables and he would eat meals. And all of these things were to help people begin to appreciate and understand that God's kingdom, God's way of ruling and bringing order to the world. Something fundamentally was shaking up. Yeah, that had arrived in him and to understand

the nature of life among this new kingdom people, the parables invite you into a new view of reality. One of the most significant things about the parables is Jesus is often taking a common sense idea that he does share with his hearers, but he'll twist it and tweak it and turn it upside down. The parables are full of the surprises, which is why they're so memorable. are full of the surprises, which is why they're so memorable. Yeah. And so, yeah, so here's the basic point. The parables are one of the many ways that Jesus launched his mission of announcing

and bringing into reality the brain and rule of God, among a new kind of people. And when we see the parables in that context, I think some new things pop in what they are, what they do, and what they're trying to communicate. Cool. Let's first do a thought experiment. Oh, I love it. That will kind of get us into a way to approach the parables. Great. I love thought experiments. So let's try to imagine that you're a Jewish farmer.

Oh boy. Give me a name. What's the name of our farmer? That's a good Jewish name. Yeah. I'm calling Mosha good Jewish name. Yeah. I'm calling Mocha. Mocha.

Yeah. Mocha. Yeah. Mocha and his wife, Elisabeth. Yeah. Elisabeth. What does that mean? Elisabeth.

Oh, Elisabeth. Elisabeth. Yeah. So, Mocha and Elisabeth, you know, your farmers on your ancestral land up in Galilee, saying the first century. First century Galilee. Yep, up in the hills. They look down on the lake in Galilee, say in the first century. First century Galilee. Yep, up in the hills, they look down on the Lake of Galilee.

Okay. Okay, small town, but from your hillside, you can see four other small towns. Okay. You know, because it's like a huge gigantic amphitheater. Yeah. The hills around the Lake of Galilee.

Right. Gigantic amphitheater. Right. Not like you can yell to the people on the other side, but you can see the other side, maybe 10 miles away, that kind of thing. So you just, everything's close knit, family ties. You've had this land for generations. I had this land for generations.

Over a thousand years, your people have been inhabiting this land since the time of Joshua and... So you didn't go to Exile Objects? Oh yeah, there's exile and then we're back in resettling. That's true. That was a long interruption. Long interruption. Okay, long interruption. This is the land god-premise Abraham. Our answers went here. Yeah. And we've been living here now for at least the last three centuries or so. Okay. Uninterrupted since the return from the exile. Your life is dominated by the fields

and by family and by synagogue. So, and in all of those contexts, you are singing the Psalms. You grew up and you tell your kids the stories of the prophets and the stories of kings of Israel. Right? The stories of the scriptures. This is your media. This is what you do at night. Yeah.? The stories of the scriptures. This is your media. This is what

you do at night. Yeah. You sing and tell the stories. You do not at home with your family. That's right. It's in a god style. When you get up, when you lay down, when you walk, when you go out, when you go in, that kind of thing. Okay. And what's the story about? Stories about how the God who gave your family this land is not just the God of your tribe but the creator of all. He chose your family to be the vehicle of his work among the nations, to bring blessing to the nations, but there's this strange thing where this paradox or this problem in your family story because God gave our family this land and what our ancestors did was turn away from this God, we're unfaithful to him. So we gave them over to exile,

and he allowed these foreign nations to come, oppress and take over the land. That started with Assyria, up around the Lake of Galilee. The Lake of Galilee was the first section of the Promised Land taken over and annexed by the Assyrian Empire in the mid-700s. And then just remember the cycle of empires after that, Babylon, the Persia, Greece, whole thing. You've seen a number of power brokers come through.

And in your day now, the Romans, they're everywhere. They're like in your little town too. At least their tax collectors are and the soldiers that protect the tax collector booth. So yeah, when you harvest your wheat, you have to go take a whole wagon load of it down that's not for your use or to sell, but you have to go to the Romans. Take it, yeah, to go take it to the tax collector checkpoint. You know, and there's like, no, no, it's excessive.

All your cousins have actually had to sell their land because of the tax burdens. And so they have to work their own land, but now it's slaves to some Roman landowner who lives in Tiberius or somewhere else. And the tax collectors have a reputation of always being on the up and up. Yeah, this game, they add a little bit of extra,

what do you call that? You know, and yeah. Service fee? Yeah, service fee. I they add a little little bit of extra what do you call that you know when you service fee? Yeah service When you buy anything online. Yeah, you're like what is this? What's this $20 service? Yeah, that's what Matthew the tax collector used to charge before he followed Jesus. Okay, so yeah as for the last 40 years You've been living under Roman occupation. You live in a militarized zone. Yeah. Taxes keep going up. And before that, people are going into, wait, before, yeah, before Rome was officially in charge, it was who? Oh, okay. So about a hundred, if this is right, let's say this is right near the birth of Jesus, right, around four BC or something. So a hundred and sixty years ago, the Maccabins,

took over, took over and made a free, it's a realite state in the land that lasted about a hundred years. And they took it over from... They took it over from the Syrians. The Syrians. Yeah, a guy named Antichus Epiphanies ticked everybody off way too much. The Little Horn. So, the little... yeah, that's right, Daniel. And so, by the time the Maccabeean state had internally imploded from assassinations

and coups and all these plots, people trying to take each other over, the state had become so weak that when the Romans arrived on the scene, they scooped it right up. Scooped it right up. And they established a puppet king, a guy who was just ready and waiting, a half Jewish, half e to my, named, hair of the great. And so he is... He wasn't Roman at all? No, no, no, no, he's a Semitic tribal chief then who strategized his way to the top.

