How to read the parables? (2 Samuel 12:1 - 7)

Short teachings from Hillcrest Church further exploring Sunday's teachings.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hey, good morning. Tim here. And we are diving deep into today. We're gonna, or this week, we're gonna do parables. So uh sorry getting this one out a little late. Uh just a busy day yesterday. Um doing this uh when I'm first getting into work on Monday morning. Um, but yesterday was great, a super fun Sunday, youth Sunday. Casey and the the 412 team and the students did such a phenomenal job. Um Casey in his uh in his uh teaching used a parable from Luke chapter 14, and so it just kind of inspired me to talk about parables this week and talk some about that parable. Um we uh I there's been a couple different conversations I've had with different folks both at Hillcrest and outside of Hillcrest on parables recently. I thought I just like reading parables well is his own area of um biblical interpretation. I thought I just spent a little time talking about it. So uh today I just want to introduce just the idea of how do we even think about reading parables at all. If you spend any time in the Gospels, uh, which I hope you have, please do. Uh you know that Jesus often teaches in parables, particularly in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, they're called the synoptic gospels. Um we see a lot of these parables, um, they're they're little metaphors or analogies, sometimes they're almost short stories, they feel a little like proverbs or riddles, um, but it's this this form of parable. And uh and we need to think well about interpreting them. Um so reading parables well, um I think the reason I want to talk about this is they're really their own kind of mini genre of literature, of scripture. And uh historically, I think it's been easy to misread them. One of the famous ways they've been misread over the centuries by Christians is allegorizing. Essentially, this is the temptation to make every little detail in a parable its own mini-spiritual lesson. Um, that's been a misreading. Uh, sometimes people just turn them into kind of proverbs, kind of like timeless truths. Sometimes people have thought they are they're really about theological instruction. Um, and there is theology in them, but I think um sometimes they've people have approached them almost like the letters of Paul giving systematic theology. That's not what parables are doing. So, what are parables doing um and how uh how can I read them? Well, maybe even before I dive in, I'll just say this. If you wanna, um, like the easiest kind of introduction to reading parables, I would say, would be uh in the book How to Read the Bible for All It's Worth by Gordon Fee and Douglas Stewart, which, if you don't have one, a copy of this on your shelf, order a copy today. How to read the Bible for all it's worth, a guide to understanding the Bible, Gordon Fee and Douglas Stewart. Um, it is uh the book that I would recommend to anybody in kind of like um in interpreting the Bible one-on-one. And they've got a great, they've got a whole chapter in here um on uh parables. They have a chapter on reading the gospels and then a second uh chapter right after that on parables because it's kind of its own mini genre um there. So um, yeah. So uh parables. So I'll just say a couple things about reading parables well uh today, and then maybe in the next episode we can look some about what it means for the parable we heard on Sunday, Luke chapter 14. Um so reading parables well. A parable, it was a known uh format of teaching. So it Jesus didn't invent parables, it was a known format of teaching. The prophets use parables, uh, other rabbis in Jesus' day use parables. So it wasn't something he was he was uh just uh acting like a good Jewish teacher, and and not all parables are so some are a little more like stories, some are a little more like um uh proverbs, some are a little more like riddles, and we can kind of subdivide parables, but I'm not gonna do that today. Um just I'm just gonna acknowledge they're not all exactly the same, some of them function a little different, uh, but they're there there's kind of this uh mini story form, and uh and a couple the the the things to remember about how parables work. Um, like I said, one, it's its own genre. Two, um, they tend to be um addressing uh what you might call a specific situation. So they're not just timeless truths, they're not just timeless proverbs, they tend to be addressing like a histor like a specific situation. Um uh two, they tend to be um they tend to be focused on uh response more than information. So uh parables aren't like they're not first and foremost ways to kind of teach systematic theology. They're first and foremost ways to kind of get people to do something. And then three, um, parables they usually aren't trying to teach half a dozen things. Usually parables are trying to get at kind of one thing. Um, maybe a way to think about it. A lot of a lot of different people talk about parables are kind of like jokes, that they have a punchline. Obviously, a parable isn't usually meant to be funny, but you know, like a joke, the whole joke builds up to a punchline, and it's that punchline, that twist at the end, that that's