Using ordinary words to describe the extraordinary

Again and again, Christ speaks in parables, which are prominent elements of His sermons. The imagery is taken from the everyday lives of the people, and corresponds to the experiences of His listeners. Who has not lost their last penny or some other item of value and desperately searched the whole house for it? The Parable of the Prodigal Son is no exception either. At that time, it was customary for young men to settle accounts with their fathers and move to the big trading cities to build independent lives there. Most people were able to identify with the everyday experiences reflected in the parables.

Why parables?

However, these parables are much more than everyday stories: they are always intended to convey a basic idea. Jesus made use of these images in order to preach to the people about the kingdom of God. His listeners were to understand what it meant when He said, “The kingdom of God is at hand” (Mark 1: 15). But not everyone was capable of—or interested in—digging deeper to look for the real message.

The disciples themselves asked Jesus why He preached His gospel in such an encrypted form using parables. In response to this, Jesus made reference to the prophecy of Isaiah (Matthew 13: 10–17). The latter spoke of people with dull hearts and closed eyes who were hard of hearing (Isaiah 6: 9–10). It is in this manner that he described human lethargy and stubbornness.

Rejecting the divine message

Moses and Aaron had similar experiences when they repeatedly found themselves standing before Pharaoh, trying to obtain the release of the people of Israel at the beginning of the Exodus story. Again and again, we read that Pharaoh's heart was hardened, or became stubborn, and that he was not open to Moses' message.

So it is that the notion of “hard-heartedness” or stubbornness describes more than mere unbelief. It is the deliberate rejection of the divine message and the will of God. It is a persistence in modes of conduct one considers comfortable, namely one’s own complacency and indulgence. It is a direct refusal to pay heed to the need for change.

Faith is the key

Perhaps that is precisely why Jesus speaks to the lives of His listeners. He tries to shake them up, to bewilder them, to astonish them, and to create “Aha-moments”. They are not intended to understand the kingdom of God as an abstract truth, but instead connect it with their own lives. And so it was that the listeners were repeatedly confronted with the decision of how they wanted to deal with these parables. This field of tension is aptly described in the letter to the Corinthians as pertains to the message of the cross: “For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe” (1 Corinthians 1: 21). The reality of God can only be grasped by those who believe.

Jesus Himself interprets

In keeping with this, Jesus Himself interprets a parable, namely the Parable of the Sower. In this parable, the seed falls upon different kinds of soil. The seed represents the word of God, which develops differently depending on the kind of soil it encounters.

On the wayside

This image corresponds to those people who hear God’s word but cannot grasp it.

On stoney ground

These are people who can accept the word of God, but the seed does not take deep root, as it were. As soon as their personal situations of life become difficult, the word is rejected and the seed is unable to develop fruit.

Among the thorns

While these people are able to accept the word of God and it is able to take root within them, so to speak, worries about world events or even the treacherous pursuit of wealth can be like thorns that destroy the word of God.

On good ground

For people who accept the word and align themselves with it, this can lead to growth in many ways.

A little seed, but a great impact

Jesus repeatedly encourages his disciples with parables that illustrate that God can do great things. On the other hand, the sower himself has only limited control over the kind of soil on which the seed falls. The parables of the mustard seed and the sourdough also make it clear that human beings can only contribute in a small way, and yet something great comes into being in a miraculous way through the activity of God.

As encouragement for all those who sometimes find preaching the gospel frustrating because the seed does not fall on the right soil, Jesus refers to the power of the seed that grows all on its own in the gospel of Mark: “And the seed should sprout and grow, he himself (the person) does not know how” (Mark 4: 27).

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