Jesus the story-teller used parables to teach

See related story #1: Parables can be 'powerful teaching tool'

See related story #2: Thinking of Jesus as 'a wonderful teacher'

He could have chosen to use any number of sophisticated teaching methods to convey moral lessons and religious principles to the crowds who followed Him.

Instead, Jesus of Nazareth opted to get His message across by using stories that Biblical scholars agree are as powerful -- and as relevant -- today as they were 2,000 years ago.

Although on the surface they often appear simple, the yarns spun by Jesus were, and remain, thought-provoking tales that challenge listeners to search their minds, hearts and souls for a deeper meaning.

Quick images

In his book "Jesus In Focus: A Life In Its Setting" (Twenty-Third Publications, Mystic, CT), Rev. Gerard S. Sloyan compares Our Lord to a "verbal hit and run artist" because He often "painted a quick picture and then moved on."

Father Sloyan, a visiting professor of religion at Catholic University of America and Georgetown University, both in Washington, D.C., added that "Jesus never told riddles or conundrums. We don't know why. He never told a fable with talking animals or trees. He had one-character stories and two- and three-; after that, everyone else was part of the chorus.

"None of His characters were people you could identify. Only one person in all the parables has a name, the beggar Lazarus, and that name is suspect of having crept into the story long after Jesus told it."

Common technique

Father Sloyan said that parables were a known story-telling technique used long before the time of Jesus.

"Story-telling is a gift of the Jewish people, and Jesus was not the first to use it as a teaching tool; it was the manner in which He wove his stories that makes them so memorable," he said. "Jesus never explained His own stories. He left that to the hearer. The allegorical explanation that follows the parable of the sower of the weeds and the wheat is probably an addition of some early Church teachers.

"There is almost always an element of uncertainty as to the meaning of His parables. Some are cryptic, others are absolutely clear. Most are a mixture of both."

Farm pictures

Father Sloyan added that the parables of Jesus were made all the more powerful by His use of agrarian images, such as those in the parable of the sower. Those who came to hear Jesus talk could relate strongly to His parables about tenant farmers and their masters, not to mention the wisdom of separating weeds from the wheat at harvest time.

"Often in Jesus' brief vignettes, nature takes its time," Father Sloyan said, "by which we are to understand that God is in no hurry. The seed grows, the dough rises, the fig tree buds, all in due season."

Father Sloyan also noted that virtue is not always rewarded in Jesus' stories -- and that Jesus sometimes "upset the formula by putting a tyrant or a crook in the role of number one: a king or a wealthy sheikh, for example."

God's reign

"The theme He kept playing variations on was the reign of God," the priest continued. "Jesus' major concern was who would be a part of this majestic rule and how. His parables invited listeners to discover the alignment of the various characters in the tale. There were always two outlooks, two sides. The listener was invited to pick a side. Jesus never did the choosing for anyone. He stopped each story abruptly, leaving the hearer with the burden of choice."

The notion of two outcomes was a standard feature in most of Jesus' parables.

"Someone was always making it, and someone was not," he noted. "What must have dawned on people gradually was that, as conventionally edifying tales went, the wrong people were succeeding and the right people getting left out. He taught a morality of real justice, not stereotyped justice. He had a firm grasp on the way things were. His 'haves' and 'have-nots' were such that only a God who saw deep into the human heart could choose between them. The one thing He said kept saying a hundred different ways was the losers will be winners and the winners will be losers."

Parables can be 'powerful teaching tool'

Her personal favorite is the story of the Good Samaritan -- a parable that prompts her to search her soul for a deeper meaning whenever she gets too caught up in doing the convenient, easy or superficially correct thing.

"The parables tend to be tied into the culture Jesus lived in," she noted, "and if you don't understand concepts such as Samaritans being outcasts, you can easily reduce the parable to a story about helping people in need when, in fact, its meaning goes much deeper than that. Even today, we sometimes use our own culture, our own laws and sometimes even our own faith to excuse ourselves from direct involvement with certain groups or issues." A timely example that comes to her mind involves modern-day welfare reform programs that exclude "undocumented aliens" from receiving educational and health care benefits.

"This makes it easy for many to walk by these wounded, or needy, people claiming legality," she said, "just as the lawyer and priest walked by the man who was wounded and bleeding on the side of the road in biblical times."

Effective method

Rev. Christopher DeGiovine, campus minister at the College of St. Rose in Albany, agrees that using parables was an extremely effective way not only for Jesus to get His point across -- but to ensure people would not forget the lessons He taught.

"Jesus could just as easily have said, `Now pay attention; today I want to teach you about such-and-such a subject, and these are the three points I want you to remember,'" he said. "Instead, He chose to use His remarkable abilities as a story-teller and to tell the stories in a manner that rendered them timeless." (AH)

Thinking of Jesus as 'a wonderful teacher'

Sister Christine Partisano, CSJ, bubbles with enthusiasm when invited to reflect on the parables.

"When I think of Jesus, I think of Him as a wonderful teacher," she explains. "Good teachers have a knack of finding an angle that gets into people's beings, and that's precisely what Jesus did with His parables."

Sister Christine, who does consulting work involving spiritual direction and retreats on a national basis, called Jesus "a wonderful story-teller. He used pithy, real-life situations that drew people into the story -- and then He left them asking the next question. He told stories that engaged people deeply and that challenged them deeply."

Maturing view

Sister Christine noted that an individual's understanding of the parables may vary in depth and scope at different points in their lifetime.

"As we mature, our personal life experiences help us to see things from different perspectives. A parable we first heard as a child often takes on a much deeper meaning in adulthood," she said.

Her own "personal favorite" passage quoting Jesus is not a parable, per se, but more of a metaphor: "When Jesus said the Kingdom of Heaven is like yeast that's put in flour, the imagery is just so vivid. Anyone who has ever baked using yeast knows that it just grows and grows and grows. Every Holy Saturday, I make yeast bread as a reminder of the new life that it brings forth."

Coins and yeast

No matter the subject matter, Sister Christine said the story-telling technique used by Jesus was always the same.

"He hooks us with something we can all relate to, like yeast in flour or a lost coin," she said. "Then He makes the spiritual connection. In the process, He draws the listener deeper into God's life -- and into their own life with God."

She added that "the parables of Jesus are like the great classics in that they relate to all people at all times. People can still plug into them as relevant, true-life experiences, even though Jesus first told them 2,000 years ago."

Lost and found

She pointed to the parables of the lost sheep, the lost coin and the prodigal son, which Sister Christine prefers to call "The Loving Father."

"You'll notice that these three parables follow one another in Scripture. In each case, there is a search for that which is a lost and a great rejoicing when it is found," she explained. "They are masterfully told. At any level, there is always something there that will touch your heart." (AH)

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