The season for Parables has come round again. In Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus comes out with pithy images followed by sometimes short but involved stories. Many arguments still abound about what they all mean. Even 2000 years on, Jesus still keeps us guessing. There never comes a time when we can say that we have him all tied up. Even today, he is far ahead of us, waving for us to lift our stumbling feet to follow.
I think I have mentioned before about the way these parables come in sets and layers. Jesus begins with snapshots of the Kingdom of Heaven – mustard seeds, buried treasure, pearls, and dragnets. Later, stories develop. Towards the end of Matthew’s Gospel we read of talents, wise and stupid bridesmaids, and the sorting out of sheep and goats.
Taken together the message is plain. True fulfillment is found by encountering and accepting God’s new Kingdom in the way Jesus has revealed. To turn one’s nose up at it leaves one stewing in one’s own juice.
We may find this sense of judgment harsh. We want an inclusive world where no one gets left out but we cannot escape life’s hard realities that behaviour does become unacceptable when it damages other lives. In the parable of the sheep and the goats, damage can be caused by neglect as well as by offensive action.
It is impossible to get to first base with Jesus until the penny drops that the Kingdom of Heaven could only be launched into the world once Jesus had sacrificed himself for it to happen. Far too many become fixed with the idea that for the “right” thing to happen, others must suffer. The Kingdom of Heaven was not to be ruled over by a monomaniacal control freak who would terrorise those within range. Jesus stood this evil notion on its head. The Kingdom of Heaven would be ruled over by one who endured torture rather than inflict it.
Matthew’s Gospel reminds us that even with this self-sacrifice, there is no guarantee that everyone can be saved from stewing in their own juice, and too often the innocent are tragic victims of another’s evil acts. Jesus does not have his head in the clouds. He often comes out with hard realities and that choices have to be made. The good news is that these choices can be made, and the vicious spiral downwards can be halted once a change in direction occurs.
Coupled with the Matthew readings are those from Paul’s Epistle to the Romans. In my first years of conscious discipleship, I was guided by J B Phillips’ modern version of the Epistles which expressed Paul’s writings in English plain enough for a callow teenager to appreciate. My paperback has long disintegrated complete with my passionate underlinings of words, sentences and passages, and I must say that the Epistle to the Romans received the most attention.
For instance, Romans chapter 8 gave me much reassurance during my teenage mood swings constantly reminding me that nothing, no, nothing, could separate me from the love of God expressed in Christ Jesus. Romans chapter 12 presented me with the Disciple’s Charter for living and slowly channelled me into values and behaviour better fitting a dinkum disciple for life. I am sure this Epistle has been the most influential (for good) within the whole of human history. Martin Luther, John Wesley, and Karl Barth are just a few who had their lives re-routed, not to mention the common variety of disciples who quietly become salt of the earth.
Parables and an Epistle written nearly 2000 years ago are still influencing countless numbers of people to re-think their priorities. When we wake in the morning to the radio news of yet more violent slayings and other traumatic events, the good news has not yet done being spread. Let’s be part of the good news.