And he became friends with the Roman powers. So the point is, you're on your own land. Yes. You have a compromised leader who doesn't represent your interests. Yeah. And you have Roman militarization everywhere. Taxes are heavy. People are going into debt.

People being sold into slavery. How would that work? So like, I can't afford the taxes. So I go into debt. Yeah, that's right. I harvest my field. You harvest your field. I sell off the harvest. Yep now

I've got a bunch of coin Yeah, that's right, but it's not enough to pay your taxes and provide for you when I get taxed for I see so So I need a certain amount of that just pay for for my family and the end of the year and to keep the business going and keep Yeah, and to plant the field for the next year. Yeah, and the year and to keep the business going. And keep, yeah, to plant the field for the next year. Yeah. And then the Romans are saying, Hey, but I need a chunk of that and you don't have anymore left.

That's right. And they're like, well, I need it. Yeah. And so the only way to pay them is to sell. Sell your land or sell yourself. Yeah. Yep. And again, I'm trying to highlight features that are going to come up in the parables of

Jesus. Okay. Debt. Yeah. Debt slavery. Mm-hmm. Selling land. Yeah, a lot. Acquiring land.

Yeah. Working as a manager of someone else's land. Yeah. This is life. Oh, interesting. In Galilee. Oh. Yeah.

Okay. Yeah. Dreams of finding treasure. Mm-hmm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And of course, just farming. Figures, olive trees. Yeah. Fruit, wheat. Mm- harvest time, seed time.

And a lot of some food preparation parables. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, and then just the day of baking bread, sweeping your house, looking for lost coins that you dropped. That's kind of thing. Yeah, this is life. Yeah, this is life. For such a long time. And it's hard.

I mean, it's hard. There are many regions of the world that are like this. They're occupied zones, by an imperial power. There's a lot of poverty, right? It's just this is part of the human story. But however fueled by the hope of the scriptural story that you were raised on, your people have hope that God's gun to send a ruler, do something, do what Isaiah did. He's going to come back and dwell in the temple in Zion and kick out the bad guys.

He's going to send a king. What do you mean what Isaiah did? Oh, sorry. What Isaiah said. Isaiah the prophet said, the messengers of good news, Isaiah 40, behold your God. He comes with power, right? His arm, bringing justice, but with his other arm, he gathers in the little lambs and holds them close to his chest.

Yeah. You live by the breath of that hope. Yeah. Of a hope for king. Yeah, so you'd have your own king, which you're on the ruler. You're free from the Romans. Yeah, that's right.

And also, it would be a time of plenty because. Correct. Abundance because there'd be abundance. Yep, the new Eden. So two things that they're struggling with, one, occupation, two, is a lot of poverty. Those things are, the scripture, their scriptures are hoping for a time where those go away. That's right.

Yeah, God's presence comes back among us when the temple is recognized as the home of the creator God and all Israel and all nations see it as the capital of the world. That's even like a bigger step, which is not only are we free and have plenty, but the whole world recognizes that Israel's God is the God of the universe. True God. Yep. So that's inspired by that hope. There are movements of Jews who have chosen to rebel. They go hide up in hills and perform raids.

Rebels. Guerrilla raids. What are they called? The... Later, in a few decades they'll come to be called the dagger. The daggers. The daggers. Sounds like a gang name. The Sikari. Oh, the Sikari. The daggers.

Or the zealots. Zealots, that's like a gang name. The Sikari. The daggers. Or the zealots. Zealots, that's what I was saying. Because like Phineas and Micoligia, they were full of violent zeal, passion for Israel's God to be honored among the nations. So you actually, you know of a couple of your second cousins who have gone missing. And last you heard that, you know, they were seen running up into the caves and Yeah, they want a revolution. Yeah, they want the kingdom of God. Yeah, their slogan is the kingdom of God now Really wow, well, I'm imagining okay But their kingdom of God movement. Yeah, it's interesting one movement was led by a guy

name Simon Ben Giora and They actually went out to the Jordan River to reenact the crossing of the Jordan River by Joshua. They thought they were going to bring the newest film. It's like a theatrical way to start. Yeah. And you just heard recently there's a guy named John the baptizer. And he's down there by that river doing the same thing, but it's different.

He's actually calling people to repent from all the years of unfaithfulness to Israel's God. He's not a military leader, but that other guy was. And they both seem to go down to the Jordan River where Joshua led the people into the land. It's an important place. So this is all happening. But then you've heard that there's this new guy, an itinerant prophet and teacher, touring like the rural villages around Galilee. And he is announcing that God's rule and reign is arriving in Israel here and now.

And you've heard stories that he can heal the blind, that there are people tortured by evil. And Jesus freed them. There was a guy living in a graveyard who would mutilate himself. And last he was seen, he's got a job fishing down at the lake and he's like healthy now. Right?

I mean, you hear about this. And then you're bringing in a load of wheat and you hear that guy's in town. He's just down the road. His name is Jesus of Nazareth. Let's go here. Right? You say to your farmhand, he says Moshe. So you go down here and there's big crowd around.

You can barely see him. And you can hear, he's teaching. And this is what you hear him say. This is from Mark chapter four, verse 26. And Jesus was saying, you know, the kingdom of God is like a man who casts seed on the soil. And he goes to bed at night and then gets up by day and the seed is sprouting and growing.

How, he himself doesn't know, the soil just produces crops by itself. First the blade, then the head, then the mature grain in the head, and then when the crop permits, he immediately puts in the sickle because the harvest is come. Puts in the sickle.

