Summary: "With many such parables, he spoke the word to them. He did not speak to them except in parables." The words of Mark seem to summarize the preaching ministry of Jesus. Time and again in the gospels, Jesus gathers a crowd of followers together and speaks to them, not in propositional assertions, creedal statements, or enumerated lists but through these vivid and memorable narratives. A sower went out to sow. A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho. There was a man who had two sons. The parable was such a powerful tool for Jesus because through it he transformed everyday, mundane events and objects-a mustard seed, yeast mixed with flour, a net thrown into the sea, a landowner who went out to hire laborers-into sacred channels for divine truth. Parables do not explain God's kingdom. They describe it in ways that are accessible to hearers. And yet parables are not merely descriptive. They are transformative. They reframe our vision of those ordinary events and objects. And so, each parable has a punch line, a moment of revelation, a surprise turn that shocks and sometimes even offends listeners. Often the story is going along exactly as we would expect, nothing remarkable: a shepherd is trying to keep track of one hundred aimless dumb sheep, and, of course, one of them gets away, gets lost. But then, the punch line comes: the shepherd leaves the ninety-nine sheep behind to chase after the one that is lost. And in this surprise turn at the end, we see clearly displayed the difference between our world (practical, moderate, rational) and the kingdom of God (extravagant, unrestrained, imprudent).
