Truth in Parable
The best things can't be told. The second best are misunderstood. -Heinrich Zimmer
This week at house church, my wife Niki led the Sunday School for the kids. They have been looking at the parables of Jesus for the last few weeks and this week she read the parables about the kingdom of God. "The kingdom is like". She then gave the kids a pile of legos, each, and asked them to keep the stories in mind as they built their vision of the kingdom. While at that age their interpretation of the kingdom is probably more of a literal understanding of the parables. What I realized as I looked at their creations was that what their creations represented, was a real picture of the kingdom. Not the only picture but a picture. The kingdom is like a treasure buried in a field, like a seed planted that sprouts and provides a home for the birds of the air, like, like, like. Those images took shape through primary colors of blocks, wheels and Lego men. This is the beauty and power of the parables of Jesus. They are so simple that they can be understood by a four year old and so complex that they can still puzzle the most mature believer.
Heinrich Zimmer said "the best things can't be told". I think Jesus knew this. He knew what we would do with a literal telling of the kingdom of God. It is like all of the things that we say we understand and the things we say are known. We place boundaries around it and mark what this thing is and what it is not. We then do the work of deciding who it is who knows, who is enlightened, who is in and who is out. So Jesus told parables. This proclamation of the Kingdom of God was the focus of his teachings and he told it in such a way that we couldn't fully grasp it or claim it because he knew the best things couldn't be told. The best things can't be told in the traditional ways that we come by most of our information. It would only be misunderstood. No, this "best thing", was so great that he didn't want us to miss it. So he hid it in the only place it could be preserved: A parable
"The second best are misunderstood"
When you take the gospel message and you plant it in a new place, the possibilities are endless. A word that has such a specific meaning in our context has a wide range of possible meaning in a new place. This is only true if we let it be. In the above quote from Zimmer, he is speaking of the difference between connotation and denotation. Denotation says that there is a precise, literal and singular definition of a word, and even a simile or metaphor. The problem is that when you take a message of good news and also take a foreign denotation with you and plant it in a new place, that message loses its significance. Unfortunately, you may even lose the fact that the message is even good news at all when you share the message in a new context. It is misunderstood and stripped of its power. Connotation, on the other hand, carries with it all of the possible meanings and interpretations. It is less concerned with a particular denotation because language rarely works in that way.
This is scary business if you aren't used to experiencing other cultures. It's scary because even well meaning messages can be misread and received as hurtful. It's also scary because it is possible that the message you meant to bring to another context or culture will be totally misunderstood. It is out of your hands. I say that is the best place for the gospel message to be. The controlled and kept version that speaks in "yes" and "no", "in and out", often ends up being anything but good news. If we believe in the Spirit of God as a gift that works both within us and out in this world, then you can not control the gospel of Jesus Christ. It will go where it will, it will accomplish what it desires and you can't do anything about it. I think you will find that it is often good news to people you wish it wasn't and grace to those you thought were beyond its reach. The good news about that is that is how it was able to be sufficient for you. The good news is for the sake of the world, let's make sure we aren't keeping it for ourselves.
Colossians 1:5...the gospel 6 that has come to you. Just as it is bearing fruit and growing in the whole world, so it has been bearing fruit among yourselves from the day you heard it and truly comprehended the grace of God.
The gospel only bears fruit in new and exciting places and ways if we would only let it be what it truly is: The grace of God at work in us and in this world.