Like, starts cutting it down. Starts cutting it down. Yeah. That's what the kingdom of God is like. Yeah, yeah. You just described my, my year. Yeah, that's what I told you. That's what I do a year.

Yeah, that's something you have got. That's my job. Yeah, that's right. Yeah. Yeah, explainer story. You're like, this guy Jesus is not as interesting as I thought he would do. Yeah. Oh, wait, he's speaking again, what's he saying?

How else should we imagine the kingdom of God? To what can we compare it? You know, it's like a mustard seed that is sewn upon the soil, even though it's smaller than all other seeds. Yet when it is sewn, it grows and becomes larger than all the garden plants. It forms huge branches So that birds in the air can nest under a shade. Yeah These creates more questions than answers. Yeah, in a way. Yeah Especially if you're you're really actively waiting for the kingdom. Yeah, that's right. Yeah. Yeah. You know, God isn't

Some abstract idea work. Yeah, it's right. Yeah. You know, God isn't some abstract idea. Yeah, it's not a religious principle right in the Merriam-Wybster dictionary definition. It's not a moral attitude. Yeah, right. It's waiting for something very real and to happen in human history. Very geopolitical happen in human history, very geopolitical event. Yeah, that's right. Yeah. You're anticipating this. Yeah. And if you're really invested in it,

you may be moved out into the hillside to the leader of a billion, you're still invested, not that invested. You're still working the fields. You're trying to figure it out. You want it to come. Jesus comes and he's talking about the kingdom. Yeah. And you're like, what is he doing to him?

What does he have to say? Yeah. Yeah. You're like, OK, what does he have to say? What does he have to say about? I want to understand what he means by the kingdom of God is here. And the kingdom is like a man who farms. Yeah.

And it's like a seed. And it's like a seed. And it's like a seed. That grows. That's right. A small seed that becomes a large tree. Come big. And birds can hang out in it. So let's imagine, yeah, the reactions of our of Moshe.

All right. What's he going to tell, at least Abbas, when he gets home that night? Well, he'll remember the story. Yeah, yep, that's right. He'll remember exactly. Yeah. It won't be like one of those three point sermons you go home and you're like, okay, what was point two again? Yeah, sure.

Yeah, they're very simple. Yeah, you'd be able to tell her. Yep, this is exactly what he said. He told this story. Yeah, he said the king of God was like a like me. Yeah. Like a farmer who waits for the crop, the grows and then he harvested.

He described how it grows, blade comes out. Stage by stage. Yeah. As you're telling it back to Elisabeth, right? Your Moshe. You remember, oh yeah, it was interesting. He said this detail that the farmer doesn't himself know how it grows. It just grows in its own time and way in kind of a mysterious way.

Yeah. And then all of a sudden, it's ready. Yeah, that does jump out. The mystery. What did he mean? Sometimes I wish the harvest would grow a little more quickly. Yes. Sometimes I wish it would not go so quick because I have to time it with my other fields.

And also, who cares that I don't know how it works? It works. If you're a first century farmer, I don't think you're sitting around agonizing about why it, well, maybe you are. Yeah. Maybe because some years it doesn't grow as well. So you're like, man, I wish I understood this more.

So it could make sure my next harvest is really great. But who knows? The mustard seed story is about this contrast of small to great. Yeah. Right? He emphasizes. It's like a little seed that's tiny, but then it becomes huge. So it's tiny and you wouldn't think that a huge thing would come from it, but then a huge

thing does come. And then that's both similar and different to a guy who's so seed. And then it grows, but it grows at a pace and in a way that's mysterious, but it eventually does come to completion. So at this point, if you're most sure, you could just be like, I don't have time for this.

That's not it. That's not it. It's just like, what? This guy's weird. Yeah. You know what's his wife's name again? Ellie Savvich. Ellie Savvich? She's just like, what, this guy's weird. Yeah, you know. What's his wife's name again? Ellie Savveth. Ellie Savveth.

Yeah. She's just like, what does it mean? I don't know. Let's go clean up the barn. Yeah. You know, Yer Mi'ahu, who I was there standing next to him, he said, this guy's crazy. And I think maybe he's right. But then here's the other thing, you know, Yer Mosh'e.

You grew up on the Hebrew Scriptures, and you remember Isaiah 55, which God compares his word, the word that promises the new Exodus and the freedom of the new covenant and the new creation for our people. Isaiah said that God's word is like a seed that when he soars it in the ground, it grows a plant and does not return to him empty. And you also remember that strange dream that Daniel had about a big tree that the birds of the air nested in its branches, but that was Babylon. But then you remember that the Daniel said that that tree would get cut down and replaced by the Kingdom of God. Wow, this Jesus guy. It's a new...

Maybe he's not crazy. Maybe he's been meditating on the Hebrew scriptures. Maybe these are like little encoded Hebrew Bible parables. Maybe they're little condensed stories that for those who will give the time to ponder that he's actually saying something really profound, but in a concealed way. Yeah. That's my little imaginative experiment. So Moshe now as he, he's thinking about these. And he's trying to, and he's thinking about Isaiah, thinking about God's word as a seed.

Yeah. God's word about the new Exodus and the new kingdom of God that would come after exile. You're right. And so as he thinks about these, he's thinking, yeah, so the kingdom of God, this thing I'm waiting for, this geopolitical moment in human history where I am no longer in a Roman occupation, but also it seems that there's gonna be a new type of abundance, a new type of human heart, a new type of all these things. This thing, it starts really small. Yeah. This thing, it starts really small. There's something about it that's small and surprisingly small, but it's going to become

great. Also, how it grows, I'm not going to understand how it's going to come to be. Jesus wants me to appreciate it. I'm not going to give it. The guy goes to bed, gets up day after day after day, and it's just slowly developing. It doesn't happen overnight. Slowly developing.

