So you think you've got the point?

A thought on the parables. I once read a few chapters of a book that asked some difficult questions of me theologically, knowing it would be unpalatable. I don't want to tell you the authors name or (for those of you who share a theological position with me) it may give you the same prejudice towards what I am about to share. There is a reason, however, that I only read a few chapters. My own prejudices were confirmed, it was indeed unpalatable and I saw no sense in continuing with it. But it gave me one little gem that has stuck with me ever since. He retold the parable of the pharisee and the tax collector. In the original, for those of you not familiar, Jesus shows a picture of two men at their prayers, in the temple. The first man was a pharisee (religious teachers of the day famed for their zealous adherence to keeping every one of the laws of Moses, some 600 or so) and the second a tax collector (a social outcast of the times reviled by the Jews at large, akin to collaborators in WW2). I'll let Jesus tell you the rest in his own words.

To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’
“But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’
“I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” ~Luke 18: 9-14

The shock of this parable would have had real resonance, especially when you see who he is telling it too. "Some who were confident in their own righteousness".

In the retelling, the author switches the Pharisee for an evangelical pastor (My hackles were up immediately) and the the tax collector for a liberal theologian. The Evangelical says something like "God I thank you that I am not like that man over there- that man who doesn't even believe your word, the bible, is inerrant, who  has no real faith in you. I thank you that I believe the whole of the bible and never swerve from it"
And the liberal theologian says something like "God, I don't even know if there is a God in any literal sense and I am not sure but I want to know you and serve you"

I haven't done the retelling good service here but you see the point. The parable is about attitude and humility. What really hit me was that the parable had caught me off guard, as it would have the Pharisees he was telling it to, that I had automatically ruled myself out of being in the firing line. If we're honest (and there are good reasons we believe what we believe) we Evangelicals are prone to more than a little complacency at times. That's what hit me in the retelling.

And then I look at the other parables and I see the pattern emerging. The sulky older brother who resents the fathers easy forgiveness of the wayward younger son was the true point of the parable of the prodigal son. The foolish builders are the ones who hear what Jesus says but do not put it into practise (ouch). The farmer, who is constantly building bigger barns to store his wealth in, unaware of his impending death and the ensuing inability to enjoy all that he is working for, could be any of us seeking to build our life in this world with no attention to either the quality of this life nor its consequence on the next. In short, if you've ruled yourself out of being the target, you've probably missed the point. Adrian Plass says, in Bacon sandwiches and salvation, a dictionary of christian terms, that the definition of a parable is "a story that entertains you at the front door while the truth slips in through a side window and sandbags you from behind" This is true, for those who get it. The truth hits you from an unexpected quarter. That is surely why Jesus told parables. Truth is there for those who seek it. Those who assume they have it already do not look and go away scratching their heads. Ask and you will receive. Don't ask and you are left with what you already have.

He who has ears to hear, let him hear.