the point of everything in the joke earlier, all the little details, they really are meant to lead up to this one punchline, the twist at the end. Parables are that way as well. They kind of all the little details um are meant to lead up to the punchline, the twist at the end, and the focus is on that that that punchline. The focus isn't necessarily on all the details leading up there. Um, sometimes those details are just um kind of scaffolding um to lead up to the end. So um historically situated, there there, so three things I said addressing a specific situation, uh meant to elicit a response, and then it's all about kind of the punchline. So let me give you uh kind of a famous example that um will uh maybe help this make sense. So this is an example from the Old Testament. Um, and if you remember, King David, uh he's king over Israel, um, and uh one day his army is away and he sees this woman, Bathsheba, who he's not married to, and he brings her to his house and has an affair with her, and then goes on to arrange the murder of her husband Uriah. Um, you know, this awful um evil injustice that he uh perpetrates. Um of the prophets comes to David, uh Nathan is his name. This is from 2 Samuel chapter 12, and Nathan says this. He says, There were two men in a certain town, one rich and the other poor. The rich man had a very large number of sheep and cattle, but the poor man had nothing except one little ew lamb he had bought. He raised it, and it grew up with him and his children. It shared his food, drank from his cup, and even slept in his arms. It was like a daughter to him. Now a traveler came to the rich man, but the rich man refrained from taking one of his own sheep or cattle to prepare a meal for the traveler who had come to him. Instead he took the ew lamb that belonged to the poor man and prepared it for the one who had come to him. And then we're told, David burned with anger against the man and said to Nathan, As surely as the Lord lives, the man who did this must die. He must pay for the lamb four times because he did because he did such a thing and had no pity. And then David, then Nathan said to David, You are the man. This is what the Lord the God of Israel says. Um and he goes on to say, essentially, um, you uh perpetuated uh the evil against uh Uriah and Bathsheba. So I just want you to notice. So Nathan uh the prophet tells this story, and it's the the the point of the story is not abstract theology, the point is addressing uh David. It's specifically a situation in David's life, what Nathan is addressing. Two, it's meant to elicit a response. The point is it's a subversive sideways way of getting past David's defenses and causing a repentance, a confrontation with himself, a recognition of what's going on. That's the whole point. It's meant to lead to a specific response uh in David's life. And then notice the punchline. I mean, the whole thing sets up. So David's like, how could this rich man steal this this poor man's lamb? And then Nathan says, You are the man. That's the punchline. All the stuff is leading up to you are the man. And and and we misread we we we would misread Nathan's parable if we get all tangled up on who are the, you know, what does it mean that the poor man bought the lamb? Is this the way that Uriah got Bathsheba into it? No, that's not the point of it. The point um is the punchline to catch David in his sin, that he would recognize his own sin. That's the point. And so um this is this is a this is how parable is meant to work. And so um I'll just wrap this up and then in the next episode we can talk about uh Jesus' parables. But you know, um, when we think about when we think about Jesus, what's the historical situation? Jesus is not necessarily addressing individuals, but he the historical situation is he is addressing the people of Israel as they are confronted with the day of God, like the kingdom of God breaking in in the person of Jesus. So much of the historical situation is the day of salvation has arrived, the kingdom of God is here, the king, the messiah is here, what are you gonna do about it? That's the historical situation, right? Um, the response of Jesus' parables is often some kind of confrontation, recognition about the reality of the the of Jesus' uh kingdom breaking into the world, the day of salvation arriving, and people needing to to realize their own sin and respond to Jesus' kingdom invitation. Um, and then a lot of his parables have some kind of punchline, like what are you gonna do about it? There's some kind of something revealed, what are you gonna do about it? So that's uh and he's addressing, you know, he's addressing the people of Israel, the people of God. That's um so that's the kind of the the the the way um that we need to be thinking about the way these parables work. Not necessarily not allegories, not timeless truths, not systematic theology. Um, first and foremost, these uh these mini stories, these riddles addressed to the people of God as the day of salvation has arrived, the new exodus, the kingdom of God, and kind of trying to elicit a certain kind of response in them. All right, I've gone long enough. We'll touch more on parable, uh, the specific parable uh in the next episode. Um grace and peace. Have a great day.