And tell us ready, and it will be ready, but, huh, maybe, yeah, maybe this Jesus has gone to something. You know, God's sure taken a sweet time. Maybe Jesus is telling us something about the long time that we've been waiting, and the God's ways in timeline might be very different than our ways in timeline. I think if that guy, Jesus of Nazareth, comes back. Have some questions for him.

Yeah, I think I'm going to go back. Yeah. Yeah, that's it. Jesus would call Moshe somebody who has ears to hear. Yeah. Because someone who doesn't have ears to hear will just be like, I don't have time for this. What have loony been? It's crazy.

And that's how many people responded to Jesus. But then there were other people who were impressed that there was something here with this man and that the signs and wonders he performed and the teachings and his parables gave them a new way of thinking about what they thought they knew. And so they kept going back and they have questions. Yeah, there you go.

So let's go back to the Merriam Whips or Definition. Are the parables in that context, are they functioning as explainers of moral attitudes or religious ideals? Kind of. They are inviting the listener in to experience this little narrative world in a way that will give new understanding and new insight. But they're very different than the videos we try and create,

which is to really make things as clear as you can. Yes, right. Yeah, it strikes me that the communication style of Jesus is one that leads to asking more questions, it leads to trying to use your imagination in new ways. Yeah, yeah. Versus a more style in which it's just, let me tell you what you need to understand. Yeah, that's right I'm more kind of didactic. Yes, just like let me give you the answers

Yeah, when a guy comes up to Jesus and says hey, I want to be one of your disciples I will follow you and in Luke chapter 9 Jesus says you know Foxes have holes and birds that fly in the air, you know, they have nests, but the son of man doesn't have anywhere to lay down his head. This is response. And you're like, is that a yes or no? Totally.

That's a little parable. Yeah. It's a little, right? It's a little narrative about a guy that has nowhere to go to bed, but the animals do. Yes, it's not direct. Direct would be, listen, I don't know, you should count the cost.

I don't have anywhere to stay. Do you know what you're signing up for? That's a direct. Parables are anything but a direct form of communication. Yes, I was just worth letting that sink in that one of G.S.'s favored modes of communication. It's a very patient way. Yes, yeah.

A patient way to communicate because if you're kind of like, okay, if I'm a parent or something, and it's like, I need my kids to understand this right now. You just cut to the chase. This is the way you need to operate in the world. This is what you need to understand, this is what you need to do. That's right. We take paths at least every other day. Yes. Because you'll smell if you don't. Yeah. You have to clean up your room. Yeah. It doesn't

get to stay in perpetual disorder. Yeah. So go clean it. Yeah. And you would think the God of the universe would just want to cut you love it when you begin a sentence. You do occasionally. Be more direct. Tell me what I need to know. There's a lot of stake here. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But instead it's like, let me patiently and kind of playfully bring you along on this

imaginative journey. Yes. Yes. The parables on the surface seem like the most simple kind of teaching of Jesus, right? Because they're little explainer stories and I can kind of get the main idea pretty quickly. But there's a way more going on here. And first of all, what you're highlighting, why would Jesus choose this very subtle, non-direct form of communication as one of the main ways that he communicates what the kingdom of God is like? It's something I'm putting it up front as one of the main point because I want to keep coming back to it. Because I think it's really powerful and significant.

Because as Moshe, our parable, a little figure in our parable, as he goes back to town more and he hears Jesus more and more, he also begins to observe Jesus' behavior, his signs and wonders, how he invites all these really Suspect people to eat meals together a tax collector the guy took my taxes last year Matthew Jesus, he goes to Matthew's house Any of my its prostitutes and then there's a couple Pharisees Mm-hmm, and then about the fishermen and they all eat together like it's all fine It's so weird. Yeah, but then you hear him tell a parable about how two

guys owed somebody a bunch of money, one guy 50, one guy 5,000. And Jesus said, yeah, which one will be more grateful if they have their debt forgiven? Yeah. The parables were a way that Jesus offered commentary on the rest of the kingdom of God package that he was bringing about. Antirite, scholar and T. Wright, it's become well known to me because he's written and said it in multiple contexts, but that the parables were prompted by Jesus' need to explain what he was saying and doing with the rest of his mission. In other words, what Jesus was saying and doing prompted questions and the parables are a response to address those questions. Why does this man eat with sinners and tax collectors? Why does he heal on the Sabbath?

Why does he spend so much time with undesirable people? And the parables are necessary as these explainers. But what they do is invite the person to investigate more. They do that as much as they make anything clear. Do you imagine that Jesus would have longer conversations around these with people who had ears to hear? I mean, we've got the example where a bunch of people didn't understand a parable, a parable of the sower, and then Jesus explained it to his disciples. Yeah. Yeah. If I was around, obviously I would want to just sit

across from Jesus and just start quizzing him. You know, just start asking questions. Yeah, yeah, that's right. And if he just responded with a parable, then I'd be like, okay, let's talk about that parable, and then ask him questions about the parable. And just keep going. But in the gospels, we kind of get,

like here's a parable and then let's move on. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, there's more than one occasion where people approached ask what he meant. But it does seem that the function of them as puzzling and inviting is a part of their purpose that you have to work for it. And that was why he taught in this way.

