We happen to be beginning an adult education class at the parish where I serve on the parables of Jesus (the previous quote was part of my teaching of the first class). This prompts some questions from me:
(1) Have you ever had an adult education class on the parables? If so how long did it last, and what major impression has the class left on you?
(2) Have you personally ever read a book on the Parables of Jesus? If so, which book or books?
(3) Do you consider yourself someone who has wrestled with the parables of Jesus, and, if yes, how have you done so?
(4) Do you have a favorite parable of Jesus, and, if so, which one and why is it your favorite?
Thanks in advance for any answers–KSH.
I have been involved in a directed Bible Study on the parables of Jesus. I enjoyed it. I understand that teaching by parables was a common way for the rabbis to teach.
My favorite is (by far) the story of the workers who were hired at different times during the day by an employer, yet when the time came at the end of the day for payment to them, they all received the same pay. I find this parable very reassuring to me, since I personally wasted the first half of my life casting about for some kind of “saviour,” until I discovered that He had been hunting for me all along. And, of course, the reassuring part is- – the salvation He offers is full and complete for me, too, regardless of my wasted half-life.
I suppose the thing I have most noticed is how I can apply various aspects of my life to the different characters. For example, how many of us can identify at times with both the prodigal son and the faithful son? Or the religious people who passed the man in the ditch and the Samaritan who helped him. Often what is being taught by Jesus is not so much which character we are, I think, as much as what attitude we should have with the realization that none of us really has anything to be particularly proud about. When we are in that place, I think, God can reach us, as he reached Lazarus at prayer. I think jkc1945 is noting almost the same thing above. Also in class it was stressed how Jesus resorted to parables when people were using his direct statements as incentive to kill him.
Re: (4) favorite parable of Jesus. What immediately sprang to mind was the last line of Chapter 9 of Luke –
[blockquote]Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”[/blockquote]
Luke 9:62 (English Standard Version). However, that is not a parable – that is more of an aphorism, I guess.
My second thought is the “count the cost” teaching of [url=http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke 14:28-30&version=ESV]Luke 14:28-30[/url] – also not a parable.
Accordingly, my answers to the first three questions are no, no, and probably not.
Further reflection leads me to my favorites, in order:
—[url=http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke 15:11ff&version=ESV]The Prodigal Son[/url] (btw, my favorite sermon on this was preached by Jeff Ling on the Prodigal Father given at Church of the Apostles in the early 1980s.)
—[url=http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke 10:25-37&version=ESV]Good Samaritan[/url] (btw, 11 years ago Christianity Today devoted an entire issue to this parable – it was a phenomenal issue – I hope the essays are online.)
I’m looking forward to reading other responses.
Jeremias is the classic, but Ken Bailey’s books are the most helpful; the latest, Jesus through Middle Eastern Eyes. Never had a class but they are critical Sunday passages. Luke’s central series of chap 15 is the best, with the parable of the Lost Sons being the favorite. Isn’t God’s great grace wonderful!
The standard academic stuff, which would not be much use in an adult forum at a church.
Henri Nouwen’s book on the Prodigal Son, which also puts the Rembrandt painting front and center, teaches well. I did a Lenten series on it years ago. It could be boiled down to a one or two session presentation. Nouwen hits on two ideas that are now, for me, fundamental. First, the older brother “leaves home” every bit as much as the younger. Second, spiritual growth is a matter of becoming the father, which has the effect of completely removing allegory from the parable — and making it much more challenging (and, no, it doesn’t devolve into Pelagianism; grace rules, it’s just that there’s a clear place for maturity).
This winter we’ll be working with Crossways Bible study, a series that originated with an Australian Anglican. They have a short course on the parables (11 weeks). The orientation is very evangelical; the parables course emphasizes customs and history that might be presupposed by the parables. Obviously the course would be out of the question for you at this point, but there might be some interesting tidbits buried away in it.
The parable of the talents. The servant who knew his master to be harsh when the others did not and was unable to do what he was supposed to do. The pagan view of God still affects much of Christianity.
