Parables as Teaching Tools

​Jesus was a story teller.  While teaching, he used stories to illustrate a point or points that he was trying to make.  As far as we can tell, the stories were always fiction.  Some leave the reader scratching her head trying to figure out the point.  A good example of a head scratcher is the parable of “The Leaven” found in Luke 13: 20-2; in Matthew 13: 33; and in Thomas 96.   One which seems to be extremely clear at its telling is “The Good Samaritan” found in Luke 10: 30-35.

In our age and time, we sometimes find the parables difficult to understand.  One of the causes of this confusion is that we superimpose our 21st Century culture and values over those of the first century; this causes the parable to become somewhat misunderstood.  We also fail to understand what was driving first century culture in the Promised Land.  For example, let’s look at the parable of the Good Samaritan, which Jesus told to the officious official who asked him to define “neighbour”.  The facts of the parable were well known by all who listened to Jesus that day.  They knew that Samaritans were considered evil in Judea and he would get his “comeuppance” in the story.  Facts about the story:  Samaritans were hated in Judea because they were considered human “mongrels” as some of their ancestors married foreign brides.  As a general rule, all Samaritans were up to no good.  Here the victim lay naked and “half dead” so a passerby could not distinguish him from a Galilean, Judean or Samaritan by simply looking at him.  We can assume he was one of the Jewish peoples and not a Gentile because no mention is made as to whether he was circumcised, a procedure reserved for Jewish men.  The priest and Levite were men who participated in the Temple rituals and were probably on their way to Jericho after their stint at the Temple.  People listening to Jesus tell the parable would know that if the priest or Levite stopped and touched the naked man, and if he was dead, then the two men would have to go through a time-consuming ritual cleansing.   When Jesus disclosed that the hero of the piece was the hated Samaritan, the listeners were shocked!

Jesus always told parables to illustrate what God demanded of us in a perfect world.  Many of Jesus parables begin with the following words, “the Kingdom of Heaven is like…”  In other words, if we want a world like God’s heaven, we need to change the way we do business with each other here in this world.  And that includes the Samaritans whom we don’t like. 

Some parables are incredibly vague like the story found in The Parable of the Shrewd Manager in Luke 16: 1- 14.  Here is a parable which seems to support theft and dishonesty.  It is a tough one to figure out. Parables always have hidden meanings and information.  When we look at the shrewd Manager with 21st century eyes and values, it does not pass the smell test of our sure knowledge of Jesus and his mission.  If I set this parable in front of a person and said it was a parable of Jesus, most would not believe me. 
It's a pity that parables are out of style in today’s world.  The last good parable I heard and remembered was one narrated by the late Tommy Douglas when he was leader of the CCF Party in Saskatchewan.  Douglas used a well-known implement known by every farmer in Saskatchewan: the cream separator.    Essentially it was the rich who had their mouths glued to the cream nipple on the separator and sucked up the cream leaving little for the working man.   He used to get many laughs using this parable and it helped him win in Saskatchewan.  Perhaps our Medicare system partially owes it birth to the cream separator. 

(To listen to Douglas about the parable of the cream separator watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IE5fOJfKRNk&ab_channel=TommyDouglasTube )

Parables were powerful tools of teaching in Jesus’ day and could be again today.