(Matthew 13:10)
Everyone loves a good metaphor. They enable us to fully grasp concepts in ways that are plain and yet comprehensive. They are used in speech everyday by all of us, whether we are of aware of them or not.
One of the greatest theological thinkers of the previous century, C.S. Lewis, was prolifent in metaphors. One can hardly read a paragraph of his writings without encountering a word picture of some sort. He realized that for human beings to understand heavenly things, they needed to have an earthly picture to equate them with. It is through metaphors that most of Lewis’s profound ideas were presented.
It’s not simply in his philosophical works, however, that Lewis used metaphors. His best known works, The Chronicles of Narnia, are well known for being allegories of his belief in the God of the Bible. Allegories are simply metaphors on a grand scale – they are entire stories which give us a unique picture of a known truth. They present to us the things we read in the scriptures daily in a new and fresh way.
When the disciples asked Jesus why he was sharing parables with the crowds that gathered to hear him speak, it wasn’t that they didn’t understand the concept of allegory. It was common practice in those days to use word pictures - their rabbis employed them in every teaching - so they weren’t foreign to the disciples or to the groups of people Jesus was addressing. The reason the disciples were confused was simply that they already plainly understood all of the principles Christ was trying to get across. The Lord responds to their question of why He was telling stories by saying that “…it is given unto you [the disciples] to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them [the crowds] it is not given.” In other words, the moment the disciples were called by Christ, they were given understanding of the “Kingdom of Heaven”, they were granted with knowledge of the principles and statutes of God that Christ came to share. To them, the stories Christ was telling were simply rote repetitions of things they were already well aware of. Jesus was quick to explain to them, however, how useful his allegories were in getting across his intentions to those who did not know the mysteries of the Kingdom. He declares that they have the power to open the eyes of the blind and the ears of the deaf to His truths.
Needless to say, Jesus’ parables were incredible. His stories were the truths of God made manifest in ordinary, colloquial human speech. Just as Christ made himself in our image so he could relate to us personally, He used simple storytelling in simple everyday speech to relate God’s truths to us in an understandable way. The miracle of the Incarnation is echoed in the infusion of God’s high principles into our low, debased languages. Think about it: Christ could have come to Earth in His full splendor, but He didn’t. He came as a weak infant in a dirty cave. On the same token, He could have spoken His messages in the tongues of angels (which are really the only way to do God’s words justice), but He didn’t. He presented them in the unliterary, slang-filled speech of the common man. There was nothing majestic about either His coming or His preaching. The Incarnation of Christ went well beyond the virgin birth into the very words He spoke.
We all enjoy stories. Most of us spend hours viewing them on our TV’s. Some read books as well. We engage in these activities because stories somehow help us to connect with something outside ourselves. The “morals” of the tales we read teach us something we may not have known, and the characters we view help us to experience things we have never experienced. Sadly, many of the stories we tune into now days simply don’t have any meaning – there are no morals involved. They are simply “entertainment” to pass the time. Christ’s stories were incredibly beyond this lackluster futility– they all had meaning and purpose. Our Lord was the ultimate story-teller. He was engaging, clear, and exciting in His tales. Not one story that he wove was meaningless. Through His use of parables, we all can understand the incredible depth of Heaven.
J.R.R Tolkien, the famed writer of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, was fond of saying that each of us longs to tell or experience stories simply because God loves to tell them, and we are made in His image. Through the parables of Christ, we see this to be true. He told spectacular stories, the likes of which will never be penned by man. In a world where stories are rated based on how many copies they sell, the brilliance of Christ’s is staggering. While Tolkien’s trilogy is the second best-selling book of all time (and rightly so), the Bible remains at the top of the list. Tolkien acknowledged in many instances that God’s story of our redemption was the most profound story of all. Christ’s parables of heavenly truths rank a close second. The numbers - but more importantly the changed lives - prove that both these statements continue to ring true.
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