Jesus: Poet Parable-Teller
Folks with a basic understanding of Jesus are familiar with the fact that Jesus loved to tell parables. He used the art of parable-telling to teach deep truths, truths that stories best get at.
His parables incorporated not only narratives but also imagery, metaphor, simile, and emotion. These are each poetic devices.
Are parables poems? Well, not exactly. But there is a subgenre of poetry, narrative poetry, that gets pretty close to the style and approach of Jesus’ parables. A narrative poem is one that focuses on a story but uses poetic devices to tell the story. That’s what Jesus does in many of his parables. In the least, we can call many of Jesus’ parables, poetic parables.
Here’s maybe his most famous (from Luke 15:14-24).
The son began to be in want.
And he went and joined himself
to a citizen of that far off country
who sent him into his fields to feed swine.
The son would fain have filled his belly
with the husks that the swine did eat:
And no man gave unto him.
When the son came to himself, he said,
How many hired servants of my father's
have bread enough and to spare,
and here I perish with hunger!
I will arise, go to my father, and say unto him,
Father, I have sinned against heaven and thee,
And am no more worthy to be called thy son:
make me as merely one of thy hired servants.
And the son arose, and came to his father.
But when he was yet a great way off,
his father saw him, and had compassion,
and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him.
The son said unto him, Father,
I have sinned against heaven,
and in thy sight, and I am no more
worthy to be called thy son.
But the father said to his servants,
Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him;
and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet:
bring hither the fatted calf, and prepare it;
and let us eat, let us eat and be merry:
For this my son was dead, and is alive again;
he was lost, and is found.
Powerful, isn’t it? What moves you about the story?
You likely know what moved me. Whenever I get to the climax of the story, the father running out to embrace his son who’s come home, I get choked up. I’m thinking you feel the same.
What’s interesting about Jesus’ parables is that he never interprets them for his hearers. He never gives the takeaway from the story. He never gives the “moral of the story.” He simply tells the story and waits for us to get it.
Last week, the confirmation class discussed the Sermon on the Mount. To introduce it, I showed a long portion of an episode from the series, The Chosen. An episode titled Beyond Mountains tells the story of the lead up to the Sermon on the Mount. The wonderful TV series uses a lot of dramatic license but gets the essence of the gospels very right. Anyway, in the episode, Matthew is helping to transcribe the sermon. As he does, Matthew asks Jesus a question: why is the sermon so difficult and edgy? Jesus has a tremendous answer. He says, “I don't want passive followers. Those who are truly committed will peer deeply into it, looking for Truth.”
So, Jesus tells his parables and waits for us to look deeply and experience truth. And not just look deeply, but feel deeply.
What makes the parable so powerful is the emotional wallop that comes with real compassion. The unconditional love the father has for his son, how can it nor move us? The father’s longing for connection with his son, his longing to have it close – this can’t help but to move us.
What is the moral of the story? I’d dare say, there is none. The point is unconditional love that never gives up on us. To borrow words from an En Vogue song, rest in God and the rest will follow.
Alright, let’s move to Jesus, the poet.
On Christmas Eve, I discussed how Jesus was God’s poem to us, a poem of one word – Love. The Word became flesh and dwelled among us.
Not only was Jesus, the poem, but he was the prototype for the poet. Now we don’t know if he ever wrote lines of poetry. We certainly don’t have anything he directly wrote. But poems are not merely written on paper or papyrus. Improvisational poetry is a thing! In the gospels we sometimes read words from Jesus that certainly feel like poetry. Here is a familiar example from the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:1-11, 13, 14).
Blessed: the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed: they that mourn, for they shall be comforted.
Blessed: the meek. for they shall inherit the earth.
Blessed: they which hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.
Blessed: the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.
Blessed: the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
Blessed: the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.
Blessed: they which suffer persecution for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed shall ye be when men revile you, and persecute you, and say all manner of evil against you for my sake, falsely...
His parables incorporated not only narratives but also imagery, metaphor, simile, and emotion. These are each poetic devices.
Are parables poems? Well, not exactly. But there is a subgenre of poetry, narrative poetry, that gets pretty close to the style and approach of Jesus’ parables. A narrative poem is one that focuses on a story but uses poetic devices to tell the story. That’s what Jesus does in many of his parables. In the least, we can call many of Jesus’ parables, poetic parables.
Here’s maybe his most famous (from Luke 15:14-24).
The son began to be in want.
And he went and joined himself
to a citizen of that far off country
who sent him into his fields to feed swine.
The son would fain have filled his belly
with the husks that the swine did eat:
And no man gave unto him.
When the son came to himself, he said,
How many hired servants of my father's
have bread enough and to spare,
and here I perish with hunger!
I will arise, go to my father, and say unto him,
Father, I have sinned against heaven and thee,
And am no more worthy to be called thy son:
make me as merely one of thy hired servants.
And the son arose, and came to his father.
But when he was yet a great way off,
his father saw him, and had compassion,
and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him.
The son said unto him, Father,
I have sinned against heaven,
and in thy sight, and I am no more
worthy to be called thy son.
But the father said to his servants,
Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him;
and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet:
bring hither the fatted calf, and prepare it;
and let us eat, let us eat and be merry:
For this my son was dead, and is alive again;
he was lost, and is found.
Powerful, isn’t it? What moves you about the story?
You likely know what moved me. Whenever I get to the climax of the story, the father running out to embrace his son who’s come home, I get choked up. I’m thinking you feel the same.
What’s interesting about Jesus’ parables is that he never interprets them for his hearers. He never gives the takeaway from the story. He never gives the “moral of the story.” He simply tells the story and waits for us to get it.
