Context and Settings for the Parables

[HKHaugan]

Context and Setting of Parables

 The parables of Jesus are as important as any of the rest of Scripture because they not only reveal the thinking mind of God, but they reveal His heart and Spirit as well. When Jesus tells a parable, it is to bring us into the thinking and attitude of God. It is the Holy Spirit who conveys both and stands ready to give us that inner experience of His presence, if, that is, if we are willing to receive their meaning.

 However, the parables are given in a context. They don’t stand alone but are always given in an emotional and physical setting. We can of course say that the immediate context is Jesus Himself. True, but He came in a context and setting, a spiritual context and a physical and emotional setting. He came in an historical context, a context of anticipation and expectation, which He fulfilled. He is the primary parable, the context and setting, the spiritual reality and the visible expression.

 We too live in a context, a spiritual, emotional and personal context which are also historical. Our spiritual context is that we are images of God seeking to find our place in His eternity. We are born alone, separated from God because of Adam’s sin, into a self-conscious awareness, cultural conditioning, relational experience and social adaptation. We live a personal history in a long line of ancestors dating back to Adam and Eve. We inherit a physical existence with an unseen inner drive to find meaning, purpose and significance. From birth we are imperfect, unfulfilled, questioning, searching and operating to secure our lonely self in the midst of others whose condition is the same.

 The point, the purpose of the parables, is to let Jesus be Lord of our being, reorient our minds and hearts spiritually. They challenge our self-centeredness to turn to God and center ourselves in Him. Jesus tells parables to spiritualize the way we think about who we are, who others are, but most importantly, who God is and how He, the Lord Jesus, is the master key to open the door to the Kingdom of God, the eternal home of God and our destiny as His images. The parables touch the unseen individual heart, the spiritual core of our being. They are the sub keys on the spiritual chain of the Master’s key which is shaped with belief, galvanized in trust and turns with faith. The sub keys open the corridors of the heart and reshape its will to accept His will. Again, as images of Him, we are given belief for the mind, trust for the heart and faith to motivate our spirit.

 If we take Matthew’s Gospel, we see the first twelve chapters as preparation passages to open the heart to the transformation He plans for us. In them, Jesus is declared the Messiah from before His birth, into His family, His baptism and His beginning mission and ministry. Those twelve chapters are the foundation to establish trust in Him to touch the heart in each of us. His Sermon on the Mount (Mt.5-7) is the declaration of the new life, the spiritual life available to everyone who will believe in Him and follow Him.

 Chapter12 is a transitional chapter that starts with a challenge to the Pharisaic heart and heals a man with a withered hand to make His point. He states He is greater than the Temple, One who is the Lord of the Sabbath. He quotes Isaiah 42:1-4 to underscore His identity. He then heals a demon-possessed deaf-mute man to which the Pharisees respond that Jesus was consorting with Beelzebub, the prince of demons. He responds, “If satan drives out satan, he’s working against himself.” Then He tells them that those who are not with him are against Him and His most deliberately clear warning that sinning against the Holy Spirit brings eternal condemnation. He warns that their words will be their judgment on the final day.

 His final caveat comes when the Pharisees ask for a sign from Him. He tells them that the only sign will be the sign of Jonah. He follows this with an image of a spirit driven out of a man which goes, seeks and brings back seven more deadly than itself to enter the empty house. It is obvious Jesus is telling them that when a spirit goes out there is only one Spirit that can enter that house to secure and preserve it. The parallel can be seen in the alcoholic who is delivered from his or her addiction but then, not receiving Christ, ends up with smoking, eating and emotional disorders.

 Jesus concludes Chapter 12 with a moment of spiritual reality. When told that His mother and brothers were outside waiting to see Him, that moment was His opportunity to state the identification of the real mother and brothers of Jesus---those who do the will of His Heavenly Father. Family, friends and secular authority find their fulfillment, support and purpose when Jesus becomes Lord of the heart.

 Chapter 13 begins with a flood of Jesus’ parables: the Sower, the Weeds, the Mustard Seed, the Yeast, the Hidden Treasure, the Pearl and the Net. After these, His mission intensifies in Chapter 14 with the beheading of John the Baptizer. Jesus is now the Prophet, the final Prophet, the King of Heaven come to earth, the royal Messiah in action.