Was it forced his audience to work for it? And your other point is then that he taught in this way because the way he lived and his teachings created a lot of questions that he thought were best answered through parables. Through these parables. Yeah, that's right. That's a better way of saying it than I did a couple of minutes ago. Well, no, I'm just repeating the way I think he's how he's said.

Yeah, that's right. Yeah, okay. Yeah, that's right. Yeah. So, okay, let me kind of summarize or focus. Jesus' whole mission to Israel, what he said he was about was preaching, announcing, proclaiming the arrival of the kingdom

of God. That's like his main theme, he's talking about it all the time. This is the thing I've been waiting for, hoping for. That's right. What does he mean it's happening? That's right. So sometimes he taught about it directly. Most often he taught about its repairables, and then he also symbolized it or manifested

the arrival of God's reign through his healings and exorcisms. That's what he said. If I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom is really among you. That's what he said. He's creating these new types of family communities, calling them brothers and sisters, and they're not blood relatives. They're all Israelites, but they're not blood relatives, and many of them are outcasts,

and they all start sharing their stuff and eating meals together, like a family would, yeah. In fact, one time I heard him say that his mother and sisters and brothers aren't his blood family, but these groups that he makes. Can't believe he said something. Yeah, it's crazy.

Throwing family away. Yeah. Upside down. Yeah. And so the parables aren't simply a kind of neat, clever way that Jesus taught moral ethical truths. They're not simply a way that he taught systematic theology through symbols, they are an expression

in the service of his announcement of the kingdom of God. That's the main point to make here. The focal point, often the topic and theme of almost all of them is the arrival of God's kingdom. And this is different than how when I start following Jesus and reading the Bible, when I started attending church in my 20th and hearing people teach on the parables, I remembered the way I would hear them taught, at least in church settings, was often either that they were teaching you to do something to act in a certain way. More or less.

A moral lesson or as a kind of theology essay in symbols or allegory. So a parable about somebody crying out to a guy sleeping in his house and then the guy wakes up and is gonna help him help the guy crying outside. And then this is a parallel about prayer. She just teaches about prayer. And then all of a sudden, I remember the sermon where it's all this because we start talking about God's sovereignty and human-free will. I see. And I'm just like, wow, okay, I guess, you know.

Well, because these parables will create theological questions. Yes, they do. But you're saying that their purpose isn't to teach theological statement or ideas. Yeah, so let's just get concrete. Let's get some examples. The parable of a good Samaritan. Yeah.

It's one of the most famous stories Jesus ever told. And both of that one specifically feels like, yeah, there's a moral agenda, a moral theological agenda to that, apparently. Yeah, that's right. But what is it? What is the agenda? Yeah. So a guy walks up to Jesus and says, what's the most important command in the Torah? And what should I do to inherit eternal life? Good question. Jesus says, yeah, you know, follow the Torah, do the ten commandments, and love your neighbor as yourself. And then the guy wanting to quiz and try and humiliate Jesus says, yeah, and who is my neighbor?

Define neighbor, Jesus. Are you think he had bad motives? It says, he's wishing to justify himself in front of the crowd. He said, Jesus. Justify yourself, yeah. Who is my neighbor? Because obviously I don't love everyone. Right. Right. But because there's got to be a boundary line fire herself. Yeah. Because my neighbor, because obviously I don't love everyone. Right.

Right. But because there's got to be a boundary line there somewhere. Yeah. Tell me where it is. That's right. So Jesus tells the parable of the Good Samaritan and the most important line is the last line. Where He tells the story, there was a guy on the side of the road, a priest walks by, does

nothing. Yeah. A Levite walks by, does nothing. A Levite walks by, does nothing. The most religious, like religious symbolic people in your world walk by and do nothing. And then the most hateful despised person of your tribe, excuse me, who's not even part of your tribe, is Maryton walks by, and he helps the sky in a really generous way.

And then Jesus says, which one of these three was the neighbor to the man who fell into the robber's hands? So that little twist there, what the guy's question was... Who is my neighbor? Who is my neighbor? And Jesus doesn't... Do you see what he's doing here? He's turning the whole thing upside down.

Yeah, his question is, who do I have to love or not love? So who's my neighbor? Who's my neighbor? And Jesus in this answer, his answer isn't, let me help you figure out who your neighbor is. Yeah. But who in this story acted like a neighbor? Yeah, who was the neighbor? Oh, the person that you hate is actually the most moral person that you know.

In that story. And your tribe that you assume is good is actually the most apathetic, right? The Levite and the priest. He's not actually answering the guy's question. He is exposing a deep contradiction in this guy's religious culture. Yeah. And so the person that he needs to learn to love is the person that he's trying to exclude by the question.

Yeah. Who is my neighbor? Surely not somebody likes Americans. Not the Samaritan, of course. They're all, right? Yeah, yeah. The guy doesn't even say, in answer to Jesus' question, Jesus says, which one became the neighbor?

He can't even say the word Samaritan. The guy just says, the one who showed him mercy. And Jesus says, go and do likewise. You're like, go, wait, go do what? Go show me, go be like a Samaritan. Basically, go be a Samaritan, which was an insult in this day. Wow. So is this a moral lesson that Jesus is teaching? It is, but it's more than that. Exactly. Exactly. Okay. It's not a neat illustration of a moral lesson that Jesus is teaching? It is, but it's more than that. Exactly, exactly. Okay. It's not a neat illustration of a moral attitude, as the dictionary says.