Last week, the confirmation class discussed the Sermon on the Mount. To introduce it, I showed a long portion of an episode from the series, The Chosen. An episode titled Beyond Mountains tells the story of the lead up to the Sermon on the Mount. The wonderful TV series uses a lot of dramatic license but gets the essence of the gospels very right. Anyway, in the episode, Matthew is helping to transcribe the sermon. As he does, Matthew asks Jesus a question: why is the sermon so difficult and edgy? Jesus has a tremendous answer. He says, “I don't want passive followers. Those who are truly committed will peer deeply into it, looking for Truth.”
So, Jesus tells his parables and waits for us to look deeply and experience truth. And not just look deeply, but feel deeply.
What makes the parable so powerful is the emotional wallop that comes with real compassion. The unconditional love the father has for his son, how can it nor move us? The father’s longing for connection with his son, his longing to have it close – this can’t help but to move us.
What is the moral of the story? I’d dare say, there is none. The point is unconditional love that never gives up on us. To borrow words from an En Vogue song, rest in God and the rest will follow.
Alright, let’s move to Jesus, the poet.
On Christmas Eve, I discussed how Jesus was God’s poem to us, a poem of one word – Love. The Word became flesh and dwelled among us.
Not only was Jesus, the poem, but he was the prototype for the poet. Now we don’t know if he ever wrote lines of poetry. We certainly don’t have anything he directly wrote. But poems are not merely written on paper or papyrus. Improvisational poetry is a thing! In the gospels we sometimes read words from Jesus that certainly feel like poetry. Here is a familiar example from the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:1-11, 13, 14).
Blessed: the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed: they that mourn, for they shall be comforted.
Blessed: the meek. for they shall inherit the earth.
Blessed: they which hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.
Blessed: the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.
Blessed: the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
Blessed: the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.
Blessed: they which suffer persecution for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed shall ye be when men revile you, and persecute you, and say all manner of evil against you for my sake, falsely...
Ye are the salt of the earth...
Ye are the light of the world.
Rejoice and be glad, for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the Prophets which were before you.
Ye are the salt of the earth…
Here’s another example (from Matthew 6:26-31):
Behold the fowls of the air:
for they sow not, neither do they reap,
nor gather into barns;
yet your heavenly Father feedeth them.
Are ye not as good as they?
Which of you by taking thought
can add one cubit unto his stature?
And why take ye thought for raiment?
Consider the lilies of the field,
how they grow; they toil not,
neither do they spin:
And yet I say unto you,
That even Solomon in all his glory
was not arrayed like one of these.
Wherefore, if God so clothe
the grass of the field,
which to day is,
and to morrow is cast into the oven,
shall he not much more clothe you,
O ye of little faith?
Jesus, the poet! If not a poet, then the prototype of the poet.
How did Jesus live and experience this world? How did he cope with life’s questions, doubts, hardships? Well, like a poet, he did things like,
It’s not about religion. It’s about relationship. Put another way, it not about religion, it’s about love.
Love God whose love for you, like the prodigal’s father, is unending and who endlessly sees us, who endlessly shows us compassion, who endlessly runs to us to embrace us and love our hurts away.
Immerse yourself in God, who is love, and in the love he has for us. That’s it. To borrow a song from back in the day, connect with God and the rest will follow. Open your heart to God, rest in God’s love, spend time with God in prayer and meditation, and the rest – peace, resilience, compassion in the face of chaos – will follow.
Immerse yourself in God, and, as Bob Marley once sang, “every little thing’s gonna be alright!”
Ye are the light of the world.
Rejoice and be glad, for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the Prophets which were before you.
Ye are the salt of the earth…
Here’s another example (from Matthew 6:26-31):
Behold the fowls of the air:
for they sow not, neither do they reap,
nor gather into barns;
yet your heavenly Father feedeth them.
Are ye not as good as they?
Which of you by taking thought
can add one cubit unto his stature?
And why take ye thought for raiment?
Consider the lilies of the field,
how they grow; they toil not,
neither do they spin:
And yet I say unto you,
That even Solomon in all his glory
was not arrayed like one of these.
Wherefore, if God so clothe
the grass of the field,
which to day is,
and to morrow is cast into the oven,
shall he not much more clothe you,
O ye of little faith?
Jesus, the poet! If not a poet, then the prototype of the poet.
How did Jesus live and experience this world? How did he cope with life’s questions, doubts, hardships? Well, like a poet, he did things like,
- Seek out moments of solitude to simply be with himself. He created alone time. A quiet space. An introspective moment. These were musts for Jesus.
- Reflect on his inner life – his feelings and thoughts, how they came and went and gave way to expression and named his feelings and thoughts.
- Observe the world around him. He noticed small things. Noted how each interaction was unique. Listened and watched the flow of moments.
- Relate to the world around him. He connected to people and things in his surroundings with empathy and compassion. He loved the world.
- Love God and bask in God’s love for him.
It’s not about religion. It’s about relationship. Put another way, it not about religion, it’s about love.
Love God whose love for you, like the prodigal’s father, is unending and who endlessly sees us, who endlessly shows us compassion, who endlessly runs to us to embrace us and love our hurts away.
Immerse yourself in God, who is love, and in the love he has for us. That’s it. To borrow a song from back in the day, connect with God and the rest will follow. Open your heart to God, rest in God’s love, spend time with God in prayer and meditation, and the rest – peace, resilience, compassion in the face of chaos – will follow.
Immerse yourself in God, and, as Bob Marley once sang, “every little thing’s gonna be alright!”
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