WHY JESUS SPOKE IN PARABLES

WHY JESUS SPOKE IN PARABLES (Matthew 13:10-17)

The Rev. Dr. Fred Vergara

When I graduated from my first seminary (and that was some 34 years ago) and spoke my first sermon in the congregation I was assigned to, I spoke “Greek.” I mean, I spoke in the language that my people could not understand. I spoke about such systematic theological terms I learned from John McQuarrie, Paul Tillich and Rudolph Otto, Bultmann, Moltman, etc. and all those big names in seminary. Such terms like “mysterium tremendum,” “eschatological expectation” and the “quagmire of existential vacuum.” My people were polite so they never said a word. I wonder if they ever learned but I think they were beginning to suspect that I just wanted to impress.

Then one day, I got inspired from a Grade School book about Aesop’s fables and I chose the fable of the Sun and the North Wind having a contest which of them was stronger. They have chosen a man by the road as the arbiter of their debate, that is, which of them can take this man’s coat off.

The North Wind blew hard and strong but it could not take the man’s coat because he pulled it tight in his body. The Wind even blew harder and stronger but the man even more clung to his coat tighter and tighter. No amount of wind blowing can blow that man’s coat off.

Then it was the turn of the Sun. It simply shown brightly. The warmth was felt by the man and he voluntarily took off his coat.

I related the fable to God’s love: like the ray of the sun, it simply shines and gives warmth. It does not use power of force or aggression. 1 Corinthians 13, I says, “Love is patient and kind. It is not arrogant nor rude.” In love, we do not force people to respond to our proclamation of God’s Word. Once I went witnessing for Christ, with an aggressive, fundamentalist evangelist. He made sweeping judgmental statements on a family and practically forced them to “repent” and prayed the “sinner’s prayer.” I was wondering if they really repented sincerely or they were simply intimidated by his forceful voice and commanding figure.

Sometimes, we act like the wind. We think that power and aggression are what makes things happen. We despise the meek. We are not impressed by silent personalities. We are awed by flamboyant personalities, by articulate expressions. In the story of the prophet Elijah, he wanted to hear God from the cave in which he hid. First, there was a terrible wind but God was not there; second, there was a strong earthquake but God was not there; third, a great ball of fire but God was not there either. Finally, there was “a still small voice”---and God was there.

After the Mass, the silence of my congregation was broken. One of them said, “Father, for the first time, I understood your sermon.”

In Matthew 13:10, the disciples asked Jesus, “Why do you talk to the crowd in parables?” And Jesus replied, “the reason why I talk to them in parables is that they look without seeing and listen without hearing or understanding…but happy are your eyes because they see and your ears because they hear!”

In Sunday School we were once taught that “a parable is an earthly story with heavenly meaning.” It is similar to the Lord’s Prayer “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” The kingdom of God is hard to explain, except in parables. It is hard to explain because it comes from above and is eternal, It cannot be seen, except by faith. Its development is transformational,  like a tiny mustard seed growing like a strong Philippine mahogany or  like a Silicon microchip enabling a rocket to fly to the moon. Its value is like a pearl of great price or a field filled with minerals of gold.

Jesus is the Son of God who comes down from heaven and dwells among us. He is therefore the Ultimate Parable. No one has seen God, the Father; but Jesus, the Son, He had made Him known. In the fullness of time, God  let the Son's ray come down with the warmth of His love and the stillness of His peace. Like the Sun, we felt the warmth and we voluntarily take off our pretensions and surrender our life. We behold his glory as the only Son sent from the Father: the Way, the Truth, the Life.

In Jesus, we have a heavenly meaning come down to become an earthly story, full of grace and truth. So too, in peace and love and in the still small voice of witness, let us let our light shine before the world that they may see God's work among us, as we glorify God, our Father who is in heaven. Amen.