This parable is a subversive tool to offer social commentary on tribalism and racism. Yeah. My point is, this isn't a moralistic tale. Like, my kids perpetually don't, whatever clean up their dishes, after dinner. It's not like- And then you tell a story about Johnny

who never cleaned up his dishes, and then like, you know, I don't know if something terrible happens to him. Or like Peter and the Wolf. Peter and the Wolf, there you go, thank you. Yeah, it's better. I love telling my kids stories like that. Yeah, yeah.

Because they do help them rethink about the way they live. That's right. A boy who says there's a wolf outside. Is that the right Peter and the wolf? Or is it just a boy crab wolf? That's the boy crab wolf. Boy crab wolf. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. That's right. Yeah. Two times he pretends a wolf's coming and the third time no one believes him and a wolf really did come. That's right. That sticks with the kid. Yeah, it does. So, don't lie. The moral lesson, tell the truth.

That's right. So people will take you seriously. And so, that in and of itself, I mean, there's nothing wrong with that. And even this story with the good Samaritan has that kind of in it. But you're saying the purpose is bigger than that. And it's bigger in what way again? Well, the guy saying, who is my neighbor? He's assuming what this guy is trying to do is limit the circle of those to whom I show

generous love. Because we all know, of course there are people who are not worthy of my generous love. You see, assumption underneath the question. Why would he need to clarify? Yeah, so what if my, what if my boys came up to me and said, why do I have to tell the truth? So then I tell them that or that story. Yes, yeah. So that seems similar.

Ah, it's different in that Jesus isn't actually answering his question. He's addressing an unspoken assumption about the world, unspoken assumption that this guy has about himself and his tribe, and then he critiques that. He critiques what's underneath the assumption underneath the question. In which case, it is still an illustrative story, but it doesn't work in a straightforward way. It works in an indirect way.

So yeah, the enough, no, you need a parable about the parable. I think it actually is fairly clear on itself, I think. This guy assumes there are some people who really have loved some people who are not. That's clearly what this law in the Torah means. And Jesus critiques this guy's assumption by means of the parable. He doesn't answer his who is my neighbor. Music Going back to that dictionary definition, by a dictionary definition, a short, fictional tale that illustrates a moral attitude or religious idea, this parable is actually working in a way that's more sophisticated than that. You're saying a parable isn't just, hey, have this moral attitude. Or just think this way, theologically.

A parable goes deeper. Jesus parables usually go deeper and they twist things. They turn things on their heads. So that it doesn't just answer one question, it kind of reframes. Reframes the whole situation. It's a whole thing. That's right.

Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Here's another well-known example. Okay. The parable of the talents in Matthew chapter 25. This is about the kingdom of heaven is like a guy goes on a journey.

He claves, who manages land for him. He gives one of them five units of money, another one two, another one one unit. And you know the story? It's fairly famous. So the guy with five goes and earns five more. The guy with two earns two. So the guy with five goes and earns five more. The guy with two earns two more. The guy with one, bears it. Bear is in the ground.

Master comes back and he's stoked on the guys who made profit. The one who hit the one on the ground, he's angry at. And so he says, you wicked lazy slave. And the guy said, I did it because I was scared of you. Yeah, I did it because, exactly, yeah. Yeah, you're a harsh man. So I hid your towel in the ground, here's your talent back.

And he says, you wicked lazy slave. You ought to at least have put my money with the bank of their day to gain some interest. Take him away, give his talent to the one with 10, and throw that slave into outer darkness where there's weeping and gnashing of teeth. Intense. Oh, okay.

So what's happening here is, is this a parable about salvation? Is this a parable about how God is going to hold people accountable after they die? Yeah, that's where my mind goes. I've definitely heard that. And then that creates all kinds of theological challenges for like, wait, so is that a kind of salvation where your eternal destiny and bliss or torment is based off of how productive you are? And how so how does that square with the idea of grace and it's all a gift and it's not

something that you're in for. So notice what we've done. We've taken the story and we've plugged it into a whole other story about salvation and the end of your life. And what we're neglecting is the actual narrative context that Matthew has provided. This is the story Jesus is telling as he rides into Jerusalem, re-enacting the return of the God of Israel to Jerusalem, after his long time away in Israel's exile. And Jesus goes to the temple and announces that its leaders have squandered their opportunity to lead the people of Israel,

and that he's taken over. On the narrative context that Matthew has provided us, it seems like the story is actually told from the perspective of the master returning, that Jesus returning to Jerusalem is like the master returning to his land. Then all of a sudden, the whole, every element of the parable shifts.

Again, it's commentary on what Jesus is doing to bring the Kingdom of God. The parables are commentary on what Jesus is doing. Correct. We're back around to that. So they're not primarily just moralistic tales telling you what could be a good person, but they do often address ethical values, but what was his announcement of the kingdom of God, except that this is life in a whole new upside down ethical value set, where the last or first

and the first or last. So parables that we often think are about morals are actually usually about the new value system of the kingdom of God. And parables that we often make about systematic theology are a form of commentary on what's happening in the actual story in the gospels themselves. I want to make sure I understand those two points. Yes, and this is it. We can land the plane with this, the main point I want to make in this first

conversation. Yeah. So Jesus parables are often thought about as moral stories. How do you live in the right way? Yeah, I think the dictionary definition, it's an illustration of moral attitudes or religious ideas. And that's a really easy one because there are moral ideas in all these parables. Yeah, that's right, totally. But your point is, Jesus wasn't telling these So that you can have the right moral ideals Primarily his primary focus. Yeah was so that you understood what he was doing

Mm-hmm and what he meant that the kingdom of God was arriving with him Yeah, he wanted to you to change the way you thought about that. So he was using parables Mm-hmm, and since the kingdom of God has an ethical component to it. That's right with him. You wanted to change the way you thought about that, so it was using parables. And since the Kingdom of God has an ethical component to it, it's about the renewal of the human heart. Then of course there's a moral element to it. But that's because it's about the Kingdom. Correct. The value system taught by many of Jesus parables is trying to help us imagine the upside down value system of

the kingdom of God. And the reason why that's an important distinction to make is... Well, I think it's because for me, it's important in our culture and in Christian culture at large, Jesus is often presented as a moral teacher or a teacher of kind of abstract moral truths that you can just pick up from the first century and plop down here. And with the parables, it really feels that way because they have a universal quality to them. Right. Short stories. Yes.

