The blessing of Jesus' contemporaries seeing and hearing what many people in the past had longed to see and hear might seem to indicate that those past righteous people got cheated. Maybe we in our day of fewer miracles and second-hand teaching are also left with unmet desires. But It seems that Jesus places importance on the choice, available to all, to want deeply what only he can do. (Matthew 13:16-17)
On parables, since the reading has not yet reached Luke 16, you haven't included the most mysterious of Jesus' parables, the Parable of the Unrighteous Steward (16.1-8). I have read many explanations of that parable, and none seem to quite fit either the parable or the very oblique explanation by Jesus that follows (16.9-13). But the parable still has a catchphrase that has entered the English language, "the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light".
I've always enjoyed Luke's Gospel narrative, because you can see how his physician's mind, with its scientific discipline for gathering evidence, has approached Jesus' story. Much of his material repeats Matthew's and Mark's accounts, but with subtle tweaks - I get the sense that Luke has spoken to Mary herself, as well as the other women who ministered to Jesus, in the way he includes slight details that Matthew and Mark passed over.
I just read that one Sunday morning—I’m a little ahead of the schedule. Yes, I find that one totally fascinating and not a little puzzling. Similar to the parable of the corrupt judge and persistent widow.
I’m late in this but I was surprised to learn that the Church Fathers and some puritans (probably because of the Fathers) thought that Jesus was the Good Samaritan. I can see it. The lawyer’s question is what must I do to enter eternal life and then he answers his own question with a works based standard. Jesus corrects him and says, “no, buddy. You got to be saved.” Certainly, the takeaway to love people is always good and right but I did also like to think of Jesus as the hero
In a way, Jesus is the good Samaritan, in that he did for us what the Samaritan in the parable did. But there is a deep significance in Jesus making the Samaritan the hero of the parable, because the Samaritans were of mixed ethnicity and religion (II Kings 17:24-47, John 4:19-24). To a lawyer versed in the purity laws given by Moses, the Samaritans were inherently unclean; yet Jesus portrays a Samaritan as obedient to the second greatest law of loving one's neighbour as oneself.
And to your point, the Samaritans were despised and rejected by men, maybe men of sorrow and familiar with grief. In that way, Jesus would be like a Samaritan….I think it’s also compelling that just a few verses above Jesus’ disciples were preaching about Jesus to a Samaritan village and the Samaritan village rejected them and their message. I think Jesus making the Samaritan the hero of the story would have demonstrate Jesus’ grace and forgiveness to his followers—- in that he was willing to make the hero of his story an ethnicity that just rejected him.
I think of these parables as the great equalizer. The scholars struggled over them right alongside the uneducated fishermen (and still do). Jesus kept urging his listeners to have faith like children, those insatiable consumers of stories, so it makes sense this was his chosen medium. The parables themselves lodge almost effortlessly in our brains because they are images. God brings them back to me throughout the day and reminds me to pray again or turn to him or to see someone with his eyes. It is like a portable library of truth he can dispense at will. The only qualification to accessing the truth seems to be humility, self forgetfulness, and a hunger for it.
I am finding it interesting to compare the different versions. For example, in Matthew we have 3 solid chapters of the Sermon on the Mount. In Luke, bits are scattered throughout, and along with the Beatitudes (a truncated version) we have corresponding woe's. Or sometimes the parables seem to shift depending on context. In Matt 18 we have the unforgiving servant who is owed a little and demands payment after he's been forgiven a huge debt--seems clearly to teach humility and the importance of forgiveness (and I think it does). But in Luke 7, we have a short form of the same parable told when Simon the Pharisee is judging the sinful woman who is annointing Jesus's feet and weeping over them. There the point is love following forgiveness. She has been forgiven much so she loves much. The two forms deepen each other and bring out different nuances.
"It has been granted to you to know the secrets of the kingdom of Heaven; but to those others it has not a been granted. For the man who has will be given more, till he has enough and to spare; and the man who has not will forfeit even what he has. That is why I speak to them in parables; for they look without seeing, and listen without hearing or understanding."