Three helpful books I have read on the Parables (and which doubtless everyone else reading this blog has also read) are:
Helmut Thielicke,The Waiting Father
Craig Blomberg, Preaching the Parables (also Interpreting the Parables)
and of course the classic in the field,
Joachim Jeremias, The Parables of Jesus
Hey, Kendall. We’re doing the parables this semester in my Bible study at MUSC. For reference, I’m using mainly [i]Interpreting the Parables[/i] by C Blomberg (an excellent antidote to Jeremias) and a new work by K Snodgrass, [i]Stories with Intent[/i], as well as various commentaries on the Gospels. I try to post our notes/handouts as we go, [url=[url=http://www.caritasfellowship.org/GenericPage/DisplayPage.aspx?guid=76061AA9-5BA1-43BB-9A75-E04638960DF8]here[/url]. Cheers.
Also, for what it’s worth (and not to start a fight, really), as I read contemporary evangelical sermons and treatments of the parables, it’s amazing to me how wooden the interpretation and application of the parables can be, especially considering the intrinsically analogical character of the parables themselves.
Kendall, the best and simplest analysis of the parable structure I came across came from a person who is now a very liberal academic: Sallie McFague. I mention this just in case someone accuses me of naivety – yes, I have read her book Models of God where alas she moves far away from traditional Christianity. But in an article she wrote about 25 years ago in Interpretation when she was probably more mainstream, she said that parables follow a structure:
1. Orientation. We know where we are in this story.
2. Disorientation. Wait a minute. We don’t know where we are. This is baffling.
3. Re-orientation. Ah, we have a new way of looking at life and understanding it in relation to God.
A book on the parables that I bought a long time ago and reread every once in a while is by Jamie Buckingham.
I love the parables. I use them as teaching points with my kids all the time.
I agree with Adam 12 — the point of many of the parables is not that it’s obvious what the right thing is to do. It’s that Jesus is teaching that the logical way that seems “perfectly reasonable” in this world is NOT God’s way. In the prodigal son story, the anger of the son that stayed at home seems perfectly reasonable. “Hey, you p%$$ed away half of Dad’s money, and now you’re back with your hand out for more?? I mean sure, we forgive you, but couldn’t we forgive you from afar?”
Same with the parable of the workers hired at different times. “Hey, we’ve been out here busting our humps for 12 hours in the Middle Eastern sun. You’ve only been here for the last couple of cool evening hours and you get the same pay as us?” How many of us, even when we’re getting a fabulous deal, look around and then whine because we perceive that somebody else is getting an even better deal? You don’t even have to put some of these in a specific religious context for them to be great teaching stories (although I understand that this one is about salvation). The Pearl of Great Price — another wonderful one for a kid.
But the most powerful one is undoubtedly the Sheep and the Goats. It’s even more powerful than Dives and Lazurus since that’s about two specific individuals in a defined situation. But who are the “least” of Jesus’ brothers and what do we owe them? You can’t limit your answer. Just got an email from “The Smile Train” — an organization of doctors that fixes cleft palates of kids in poor countries. They write about a village in the Phillipines basically built on top of a mountain of garbage and how the kids spend their days picking out plastic bottles to recycle. Then about the kids there with horrible facial deformities that need surgery. I told my older son to read it. Just when you think you have a handle on who the “least” of Jesus’ brother are, new ones turn up that are even “leaster.”
Spud, the link you provided isn’t working for me.
The book Parables from the Backside by J. Ellsworth Kalas is an excellent study resource. I especially liked his triple treatment of the parable of the prodigal son — once from the perspective of the prodigal son, once from the perspective of the father, and once from the perspective of the older son. The book is engaging and challenging even to those of us who think we know the parables.
I agree with #4 that Ken Bailey’s books are very helpful. He was Canon Theologian in Pittsburgh before the realignment. Not sure if he went to ACNA or not. Any one from Pittsburgh know?
Sorry – [url=http://www.caritasfellowship.org/GenericPage/DisplayPage.aspx?guid=76061AA9-5BA1-43BB-9A75-E04638960DF8]let me try again[/url].