So what we need to do is honor the actual context in which Jesus told the parables and the reason why he told them, which was to explain the thing that he was creating and bringing about and the new moral world that the kingdom of God involved. So that one is more of a tweaking, it's intuitive. Many of them are about moral worldviews, nesix, and it's saying putting them in a narrative context. Okay. And then the second point you're making

is that one of our inclinations as moderns is to try to systematize the way that God works and the way that God works in human history and make it really clean and clear. So almost find the laws of God and of the universe. Yeah, we're thinking of it this way. We take them out of their narrative context in the gospels, and we plug them into a whole Bible theology context. These are clearly symbolic stories, right? The master going on a journey and all that, they're symbols, but for whom? What do the symbols correspond to? Yeah. And so if they're symbols because Jesus wants you to create a really robust systematic theology, but He doesn't want to just give you all the answers He wants you to work for them.

Yeah. Yeah. And in that way, they're symbols, then you're going to be reading these parables through a certain lens and asking questions of them. Correct. And your example is you read the story of the owner coming back who had given this money to his servants to work with and you're thinking, okay, what is the theological thing that I'm just to learn from this? Yeah. What narrative are these symbols describing? Yeah, and one of your theological grids is, well, I want to know how do I get to heaven when I die?

So maybe this parable is telling me... Yeah, I mean, Jesus was announcing the Kingdom of Heaven, so that must be about how I get to heaven after I die. Maybe this parable is about that. Yeah. It's actually intuitive how you get there. Yeah, it's very intuitive to get there. And so, and when you do that, then you start asking questions of the parables

and finding answers that Jesus didn't intend. Correct. Jesus told these stories, these parables, in a context for a reason. And the context and the reason is that he saw the kingdom of God was coming and has come through him. That's right. If you wanted people to wrestle with that and understand that.

The parables are a commentary on what Jesus was actually doing in the narratives where he tells them. Yep. So in that way, parables are completely unique to Jesus in the way we're talking about. And I don't know, they seem that way because there's a lot of people who use fictitious stories to explain things. That's right. Or to help you imaginatively shape the way you see the world.

But what's unique to Jesus is he saw something fundamentally changing about what was happening in human history. Yeah. Through him and he wanted you to understand that. And there's not very many people who communicate for that reason. I mean, I'm trying to think like most teachers aren't thinking everything's changing because of me. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, that's right. So like a Sunday school teacher at church or, you know, in kids' ministry is telling stories about Jesus and then they think up other little clever Yeah, parables or word pictures. Yeah, and they might yeah use vegetables or something. That's right So what Jesus is doing is walking into the room and saying history changes today. Yeah, I am the kingdom of God in your midst Yeah, and here's what it's like. And he

tells a story about seed. You've never been to a class where a teacher talks like that. Yeah, right. Yeah. You're never going to like a history class in this teacher is like human history that's changing in my midst. So now let me start to tell you about how to think about him. Yeah, in that case the teacher is talking about something else and trying to explain it. In the parables Jesus is talking about himself. He's talking about him and what's having around him. And trying to explain and give people handles and to make them work for their understanding of who he is and what he's doing. Yeah. Yeah. And that's a difference between a moral

teacher and a revolutionary I I guess, or like a moral teacher and a... Actually, yeah, this is great. Hold that Tom right. He has a good way of summarizing what we're talking about. This from his book called Simply Jesus. It's a chapter on the parables. He says, as part of his campaign, Jesus told stories. Like he's a politician. Yeah, well, I like. Yes, he's using the word campaign there, suggestively, but it's true. He was traveling around, announcing support. The arrival of something that he said he was bringing into being. Yeah, that's campaigning. It's campaigning.

As part of his campaign, Jesus told stories. They were, for the most part, not simply illustrations, that is preacher's tricks to decorate an abstract thought or complicate teaching. If anything, they were the opposite. Jesus' stories are designed to tease, to clothe the shocking and revolutionary message about God's kingdom in garb that would leave the listeners wondering, trying to think it out. They were stories that eventually caused Israel's leaders to decode his rich message in such

a way as to frame a charge against him, either of blasphemy, sedition, or leading the people astray. Sedition. Sedition means betraying your country. Whatever the parables are, they are not, as children are sometimes taught in Sunday school, earthly stories with heavenly meaning. Rather, they are expressions of Jesus' shocking announcement that God's kingdom was arriving

on earth as in heaven. I should have just read that at the beginning of this conversation. That's great. Just this shift in perspective has been so valuable to me in rediscovering these stories and paying close attention to the narrative context that the gospel authors have put them in and trying to imagine the purpose of these stories in the moments when they come in G.S. is mission. And what you'll notice is that G.S. is parables actually become more and more provocative, more and more anger-inducing.

