Parables, the Greatest Stories ever told - Retold

By Ray Filby

Parables : The Greatest Stories ever told – Retold

focuses on the better known of Jesus’ parables and rewrites them as situations in modern life which correspond to the situations in Jesus’ day. They attempt to promote the same teaching that Jesus was giving in the original parable. Each parable is preced

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dr. Ray Filby
• Release date: Jan 10, 2020
• ISBN: 9781916048577

Ray Filby

Ray Filby qualified as a physicist at Imperial College in 1958 and went on to take a doctorate there. He has also been awarded a Master's degree in Manufacturing Systems Engineering by the University of Warwick where he was awarded a special prize for his performance on this course. On graduating, Ray joined the army where he served with the REME as officer in charge of the telecommunications workshop in Gibraltar. Dr. Filby started his career as a Development Engineer at a firm involved in the manufacture of scientific instruments in London but he has spent most of his working life in teaching. He was Head of the Maths and Science Department at a College of Further Education in Coventry, after which he spent some years with the education advisory service. Among other things, this involved writing material which would provide real life contexts for the secondary school mathematics curriculum. For a short time, Dr. Filby worked as a Technical Writer for Jaguar Cars. For the last several years up until his retirement, he worked as an Information Officer with Severn Trent Water. Dr. Filby is actively involved in the work of his church, St. Michael's, Budbrooke, where he is a licensed lay minister. For many years he was sub-warden for Readers in the Diocese of Coventry. Ray is married to a former teacher, Sue, and has two grown up children, Andrew, a chartered accountant and Sarah, a doctor. He has five grandchildren.

Book preview

Published by Midhurst

First published in 2015 by

Olympia Publishers

Copyright © Ray Filby 2019

Midhurst.

2, Freers Mews,

Warwick,

Warwickshire,

CV34 6DP

ISBN 978-1-9160485-7-7 (e-book)

http://midhurstpublishing.uk

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank the Right Reverend Professor Tom Wright and the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge for permission to quote Bible passages from Tom Wright’s ‘The New Testament for Everyone’ published by the S. P. C. K. 2011.

I would also like to thank my wife, Sue, for her patience as I completed this work, for checking through the manuscripts and for her help and suggestions in devising the questions at the end of each parable for use with Bible study groups or for private devotions.

I am also grateful for the interest shown in this work by my vicar, the Reverend David Brown, and for his encouragement and suggestions.

I am also indebted to our Churchwarden, Mr. Martin Davies, for his advice on farming matters which was especially helpful in constructing one of the parables.

Contents

Introduction

The Good Samaritan

The Great Banquet

The Lost Sheep

The Persistent Widow

The Pharisee and the Tax Collector

The Prodigal Son

The Rich Fool

The Treasure and the Pearl

The Sheep and the Goats

The Shrewd Manager

The Sower

The Talents

The Ten Bridesmaids

The Unmerciful Servant

Introduction

There can be little doubt that Jesus was one of the greatest, if not the greatest raconteurs the world has known. He was followed by crowds around Galilee, who came not just to experience or witness the most amazing miracles but to hear stories which were both interesting and full of meaning. Sometimes however, the meaning remained concealed. I rather feel that in recording Jesus’ parables, the evangelists used their considerable skill at précis so that they just conveyed the words carrying the deep meaning without including any extra verbiage. Yet I feel sure that there must have been extra words spoken for crowds would hardly travel half a day’s journey to hear a story that took no more than a very few minutes to tell. Jesus stories were surely more than mere sound bites.

To provide an example which shows the evangelists’ skill at condensing a report, let us look at the proceedings of St. Paul’s trial before the Roman Governor, Felix. The High Priest, Ananias, had secured the services of a skilled lawyer named Tertullus to present their case. Because the case was so important to them, they had probably chosen the best lawyer available and no doubt, he would have charged well for his services. Tertullus opens the case as follows.

