the parables of the kingdom robert farrar capon

Whether we “get” them or not, therefore, they remain first and foremost his way of getting to us. Like good poems, they not only mean, but be: they have a sacramental effectiveness.

His parables are not so much word-pictures about assorted external subjects as they are icons of himself. But just as the work of Jesus (say, in his death and resurrection) has whatever effect it has quite independently of the theologies we happen to hammer onto it, so Jesus’ words - simply because they are Jesus himself speaking - have whatever power he has, no matter what we may think about them. People tend to think that unless they can arrive at some satisfying interpretation of this parable or that, the parable in question may safely be left out of account. This distinction needs to be applied just as much to the words of Jesus as it does to his works. All you need for that is to believe in him - to say “Yes, Jesus, I trust you,” as opposed to “No, Jesus, get lost.” Your subsequent understanding of how such a simple yes can do so vast a work may make you glad, sad, scared, or mad but in no case can it be what saves you - or, for that matter, condemns you. The point is not whether any of those interpretations is true, or even adequate (some are more so, some less) it is that none of them is strictly necessary for laying hold of the atonement Jesus offers. You know: he was able to bring it off because he was both God and man and so could bridge the gulf that sin had put between the two or, his death was effective because it was a ransom paid to the devil or, it did the job because the power of his sacrificial example softened even hard hearts and moved people to better behavior or, his resurrection solved the problem of sin because it brought about a new creation in which sin had no place. The usual view is that this trust inevitably involves accepting some intellectual formulation of how Jesus’ death and resurrection could possibly have achieved such a happy issue out of all our afflictions.

Take the atonement, for example - the scriptural insistence that our sins are forgiven by trusting a Jesus who died on the cross and rose from the dead. It is generally assumed that Christianity teaches that people cannot be saved unless they accept some correct, or at least some Official Boy Scout, understanding of what Jesus did or said.

So much of what both the world and the church consider to be the essential message of the Gospel is simply interpretation.

The parables of the kingdom robert farrar capon