When I was a little boy, I remember reading a cartoon, where an Englishman was at an American baseball game. While he watched, the pitcher threw the ball, and the batter swung and missed. The umpire called out: “Strike one!” Puzzled, the Englishman asked his American friend, “How could that be, when the batter never struck the ball?” It’s probably not funny now, but it was when I was a little boy, who read bubble gum cartoons! It was a kind of smirk, thoughtful laugh, where I understood, perhaps for the first time, that one could know the language, but miss the point, much to the amusement of onlookers in the know.
Except for the amusement part, this is exactly what was going on, as Jesus went around all of Galilee preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom of God, the good news of the return of God to his people. It was, indeed, a new Exodus, but not the same kind they had rehearsed each year at Passover. They were eager to listen, but they didn’t understand, and they looked on but they couldn’t see, because their hearts had become flabby and fat, and their ears were muffled with the speech of false teachers, and their eyes were darkened with false expectations that shut them against the truth. So, they had no idea what they needed to repent of and change, so the Lord could heal them (Isaiah 6:9-10; cp. Matthew 13:14-15).
A parable is a story that is meant to explain something that isn’t understood, when it is clearly stated. For example, Jesus began his public ministry stating clearly that he was the Messiah, the people had longed for to arrive (Luke 4:16-21). Nevertheless, they didn’t believe him and actually tried to throw him off a nearby cliff, to see if he lived or died (Luke 4:22-29; cp. John 12:34). If he lived, they might believe him, but if not, well, no harm done to the nation (Luke 4:31-34; John 11:45-48). A parable is a literary tool designed to tease the minds of the people to get them to think outside the box. It clothes the otherwise shocking and perhaps unbelievable truth in a manner that forces one’s listeners to consider what’s said against what they’ve been told by others.
So, when Jesus began to teach the people in parables, he was causing them to think and reconsider him as their Messiah (Matthew 13:1-9), but his disciples wondered why he suddenly began teaching in this manner, because the meaning was hidden (Matthew 13:10). Jesus’ reply is enlightening, for he says it is given for his disciples to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of God, because they believed Jesus was indeed the Messiah! However, the unbelievers need to be forced to think more deeply about what Jesus claimed, and reconsider their opinions of him, and the parable will do that.[1]
For the Jews, the common people and their authorities, it was probably perceived that God (the Sower) was replanting Israel (Isaiah 37:31-32; Jeremiah 31:27-28), and they believed this according to their own false assumptions (John 12:34; cp. Matthew 16:21-23). Even religious folks will push away the Lord, in order to appear wise in their own hearts (Romans 1:28), but falsehood is still false, no matter how it is clothed, and needs to be rethought and compared with the truth, which the parable does.
Therefore, when questions are asked, which concern the return of God, it needs to be recognized by the seeker of truth, if truth is to be understood at all, that new system of things doesn’t operate in the same manner, as what has always been accepted. Moreover, one cannot simply put what is new into the framework of the old (Matthew 9:14-17; cp. Jeremiah 31:31). Later, after Jesus was perceived to be more and more a threat to the status quo (cp. John 11:45-48), Jesus offered the Jewish authorities and the pilgrims that were listening another parable (Matthew 21:33-39), wherein the tenants in the parable slew the son of the owner of the vineyard, which they rented. When Jesus asked the Jewish authorities, what they thought the owner would do once he returned to his vineyard, they correctly concluded, the owner would slay them, as they did his son, and rent out his vineyard to other folks who would be more honorable (Matthew 21:40-41). Both the authorities and the people understood that parable, but because the people considered Jesus a prophet, the authorities couldn’t arrest him as they desired to do (Matthew 21:45-46).
So, Jesus’ method of teaching in parables was working. Indeed, both the Jewish authorities and the people thought deeply about what Jesus taught, they reconsidered their own conclusions about what must occur when God returns to his people and began to understand Jesus’ point. Nevertheless, although the people were more willing to accept Jesus’ claims as possibly true, the Jewish authorities continued to reject him.
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[1] N.T. Wright brings out in his book, Simply Jesus, that many modern scholars question, whether Jesus actually explained what the parables meant, as he does in Matthew 13. They theorize that the “explanation” must have been added later by a redactor. They conclude, by explaining the parable, Jesus destroys its purpose. It’s like a joke, if it must be explained, it loses its humorous effect. Nevertheless, I believe these scholars miss the point. Jesus spoke in parables to get folks to think, reconsider and believe. The Apostles already believed, so the parable could be explained to them to show them what Jesus meant.
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