ON PARABLES

Parables are metaphors or simile drawn from nature or 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 (C. H. Dodd, The Parables of the Kingdom [New York: Charles Scribner's Sons] 1961, 5). Parables are short stories that contain spiritual or moral lessons. They do not directly refer to the things, elements and message the teller would like to drive home to his listeners. The messages are not so obvious. They use figures and images available in the environs of the listeners to convey the message the teller would like to communicate to the listeners. By using images and figures, instead of directly stating the facts and message, the teller keeps the listeners in suspense, insecure about themselves (Listeners may ask themselves "What he is referring to? Is it me?"). The process allows the listeners to think and engage with intellectual gymnastics, to try their very best to make sense from what the teller is saying. In this way the parable facilitates the process of owning, more so creating a meaning out of the parable told, after all parables do not define things in a very precise way, rather it merely compares them. The teller does not simply tell a story through parables. He plants a seminal message in the listeners' mind and allow this message to grow and be owned by the listener who takes it and meditate upon it.  

The parables establish the message on the dynamics of the Kingdom of God in the gospel through the use of active verbs; words in action, in motion. The parables of the sower, seed growing secretly, of the mustard seed, of the budding tree, of the leaven, of the pearl, of the talents, of the Good Samaritan etc. speak volumes of actions that may refer to the dynamics of the Kingdom that is in motion, always in a movement. Seldom, if not at all, the parables in the gospels simply use noun or adjective that describe the Kingdom of God. Words that refer to things and animate beings are always accompanied by verbs, action words. This is to emphasize the characteristic of the Kingdom that is always in motion.  

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He told them another parable: "The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened (Mt 13:33)".  

The parable above illustrates the Kingdom as an agent, a catalyst that expands anything to which it is made present. Yeast or leaven in the New Testament is often used as a symbol of corruption (Matthew 16:6, 11-12; Mark 8:15; Luke 12:1; 1 Cor 5:6-8; Gal 5:9). In this parable, leaven assumes a different character that is in the service of the Kingdom; an expansion that is good. Three measures of flour is an enormous amount; enough to feed hundred persons. The exaggeration of this element of the parable points to the greatness of the kingdom's effect; a little (goodness) of it can transform communities, nations etc. from which others can be nourished and be transformed too.

The kingdom of God is like a one good status post on your Facebook wall. Just post and click and it can inspire thousands, even millions that is if it is really an effective post. Last year, AMC Theatres' post regarding their offer of free popcorn... with a $30 catch garnered 3,058,533 shares. At least 3,058,533 were touched/affected by this one post from AMC. The ALS Icewater Bucket challenge also caught the world on fire last year, encouraging millions of people to take on the challenge. It was a post on social media that affected millions and placed forward the advocacy for ALS victims. So it is the Kingdom of God, made present in our midst. It affects us though how little its presence may be; in little good works we do.