He Began to Speak in Parables

He Began to Speak in Parables.  While I am barely able to claim the classification dog-person, I’m certainly not a cat-person. When the children were little, we tried to adopt a stray cat, but within a week it was clear that Tiger preferred belonging to everyone and no one than to one family on E. Vine Street. So much for trying to cozy up to a cat. But that week was enough to help me better understand this joke. A pet owner befriends, feeds, waters, shelters, and occasionally pampers his dog, and the dog thinks, “He must be God.” A pet owner befriends, feeds, waters, shelters, and occasionally pampers his cat, and the cat thinks, “I must be God.”

Whichever side of the cat or dog debate we might populate, one thing is agreed: cats have claws, metaphorically and literally. Soft and cuddly can become sharp and combative in a moment. I think of a cat’s retractable claws when I read Jesus’ parables. Most people think of parables as soft and cuddly imaginary stories, and they are … until they are not. In a moment, they can turn ferocious. The Lion of Judah has claws that shred our defensive barriers to his truth. His parables are serious business!

A pivot occurred around the midpoint of Jesus’ earthly ministry where he transitioned from teaching directly to speaking in parables. Parables were a result of disbelief. Like the people rejected John the Baptist, saying, “He has a demon” (Matt. 11:18), so the people rejected Jesus, saying, “Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!” (Matt. 11:19). Pivot—“then he began to denounce the cities where most of his mighty works had been done, because they did not repent” (Matt. 11:20). Pivot—Jesus “began to speak to them in parables” (Mark 12:1) because of their galvanized disbelief.

We assume that Jesus used parables to narrow the gap between belief and disbelief, like clever sermon illustrations, but the exact opposite is true. The parables widen the gap. The parables are judgment. Those who understand the parables give evidence that they have a regenerated heart, eyes that see, and ears that hear. Those who do not understand the parables give evidence that they have a heart of stone, spiritually veiled eyes, and spiritually dulled ears. "Jesus said, ‘For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.’ Some of the Pharisees near him heard these things, and said to him, ‘Are we also blind?’ Jesus said to them, ‘If you were blind, you would have no guilt; but now that you say, `We see,´ your guilt remains’” (John 9:39-41).

“With the merciful you show yourself merciful; with the blameless man you show yourself blameless; with the purified you show yourself pure; and with the crooked you make yourself seem tortuous” (Psa. 18:25-26).