Taking your 4 questions in turn:
1. No adult education class on the talents as such, but the former Dean of Worcester was the resident preacher at my church and gave very academic sermons of about 20-30 minutes many of them about the parables.
2. No – only the New Testament!
3. Yes, I have always homed in on the parables. It is obvious that the parables were a major part of Christ’s teaching method and I also think that they are the least likely to have become corrupted in the telling in the years between his earthly ministry and the writing of the gospels; the parables therefore fascinate me as a direct line to his original teaching. Although I find argument by metaphor less compelling than I did while younger, this does not detract from the importance of the parables as deliberately selected lessons. They are also very thought provoking; because, although they are colourful and make an immediate impression, they are also more complex and ambiguous than a straightforward precept is.
4. The parable I find most difficult, and therefore most interesting, and about which I have reflected the most, is the parable of the talents, because it seems on its face to be unfair and acquisitive and so contrary to the main Christian message. This convinces me that it has a lot to give, to add to our understanding of the gospel.
A couple of you have mentioned Ken Bailey’s book – he also had an essay in that CT issue I mentioned above (later woven into his book?). It’s on-line here:
http://jmm.aaa.net.au/articles/2367.htm
Kendall, What a great idea! A very practical thread topic for parish leaders, ordained and lay.
For those with an interest in the academic study of the parables, I’d recommend [b]The Parables of Jesus: A Commentary[/b] by the orthodox American Lutheran NT scholar Arland Hultgren (published in AD 2000). It’s long, but not nearly as forbiddingly long and technical as [b]Stories with Intent[/b] that Patrick Allen+ helpfully mentioned above (#8). And it’s much easier to read and more up to date than the classic work by Jeremias, that others have brought up already.
But for fun, just Google [i]”Parable in F.”[/i] And you’ll find an absolutely delightful rendition of the familiar parable of the Prodigal Son/Lost Son. Clue: it’s not in the musical key of F, but a study in alliteration, using almost all F words. I’ve used it, adapted to my own style, of course, in sermons or adult classes on several occasions. People love it!
David Handy+
On Ken Bailey,
He is an ordained Presbyterian. He has been the canon theologian for the (ACNA) diocese of Pittsburgh (in spite of being a Presbyterian!) and I do not believe that that situation has changed since realignment.
He and I will be teaching a course at Trinity School for Ministry during our June term 2010 entitled (something like) “Jesus through non-western eyes.” He will be teaching on ‘Luke through middle eastern eyes’ in the mornings (mostly on Lukan parables I believe) and I will teach ‘the gospels through African eyes’ in the afternoons. Ken’s work is amazing and should be read by anyone and everyone interested in the parables.
One might also want to pay attention to Tom Wright’s book ‘Jesus and the Victory of god’ – even many of those who don’t like what Tom does with Paul still appreciate his work on Jesus. He uses Ken Bailey’s stuff (which puts the parables into the middle eastern cultural context), but then attempts to show how Jesus’ teaching fits into the wider political and social context of of the first c. world. Great stuff – and nore preachable than I’ve made it sound.
My favorite is Good Samaritan. I haven’t read anything lately on the parables, and this post has given me the inspiration to order two of Bailey’s books. I’m also planning to launch into a parables class, just as soon as I finish up with the yearly inquirer’s class. Thanks, y’all!
I’ve not taught an adult Bible class specifically on the parables, but I have taught the Gospel according to Luke and the Gospel according to John several times each. I’ve probably read a book or two on the parables at some time or other over 57 years of teching, but I’m not one to remember titles or names of authors. I have, for many years used Edersheim’s The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah and Sketches of Jewish Social Life in preparation for teaching.
Two parable speak to my heart: The Good Shepherd, because I’ve been the straying and lost sheep and Jesus brought me back; and The Rich Man and Lazarus, because of the punch line, “If they won’t listen to Moses, neither will they listen is someone rises from the dead.”
I believe it’s the “http://url=” at the front of the link URL in #8 that’s causing the problem. The link in #16 works fine.
