Here is an instructive definition of what a parable is, from Snodgrass’ Stories with Intent, the same book mentioned in the last post.

The immediate aim of a parable is to be compellingly interesting, and in being interesting it diverts attention and disarms.  A parable’s ultimate aim is to awaken insight, stimulate the conscience, and move to action.  The primary reason Jesus’ parables are stories with intent is, as we will see, that they are prophetic instruments, the tool especially of those who have a message from God.  They do not occur in sections of the Bible focused on Torah or history or in the writings of the early church. They are used by those who are trying to get God’s people to stop, reconsider their ways, and change their behavior.  Biblical parables reveal the kind of God that God is and how God acts, and they show what humanity is and what humanity should and may become.  Parables are not merely informative.  Like prophets before him, Jesus told parables to prompt thinking and stimulate response in relation to God.  Parables usually engage listeners, create reflection, and promote action.  They are pointed and clinching arguments for a too often slow-minded or recalcitrant audience.  They seek to goad people into the action the gospel deserves and the kingdom demands.  One of the major problems of Christian churches, of Western Christianity in particular, is our stultifying passivity.  The parables compel us – for Christ’s sake literally – to do something!  Parables do not seek the “mild morality” about which Kierkegaard lamented but radical cross-bearing, God-imitating response worthy of the name “conversion.”

In most cases then a parable is an expanded analogy used to convince and persuade. As we will see, this is the way ancient Greeks also used the term, and it is sufficiently broad to cover the majority of the ways the Evangelists use the word.  The logic of Jesus’ parables is proportional analogy.  Corresponding to the German terms Sache and Bild, the English terms tenor and vehicle are used to explain how analogy functions.  Tenor refers to the theme being compared, the item for which insight is sought, and vehicle refers to the pictorial image, the parable, the instrument by which insight is conveyed.  An analogy explicitly or implicitly draws one or more points of resemblance.  For example, a disciple is to God (tenor) as a slave is to a master (vehicle) with respect to unsurpassable obligation (point of resemblance).   According to John Sider every parable labeled as a parable in the Gospels involves more than one point of resemblance – the exact opposite of Jülicher.  Analogy by its very nature can easily become “allegorical.” (emphasis original, pp. 8-9)

Since Ryan has been preaching through some parables recently, here are two lists that offer helpful guidelines for understanding Jesus’ parables.  Both of these lists are from Klyne Snodgrass’ Stories with Intent: A Comprehensive Guide to the Parables of Jesus. These are just the headlines of each point, so if you want to read more you can either purchase the book or read some of it online here.

Characteristics of Jesus’ Parables (pp. 17-21)

1. Jesus’ parables are first of all brief, even terse.
2. Parables are marked by simplicity and symmetry.
3. Jesus’ parables focus mostly on humans.
4. The parables are fictional descriptions taken from everyday life, but they do not necessarily portray everyday events.
5. Parables are engaging; they were told to create interest…
6. Since they frequently seek to reorient thought and behavior, in keeping with Jesus’ teaching elsewhere parables often contain elements of reversal.
7. With their intent to bring about response and elements like reversal, the crucial matter of parables is usually at the end, which functions something like the punch line of a joke.
8. Parables are told into a context.
9. Jesus’ parables are theocentric.
10. Parables frequently allude to OT texts.
11. Most parables appear in larger collections of parables.

How Should Parables Be Interpreted? (pp. 24-30)

1. Analyze each parable thoroughly.
2. Listen to the parable without presupposition as to its form or meaning.
3. Remember that Jesus’ parables were oral instruments in a largely oral culture.
4. If we are after the intent of Jesus, we must seek to hear a parable as Jesus’ Palestinian hearers would have heard it.
5. Note how each parable and its redactional shaping fit with the purpose and plan of each Evangelist.
6. Determine specifically the function of the story in the teaching of Jesus.
7. Interpret what is given, not what is omitted.  Any attempt to interpret a parable based on what is not there is almost certainly wrong.
8. Do not impose real time on parable time. The narrative time of parables is not real time chronology… [For example,] Luke 14:15-24… has a truncated chronology that assumes that the servant has gone out, done as instructed, and returned.
9. Pay particular attention to the rule of end stress.  …what comes at the end is the clinching indicator of intent.
10. Note where the teaching of the parables intersects with the teaching of Jesus elsewhere. …it will help prevent errors in interpretation.
11. Determine the theological intent and significance of the parable.

