Swooning
P.G. Wodehouse is arguably the funniest person to ever pick up a pen. Himself a remarkably talented and highly educated man, he loved poking fun at snooty academia. Artists, especially writers, received some of his richest satire. In one story*, the unlikeable antagonist has penned a line which sparks swooning in the pseudo-intelligentsia who are convinced the line has deep meaning just beyond their reach. Most horribly, his one line has captivated the attention of a lovely young woman. The line is:

across the pale parabola of joy…

Absurd
The protagonist of the tale shows that the line is absurd. It has no meaning. His revelation causes scales to fall from the eyes of those who were duped and (in true Wodehouse fashion) wins him the heart of the girl.

Applicable
I thought of that line as we worked through the parables of Jesus. They are neither unreachable nor meaningless, nor do they invite readers to determine their own “truth.” Rather, they are pointed, direct, and applicable. While deep and hidden to those who have chosen deafness, Jesus’ parables are quite understandable to anyone with ears to hear.

Parabole
One of the cleverest aspects of Woodehouse’s story is found in the verbiage. Parabola is a Latin term that came wholesale into English, describing a geometric construction. But old P.G. knew that the original term was coined in Greek as parabole – a comparison or fable that leads to an applicable big idea. It was the literary term that came first, and it always had an absolute meaning. [For the curious, it appears the word parabole was first applied to geometry by Apollonius of Perga in 210 B.C. He described the “application” of a straight line to a curved area.]

The bottom line (sorry for the pun, I couldn’t resist) is that Jesus’ parabole have applicable meaning. They lead somewhere. Don’t get lost skimming along any pale parabolas of joy.

God bless,

Wayne

* Leave It To Psmith, which also contains this hilarious, evocative, and brilliant sentence: “A depressing musty scent pervaded the place, as if a cheese had recently died there in painful circumstances.”

Singular

In the western world, a person’s first introduction to parabolic teaching is through children’s stories. In particular, Aesop’s Fables are introduced when a student is around seven years old. There is a great advantage to this introduction – it emphasizes that story contains one big idea. For example, the dog who drops his bone to grab another bone [which turns out to be a mere reflection in the water] displays the perils of greed. No one feels the need to develop “hidden meaning” based on the deep water, the bridge, or the bone. Such thinking is rightly seen as absurd.

In this sense, the learner is prepared to sit as Jesus’ feet and learn from His object lessons expressed parabolically. They likewise have one point and are warped when analogies are “discovered” in every item.

But not simplistic

However, there is a grave weakness in the typical introduction to parabolic thinking through children’s stories. It can leave the learner with the mistaken idea that parables are simplistic, even childish. This assumption tragically removes the person from a humble position of learning, banishing him or her to the hubristic outer darkness reserved for the supposedly wise who are “above” such things. J.R.R. Tolkien understood this danger, and in 1939 gave a lecture in which he warned against missing the depth of a story merely because it seems singular or even simple. He said:

If left altogether in the nursery, [the story will] become gravely impaired. So would a beautiful table, a good picture, or a useful machine (such as a microscope), be defaced or broken, if it were left long unregarded in a schoolroom. Fairy-stories banished in this way, cut off from a full adult art, would in the end be ruined; indeed in so far as they have been so banished, they have been ruined. – Tolkien “On Faerie Stories”

Parables are, at least in Tolkien’s definition, a type of fairy story. Their pointed meaning is singular and while they are accessible by all, only a fool relegates them to the nursery.

God bless,

Wayne

Parables

As we begin studying the parables of Jesus on the All The Difference podcast and radio, here is a great general reminder from Ken Bailey:

Jesus was a metaphorical theologian. That is, his primary method of creating meaning was through metaphor, simile, parable and dramatic action rather than through logic and reasoning. He created meaning like a dramatist and poet rather than like a philosopher.
– Kenneth Bailey, Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes

And that meaning changed lives! Look at Galen’s fascinating comment from the 2nd century:

We see the people called the Christians drawing their faith from parables…and yet…have attained a pitch not inferior to that of genuine philosophy. – Galen, from his lost Summary and Commentary on Plato’s Republic written ca. 140 AD (fragment preserved in Aramaic)

Ha! Truly we can gain understanding through parables – an understanding that is not only genuine, it exceeds any philosophy.

God bless,

Wayne

Response Not Means

Our ATD community is an incredible blessing! Here’s a note I received last week that will likely encourage you as it did me:

As we were studying Ephesians with you it hit me clearly: “I am righteous because I am in Christ” as opposed to “I am righteous because I try hard to obey Christ.” I can now live according to that. Sure, I try hard to obey – By God’s Spirit – putting on the new self. But that is a response to righteousness bestowed by God, not the means of gaining righteousness myself. This is absolutely lifechanging!

God bless,

Wayne

Joy of liberty

I was recently at a special, small gathering of pastors from all across America. We came together to honor one pastor, a man who has positively influenced us all. One of the leaders present described what he had learned from this wonderful pastor. He said that when they studied Ephesians together, three sentences came home to his heart:

Legalism is confining. License is exhausting. Liberty is joyful.

Thank God that we have liberty through the grace of Jesus. We need be neither confined nor exhausted. Amen!

God bless,

Wayne