4 of 12

Write now Article Tools

Parables make the hearers ask questions, such as, "how is the Kingdom of Heaven like a mustard seed; do we contain it?" Parables make us think just as they did for those who heard it in the first century. We have to look at the image and see how that image works for us today. The Kingdom of Heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field, Jesus says. "Why would a man intentionally sow weeds in his field?" Mustard is smaller than other seed, but when it has grown it is taller than the other plants; it becomes a tree, big enough for the birds to come a roost in the branches, Jesus taught. In reality mustard does not grow to the size of a tree but it does become a large shrub. Mustard also will take over a field if not contained. Jesus is saying that in the world, the Kingdom of Heaven is a weed intentionally sown to run wild in the neatly plowed Kingdom of the World.

Jesus borrows the image from Ezekiel 17:22-23 The Lord God says: I too, shall take a slip from the lofty crown of the cedar and set in the soil; I shall pluck a tender shoot from the topmost branch and plant it on a high and lofty mountain, the highest mountain in Israel. It will put out branches, bear it's fruit, and become a noble cedar. Birds of every kind will roost under it, perching in the shelter of its boughs.

A noble and expensive cedar tree becomes a gnarly and unwanted mustard shrub where birds will roost, in Jesus' parable. We are not to think of the Kingdom of Heaven as a noble tree in the world's sensibility but as a wild growing weed. To Jesus, the world is upside down and the Kingdom of Heaven is right side up. Through his parables, Jesus shows how power, money and possessions are all upside down. This becomes clear in the parable of the 10 silver coins. Lighting the lamp and sweeping the house at night would be more costly than losing just one coin. No woman would do that and she certainly wouldn't call her friends and neighbors over to celebrate over finding one coin. Here Jesus is saying that this is how it is with God and this is how we should feel about one another. Again, the world is upside down, and the Kingdom of Heaven is right side up.

Parables worked well in Jesus ministry because he was able to say what he needed to say without rousing the anger of a paranoid Roman governor. Jesus was not a liberty to speak about God's Kingdom as he might have because any reference to another empire or kingdom outside of the Roman Empire was punishable by death. Rather than talking about the Kingdom of Heaven in glorious terms he speaks of it in humble and seemingly ridiculous terms. He speaks of the Kingdom of Heaven through the actions and responses that would never happen.

"Why would a shepherd leave 99 sheep in the wilderness unguarded to rescue one?" "This is crazy!" Upon the scapegoat's head was placed the sins of a 100 people, and it was left in the wilderness. Now all the sheep that is everyone is left in the wilderness, and Jesus reverses the curse of the scapegoat and brings all the sheep or everyone together. But, this action would never happen in real life shepherding. No sensible shepherd would abandon 99 sheep to find one lost one, because a lost sheep was a dead sheep.

To understand Jesus' parables we have to understand the "beatitudes" in Matthew 5, where those who are shamed in the world are honored in the Kingdom of Heaven. Blessed are those who are persecuted in the cause of right, the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs.

Learn more about this author, Marcus.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.

Add your voice

Know something about The role of parables in the Bible?
We want to hear your view. Write now!