Unpacking The Parables: The Wisdom Teachings Of Jesus

By Ron Miller

When the Gospel of Thomas was discovered in the sands of Egypt some sixty years ago, an earthquake hit New Testament scholarship. Evidence that Thomas might be earlier than the four gospels opened up some new doors.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: May 4, 2013
• ISBN: 9780983542179

Ron Miller

Ron Miller has worked as a freelance writer and illustrator for more than 30 years. Many of his illustrations appear in magazines like Astronomy and Scientific American. He has also worked on motion pictures and created postage stamps. (One of his stamps is attached to a spacecraft headed for the planet Pluto!) He has also written short stories and novels and has even created a comic book.

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Unpacking the Parables: The Wisdom Teachings of Jesus

Copyright © 2011, 2013 by Ron Miller

SECOND EDITION

International Standard Book Number: 978-0-9835421-7-9

Library of Congress Control Number: 2013908031

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any

form or by any electronic means, including information storage and

retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except

by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review.

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

P.O. Box 641544

Los Angeles, CA 90064

www.ronmillersworldpublishing.com

Cover illustration:

The Good Samaritan by Vincent van Gogh, 1853—1890.

Oil on canvas (73 x 60 cm), 1890

Museum Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, Netherlands.

This painting is linked to the parable of the Good Samaritan

that can be found in Luke 10:29-37.

ISBN: 9780983542179

DEDICATED WITH

LOVE AND AFFECTION

TO MY GRANDSON,

EVAN HENRY SPEZZANO,

ON HIS THIRD BIRTHDAY,

JUNE 16, 2011

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

1: THE THOUGHTFUL FISHERMAN

2: GOOD SOIL

3: GOOD SEED AND WEED SEED

4: THE MYSTERY OF A GOOD HARVEST

5: JESUS THROWS FIRE

6: JESUS IS FIRE

7: A SHELTER FOR THE BIRDS

8: GUARDING YOUR HOUSE

9: KEEPING YOUR HANDS FREE

10: ARMING YOURSELF

11: A CITY ON A HILL

12: HOUSETOPS AND LAMP STANDS

13: THE SINGLE EYE

14: WINESKINS AND PATCHES

15: No EXCUSES!

16: GREEDY TENANTS

17: THE THOUGHTFUL MERCHANT

18: THE WOMAN MAKING BREAD

19: THE CARELESS WOMAN

20: THE ASSASSIN

21: A DOG IN THE MANGER

22: THE GOOD SHEPHERD

23: THE BURIED TREASURE

24: UNWANTED HOUSE GUESTS

25: THE NARROW GATE

26: BEING SALT

27: HAVING SALT

28: CAUSE FOR CELEBRATION

29: THE CLEVER SERVANT

30: SEEING THINGS RIGHT

31: COMPASSION IS THE CORE

32: THE SELFISH RICH MAN

33: THE COMPASSIONATE GARDENER

34: THE IMPORTANCE OF HUMILITY

35: THE HOMECOMING

36: BUSINESS AS USUAL

37: SORTING THINGS OUT

38: GOD-CENTERED

39: THE ECCENTRIC LANDOWNER

40: STAYING AWAKE

AFTERWORD

SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY

ORDERING INFORMATION

INTRODUCTION

WHY ANOTHER BOOK ON THE PARABLES?

Of making many books there is no end." This verse from Ecclesiastes (12:12) gives us pause. Our libraries are filled with books on the parables of Jesus. Why write yet another one? My answer to this question is two-fold. First, I begin this investigation from a different starting point than any of the books I have read on this subject. Most of the classic studies start with the parables found in the gospels of Mark, Matthew, and Luke. This book begins with The Gospel of Thomas (henceforth Thomas), a text made available to us only some sixty years ago. I will explain this decision and its consequences later in this Introduction.

Second, my exploration of the parables begins from a distinctly different premise. Most of the prior studies of the parables explain them from an apocalyptic premise. Now it is undeniably true that many of Jesus's Jewish contemporaries exhibited an apocalyptic mindset, expecting a new era of history to dawn, one in which an anointed figure (a messiah) would reign over a kingdom on earth that would be ushered in by events of cosmic proportions.

The literal meaning of the Greek word apocalypsis is to uncover, just as the literal meaning of its Latin counterpart revelatio is to roll the curtain back. The people who produced this genre of literature (especially popular from 150 BCE to 150 CE) were interested in finding the calendar or timetable for these end-time events. Such knowledge made them eager to uncover this news for their readers, since knowledge of this end-time calendar gave people the opportunity to align themselves with God before this fateful scenario unrolled.

John the Baptist anticipated such an event. So too did Paul, the author of the earliest writings contained in the Christian Testament. So too did many of Jesus's early disciples. The natural inference from this evidence is that Jesus must have had this same expectation, and this conclusion is supported by numerous teachings attributed to Jesus in the Christian Testament. According to this viewpoint, therefore, Jesus's parables should be read from the premise that Jesus himself was an apocalyptic preacher. If one begins with Paul and the gospels, this is an understandable inference.

Because I begin with Thomas, my attempt to unpack the parables flows naturally from the prominence I give to this text. This leads me to reject the more popular starting point in which Jesus is understood as an apocalyptic preacher. Since I begin with the priority of Thomas, my orientation moves from an understanding of Jesus primarily as a wisdom teacher. This difference in starting point is not an inconsequential matter. It lies at the heart of any efforts to understand Jesus and his basic message.

If Jesus was an apocalyptic preacher, then he was clearly wrong, just as all the apocalyptic preachers in the following two thousand years have been shown to be wrong. I'm quite confident that the current apocalyptic writers and televangelists predicting that these end-time events will unfold in the next ten to fifteen years will be shown to be wrong as well.

Apocalyptic thought is characterized by spiritual infantilism. It's an attitude in which we are waiting for God to come in and clean up the human mess, whereas a healthier and more adult attitude understands God to be waiting for us to create the world of justice and peace of which God dreams. Apocalyptic thought betrays a failure in nerve and courage. It appears precisely at those times in Jewish history when people were feeling most vulnerable and helpless, times when Jewish life was