The closer he gets to Jerusalem. And actually, he gets clearer the closer he gets to Jerusalem. The one that I just said about the talents, not long after this, he tells the one about the vineyard owners. Like, I planted a vineyard. He gave it to managers. The managers. Build a tower, one.

Yeah, yeah. And then he sent servants to go collect the fruit and they killed them. Yeah. Right. And it just says when the religious leaders heard him, say this, they knew he was talking about them. And so they sat in motion a plan to kill him. So it's almost as if he becomes more direct, the closer he gets to the confrontation in

Jerusalem. Because that was the gets to the confrontation in Jerusalem. Because that was the kingdom of God moment in Jerusalem. We'll get there. Anyway, so this is the main point. The parables are about the kingdom of God arriving in Jesus in the actual story that the gospels are telling. Yeah, they're not about the kingdom of God in some abstract sense of there is a way to live that is good or that God will is going to take control in my life and

in the world around me. Yeah, I mean, here's the thing. This perspective is not trying to take the parables away from us, you know, as giving wisdom or truth. It's about the way, how we get them to speak to us. It's where do you start? That's right. Yeah, and it's because what I'm realizing is,

if the place you want to get is how then do I think about the world? How do I live in the world? You'll get to that place. But you need to start by thinking about how is Jesus using these? And what did they mean to him and the people he was talking to? Yeah. And in terms of his, as Tom Rice says, his campaigning, that the kingdom of God was happening.

Right. I think that's a good point. Okay, so like, because I don't read the parables and sit and think, how is this, how's this explaining what Jesus was up to? Yeah, good. Okay, yeah, so here's the difference. The difference is instead of reading a parable and saying,

how is this about me and my relationship to God? Right. It's reversing it and saying, how is this about me and my relationship to God? Right. It's reversing it and saying, how is this about Jesus? Yes. And his inauguration of God's kingdom. That's right. And if I'm a part of God's kingdom too, because if I'm joining the Jesus movement,

then this teaches me something about the new world. Yes. And the new value set of God's kingdom that I'm a part of. And that's how it then starts to speak to me. Yeah. But it's not about me. It's about Jesus. Maybe that's a, maybe that's our shorthand for it. I think that's what it is. Yeah. We often assume, maybe think in the video we could frame it. Yeah. One of the ways that makes Jesus parable is often difficult to understand. We assume that they're immediately about us. Yeah. Maybe that's not the most helpful way to frame it. But the intuition is right.

The intuition is there must be something here for me. Correct. And that's correct. Yes. But the other intuition, which is this must be some just moral teaching, this, uh, teaching me out of a, a story. Correct.

If that's all it simply is, then I'm going to start digging around and trying to attach meaning to it that would be not taking into account what Jesus was doing with this parable. Yeah, or decoding the symbols in an incorrect way or in light of later theological ideas that are going to get from writings that were written way after Jesus. One of the things that's been helping me with the parables in the last few years, I think, is similar, is acknowledging that these parables are Jewish parables, and they're spoken to Jewish people, because a lot of the parables, I feel like, if I strip them out of that context, I start to let them mean things that they didn't intend to mean.

So that helps me bring them to their actual context. But what you're saying is, it's not simply that, it's that Jesus was true. That is true. That's actually the next topic of our conversation. Oh really? Yes. But even bigger than that, they're inaugurating the kingdom of God through Jesus on a global level that's starting in Israel. That's right. And that's the main context. But both of those things are trying to help me re-center and what's the context of these parables.

That's right, that's right. So our first kind of perspective shift is that the parables of Jesus are offering a commentary on what he was doing and saying in his campaign to inaugurate the kingdom of God. They are first and foremost about him and what he was doing. And if I'm going to understand how they speak to me,

it's going to be the same way that I read the Gospels in general. They're about Jesus. And that's how they're about me. That's the first main point. The next main point, you just brought up. The parables are all riffing off of and developing, but often in symbols, the core storyline of the Hebrew scriptures, the Jesus said he was bringing to his film.

Cool. So that's what we should talk about next. Great. Great. Thanks for listening to this episode of the Bible Project podcast. This episode is part of our How to Read the Bible Series, and our video on how to read the parables is up.

You can find it at thebibelproject.com, or youtube.com slash the Bible project that's called How to Read the Parables. There are many other videos in this series of how to read the Bible, along with other podcast conversations. Next week, we'll continue to discuss the parables of Jesus, we'll dive into how Jesus used the parables to link himself with the Jewish prophets before him.

Jesus, through the parables, is presenting himself as repeating and renewing both the warnings of judgment and the warnings of hope from the Hebrew prophets. So that's another primary context for them. And here particularly, it's his role as the minority prophet going to a new Pharaoh that is the leaders of Israel. And his message is cryptic parables that harden as much as they eliminate. And that's how Jesus understood his role to Israel. Today's episode was produced by Dan Gummel. Our theme music is from the band Tense.

We're a crowd-funded nonprofit in Portland, Oregon. We make free resources that show the Bible as a unified story that leads to Jesus. You can find everything we do at BibleProject.com. Hey, everybody, this is Don Trink. I'm from Northern California. Hi, my name is Andrew Beckman. I'm from St. Louis, Missouri. And I first heard about the Bible project from my daughter who shares experiences with me over podcasts.

And I first heard about the Bible project through some videos that I saw online. It was really impacted just spiritually and personally by it. We believe the Bible is a unified story that leads to Jesus, where a crowd-funded project by people like me. I'm finding free videos, studying notes, podcasts, and more at thebibletroject.com. Yes. Yes.

Cheers. you