I've struggled with that parabola about parabolas for years... 🤔😕💦😅
The blessing of Jesus' contemporaries seeing and hearing what many people in the past had longed to see and hear might seem to indicate that those past righteous people got cheated. Maybe we in our day of fewer miracles and second-hand teaching are also left with unmet desires. But It seems that Jesus places importance on the choice, available to all, to want deeply what only he can do. (Matthew 13:16-17)
Amen.
On parables, since the reading has not yet reached Luke 16, you haven't included the most mysterious of Jesus' parables, the Parable of the Unrighteous Steward (16.1-8). I have read many explanations of that parable, and none seem to quite fit either the parable or the very oblique explanation by Jesus that follows (16.9-13). But the parable still has a catchphrase that has entered the English language, "the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light".
I've always enjoyed Luke's Gospel narrative, because you can see how his physician's mind, with its scientific discipline for gathering evidence, has approached Jesus' story. Much of his material repeats Matthew's and Mark's accounts, but with subtle tweaks - I get the sense that Luke has spoken to Mary herself, as well as the other women who ministered to Jesus, in the way he includes slight details that Matthew and Mark passed over.
Imagine applying as much diligence and effort to being good as the steward is to being dishonest.
I just read that one Sunday morning—I’m a little ahead of the schedule. Yes, I find that one totally fascinating and not a little puzzling. Similar to the parable of the corrupt judge and persistent widow.
In the latter, I think the "corrupt judge" represents any injustice you're experiencing.
And we're being instructed to pray non-stop until the problem is solved and not stop out of discouragement.
I’m late in this but I was surprised to learn that the Church Fathers and some puritans (probably because of the Fathers) thought that Jesus was the Good Samaritan. I can see it. The lawyer’s question is what must I do to enter eternal life and then he answers his own question with a works based standard. Jesus corrects him and says, “no, buddy. You got to be saved.” Certainly, the takeaway to love people is always good and right but I did also like to think of Jesus as the hero
In a way, Jesus is the good Samaritan, in that he did for us what the Samaritan in the parable did. But there is a deep significance in Jesus making the Samaritan the hero of the parable, because the Samaritans were of mixed ethnicity and religion (II Kings 17:24-47, John 4:19-24). To a lawyer versed in the purity laws given by Moses, the Samaritans were inherently unclean; yet Jesus portrays a Samaritan as obedient to the second greatest law of loving one's neighbour as oneself.
And to your point, the Samaritans were despised and rejected by men, maybe men of sorrow and familiar with grief. In that way, Jesus would be like a Samaritan….I think it’s also compelling that just a few verses above Jesus’ disciples were preaching about Jesus to a Samaritan village and the Samaritan village rejected them and their message. I think Jesus making the Samaritan the hero of the story would have demonstrate Jesus’ grace and forgiveness to his followers—- in that he was willing to make the hero of his story an ethnicity that just rejected him.
I think of these parables as the great equalizer. The scholars struggled over them right alongside the uneducated fishermen (and still do). Jesus kept urging his listeners to have faith like children, those insatiable consumers of stories, so it makes sense this was his chosen medium. The parables themselves lodge almost effortlessly in our brains because they are images. God brings them back to me throughout the day and reminds me to pray again or turn to him or to see someone with his eyes. It is like a portable library of truth he can dispense at will. The only qualification to accessing the truth seems to be humility, self forgetfulness, and a hunger for it.
I am finding it interesting to compare the different versions. For example, in Matthew we have 3 solid chapters of the Sermon on the Mount. In Luke, bits are scattered throughout, and along with the Beatitudes (a truncated version) we have corresponding woe's. Or sometimes the parables seem to shift depending on context. In Matt 18 we have the unforgiving servant who is owed a little and demands payment after he's been forgiven a huge debt--seems clearly to teach humility and the importance of forgiveness (and I think it does). But in Luke 7, we have a short form of the same parable told when Simon the Pharisee is judging the sinful woman who is annointing Jesus's feet and weeping over them. There the point is love following forgiveness. She has been forgiven much so she loves much. The two forms deepen each other and bring out different nuances.
"It has been granted to you to know the secrets of the kingdom of Heaven; but to those others it has not a been granted. For the man who has will be given more, till he has enough and to spare; and the man who has not will forfeit even what he has. That is why I speak to them in parables; for they look without seeing, and listen without hearing or understanding."
I've struggled with that parabola about parabolas for years... 🤔😕💦😅