The time of His crucifixion was coming fast, but Jesus stayed focused on teaching the people in stories meant to warn them. Particularly these stories pointed to the religious leaders, who were “blind guides of the blind” (Matthew 15:14). Jesus’ teaching method continued to invoke the power of story. While Socrates, the ancient Greek Philosopher, was known for teaching by means of questions (what has been called the “Socratic method”), and Aristotle for his copious didactic writings, Jesus’ predominate method of teaching was parable. In fact, God’s message to all of humanity comes in the grandest story of all, that of Jesus Christ. He is The Story, the One who came telling stories.

We relate to biblical stories, because they communicate that God does in fact understand us. Stories are effective because they take us from the known to the known. In the stories Jesus told He always began with something people could relate to. They draw us in so that we inevitably find ourselves participating mentally in the developing plot – without realizing it. In the parable of the prodigal son, some people identify with the son who strayed, readily seeing themselves as ones who have also strayed from their heavenly Father. Others see themselves, as the Pharisees surely did, in the older brother who was quite annoyed at the father’s forgiveness of the wayward son. Those religious leaders were annoyed at Jesus welcoming and forgiving crooked tax collectors and prostitutes. Jesus’ story always drew people in, so they could readily see and comprehend the truth.

Parables are best understood as elaborate innuendoes, where people went away thinking, “Was He saying that against me?” A kind of “If the shoe fits, wear it” sort of lesson. The genius of this is that if someone were to object, it would be tacit admission that the shoe did indeed fit!

In our passage for today, Jesus sets the stage for a message against people who reject the Kingdom of God, yet He does not come right out and say that. However, the story lined up so well with the events transpiring—namely that Christ’s arrival had been announced with pomp and celebration a few days earlier and that Israel, a few days later, would reject Him—one can hardly deny the parallel. Through the final days of His trial and crucifixion, the echo of this parable must have nagged the memory of each of His rejecters.

 Lord, help me to listen carefully to Your stories so that my heart will not be dull and I miss Your message.