A Short Lesson on Parables

Jesus told parables to help people understand what it was he was trying to do. Most of the parables of Jesus being with the words "The Kingdom of God is like...", using simile to introduce some very important images and metaphors.

The Parable of the Sower is quite interesting because we often think that the odds of being "good soil" are very slim. For those who want to be exact, Jesus appears to give us a 25% (1 out of 4) chance of being soil that accepts the seed of the Word of God that produces a harvest. Therefore we have a 75% chance of being doomed. So the odds appear to be stacked against us. Honestly, that's a spiritually emaciating way of reading this parable. How, then, can we read this parable?

Isaiah 6 serves as the backdrop for this parable, and so it's important to understand Isaiah 6. This chapter is Isaiah's call into the prophetic ministry. His message will have the effect of either giving sight or making blind, or of giving hearing or making deaf. These are just metaphoric ways of saying, "Some people are going to believe my message, while others won't." What was Isaiah's message? In a nutshell-- God's people have violated the Sinai Covenant and God was going to inflict the covenant curses upon them for disobedience, namely, destruction of their land and temple by a foreign army and exile from the promised land.

Back to the parable. The Parable of the sower is a parable about parables and the effect that they will have on people. It will have the same effect as Isaiah's message had in his day. Jesus' message was going to be almost the same as the prophets-- you have violated the covenant and therefore are ripe for destruction. The parables will have the effect of exposing what's really going on in the hearts of people when the light of the Kingdom begins to shine. Is it any wonder that many people got defensive when Jesus spoke? When you threaten destruction because of disobedience, people will lash out at you. They would lash out at Jesus to the point of sending him away to crucifixion.

Throughout history we have seen what happens to people who challenge what was important to people, especially those who are in power. They start rolling out the tanks. Remember Tiannamen Square?

The challenges posed by the parables of Jesus were for a divine reason-- there was a new order dawning on the horizon, and it was going to come whether the people wanted it or not. But who wouldn't want it? The new order was peace with God and forgiveness of all sin. I guess that kind of thing would threaten anyone in the sin management business!