In last Sunday’s message — “Worldly Worry vs. Kingdom Confidence” (Luke 12:1-34) — I mentioned a couple of very helpful books on fear and worry by Ed Welch:

• Running Scared: Fear, Worry & the God of Rest
• When People Are Big and God Is Small: Overcoming Peer Pressure, Codependency, and the Fear of Man

Red Mountain Church has an excellent recording of this hymn, which can be downloaded here for free. I’d highly recommend any or all of the modern hymns on their six albums.

Another thoughtful and pastoral post today from Kevin DeYoung. Here’s a sample:

The Bible is a big book and there’s a lot in there. So the Bible says a lot about the poor, about marriage, about children, about evangelism, about missions, about justice; it says a lot about a lot. Almost anyone can make a case that their thing should be the main thing or at least one of the most important things. But what often happens in churches (or church movements) is that the person with the “thing” thinks everyone else should devote their lives to the “thing” too. So churches squabble over limited resources, and people feel an abiding sense of guilt over not caring enough or doing enough about the ten other things that other people in the church care about more than they do.

Take the time and go read the rest. I think it is a very needed word, to pastors and parishioners alike.

Mark Driscoll recently preached at Robert Schuller’s Crystal Cathedral. The video is now online, and will also air on tomorrow’s Hour of Power broadcast. I haven’t watched the sermon yet, but it’s sure to be interesting!

In other Schuller-news, this week the White Horse Inn radio program (Mike Horton, et al) posted the transcript of their rather famous two-hour interview with Schuller in 1992. Here’s a sample:

MH: Dr. Schuller, how could the cross as you write, “sanctify the ego trip,” and make us proud, in the light of passages that say, “I hate pride and arrogance (Prov. 8:13), “Pride goes before destruction” (Prov. 16:18),”The Lord detests all the proud” (Prov. 16:5), “Do not be proud”(Rom. 12:16), “Love does not boast it is not proud” (1Cor 13:4). In fact Paul warns Timothy that in the last days men “will be lovers of themselves” (2Tim 3:2). Why should we as Christian ministers, myself included, why should we do anything to encourage people to become “lovers of themselves” if Paul in fact warned others that that would be the state of godlessness in the last days?

RS: I hope you don’t preach this, I hope you don’t preach this!

MH: What, the texts?

RS: No, what you just spoke into the microphone right now. I hope you don’t because you could do a lot of damage to a lot of beautiful people. But maybe if you preach it, maybe you will demonstrate your knowledge of human relationships and maybe you’ll demonstrate a sensitivity of caring about these pathetic, pathetic people that are so lost in pain and suffering because of their sinful condition, and I think you’d want to save them. I think you’d want to bring them to Jesus. And so if you preach that text, oh man, I sure hope you give it the kind of interpretation that I do or, I’ll tell you, you’ll drive them farther away and they’ll be madder than hell at you and they’ll turn the Bible off, and they’ll switch you off, and they’ll turn on the rock music and Madonna. Just because it’s in the Bible doesn’t mean you should preach it. And if you do, you have to say, “Who’s listening to me? Will they understand? And will the love of Jesus come through my words and through my message; through my personality. Will it come through my spirit? Will I come across as a humble person or will I come across as a person who’s kind of mean and know-it-all: I’ve got the answers and when people like Schuller come along, they’re heretics! Be careful, it is so difficult to preach some of those texts and not come across as lacking humility…

You can read the rest of it here.