The Chatham Bible Study (an ecumenical group of Christian businessmen in Savannah) under the leadership of The Reverend Terry Johnson studied the parables for a year. As an outgrowth of that study Dr. Johnson has published a 422 page book: The Parables of Jesus: Entering, Growing, Living and Finishing in God’s Kingdom.
p.s. I didn’t mention my favorite parable: It would be, I suppose, The Rich Man and Lazarus. William Ralston once preached that if we would cast ourselves at the gates of God as did Lazarus of the Rich man, He would not deny us. I listen or look for that hope every time it is taught or read.
I doubt the majority here would like it, but the best book on the parables that I’ve read is John Dominic Crossan, The Dark Interval: Towards a Theology of Story. He’s good at pointing out how unexpected the outcome of the parables always is; we’ve become so used to them that we sometimes lose track of how shockingly counterintuitive they’re meant to be.
(And we’re also at a considerable cultural and historical remove from some of them. Try telling the parable of the Good Samaritan by saying, “…But an al-Qaeda terrorist while traveling came near him; and when he saw him, he was moved with pity…”)
Personally, the parable of the laborers in the vineyard has always been a thorny one for me, because the workers who worked all day were right: it wasn’t fair. To me, the lesson is: God is not about “fair.” God is about a great many other things, but not fair.
But it’s the old classic, the Prodigal Son, that always strikes me as the richest. That’s one of the ones where we do still get a sense of how shocking the outcome is.
Interestingly, there is a Buddhist parable from the Lotus Sutra that begins in a similar way to the parable in Luke — the rich father, the son who heads out on his own and loses everything — but it develops in a very different way and makes an entirely different point. Still, it’s fascinating to read them in juxtaposition.
What a joy to see the net used in this way on a site that is truly global; thanks as ever Kendall.
Some titles have already been mentioned that have proven very useful in my ministry, from Snodgrass via Bailey to McFague. Classics are Jeremias and CH Dodd. I’d also mention Donahue’s [i]The Gospel in Parable[/i] (1988) and Eta Linnemann’s [i]Parables of Jesus[/i] (1966). She of course has since done a complete volte face! But what is doing it for us in a small study group at present is going through Eugene Peterson’s latest, [i]Tell it Slant[/i]. It’s a joy indeed: vivid insights and well written as usual. The Study Guide is also proving helpful with the wrestling bit; not in every case but more than 50% of the time.
To my mind, uppermost re the wrestling is the sheer imaginative power of this form of speech. It offers the readers/listeners the opportunity to inhabit worlds we are just too dull to see, by extrapolating from the familiar to the unfamiliar in a way we can trust and experiment with. It allows the risk of faith to actually take place, should we place ourselves alongside the characters, to let the Word and Spirit inhabit not merely our hearts and minds but our very limbs!
A favourite? I really have too many now that have rendered me awestruck and delighted on the one hand, and yet others have also driven stakes through me on the other … “You are the one!†type speech (2 Sam 12); “this is actually [i]your[/i] story, matey!” And thereafter, “But now get up and go …†I relay this as I am sure the fruit of any wrestling is honoured by the One who spoke them all. After all, it only takes faith the size of a mustard seed apparently to become allied with Jesus’ own faithfulness! Peace and joy indeed!
I want to thank every one for this fine thread. Let me add my voice to many others in enthusiastically recommending Kenneth Bailey’s fine work.
PS #25, there isn’t by any chance a copy of that William Ralston sermon anywhere?
A companion volume to Hultgren’s terrific work on the Parables is “Hear Then the Parable” by Bernard Brandon Scott which is a very helpful analysis of every parable of Jesus. His briefer “Re-Imagining the World” focuses on a few of the parables — but is stunning in its analysis and very helpful for beginners as well as top scholars.
Part of my work on the parables, which focuses on the notion that the parables are an invitation into a transforming experience, was published in the Sewanee Theological Review (Christmas 2003). A good part of the long article covers ways one can involve a small group or full congregation in the experience of several of the parables. Part of the section on the Prodigal Son, is an exploration of the parable as reflecting Freud’s analysis of ego, id and super-ego. That provides an interesting context for understanding our struggles within the Episcopal Church.