Acts ch 24 v 2-8 We have enjoyed a long period of peace under you, and your foresight has brought about reforms in this nation. Everywhere and in every way, most excellent Felix, we acknowledge this with profound gratitude. But in order not to weary you further, I would request that you be kind enough to hear us briefly.

We have found this man (Paul) to be a trouble maker, stirring up riots among the Jews all over the world. He is a ringleader of the Nazarene sect and even tried to desecrate the Temple; so we seized him. By examining him yourself you will be able to learn the truth about all these charges we are bringing against him.

Lawyers are not noted for being concise in their utterances. Tom Wright, the former Bishop of Durham, suggests in his book ‘Acts for Everyone, Vol. 2’ that it is unlikely an expensive lawyer, wishing to impress his paymasters that he was worth the fat fee that he was being paid, would have opened his case so concisely. However, the evangelist, St. Luke, spares us the padding and just gives us the basics which include the undeserved flattery designed to ensure that the priests would receive a favourable outcome to their petition.

I suggest that if Luke so abbreviates an important legal speech, might not he have similarly abbreviated the parables? If so, what were the extra words surrounding the kernel of the teaching which made Jesus’ stories so arresting to listen to? These are lost and no-one has attempted to speculate on how the original stories might have sounded because it would be bordering on blasphemy to put words into the mouth of Jesus. I have attempted to avoid this form of blasphemy by retelling the parables by presenting the situations arising as being set in modern times with contemporary characterization.

At the end of each parable are a series of related questions which could either be considered during one’s own time of private prayer and Bible reading, or they could be used in the context of a group Bible study. Some of the longer parables could be presented in an abbreviated form if they are to be read out in the context of a group Bible study.

The Good Samaritan

Luke ch 10 v 30-37

30 Once upon a time, a man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho and was set upon by brigands. They stripped him, beat him and ran off leaving him half dead.

31 A priest happened to be going down that road, and when he saw him, he went past on the opposite side.

32 So too a Levite came by the place, he saw him too and went past on the opposite side.

33 But a travelling Samaritan came to where he was. When he saw him, he was filled with pity.

34.He came over to him and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine. Then he put him on his own beast, took him to an inn, and looked after him.

35 The next morning as he was going on his way, he gave the innkeeper two denarii. Take care of him, he said and on my way back, I’ll pay you whatever you need to spend on him.

36.Which of these do you think turned out to be the neighbour of the man who was set upon by the brigands?

37.The one who showed mercy on him. came the reply

Well, Jesus said to him, you go and do the same.

The Good Samaritan

Luke ch 10 v 25-37

It was approaching eight o’clock in the evening but the streets in that part of London were unusually quiet, almost deserted. The previous evening, there had been riots in which groups of skinhead youths battled with young West Indian men who lived in the area. The police had quelled the riots with some difficulty, adopting heavy and not always even-handed tactics to separate the belligerents. Now all was quiet but strewn debris in the roads and on the pavements gave witness to the previous night’s mayhem. Tonight, all was quiet. Those living in the area were wise enough to stay indoors unless they had to venture out on urgent business. The quiet was broken as a band of skinhead youths entered Walworth Road and sauntered by the library, yelling obscene football chants,

Fortunately, no West Indians came out to respond to this provocation. There were no police to be seen.

A bespectacled man in a bowler had, black overcoat and carrying a briefcase saw that he was walking towards this group and crossed the road. The group saw this and crossed to the same side. As they met, one of the yobs gave a Nazi salute.

Excuse me, said the man who found his way blocked and unable to get past. He was Caucasian and looked like a respectable bank clerk.

You didn’t respond to my salute,

challenged the youth who had raised his arm.

I’d no intention to, replied the man.

We demand respect, said the youth.

We’re going to teach you respect,

said a second yob.

Meanwhile, another of the youths had walked behind the man and violently pushed him so that he fell over the foot which the youth had lodged before his ankle. The yobs started to kick the fallen stranger. This went on for several minutes before the yobs continued on their way, raucously singing their football songs and racist abuse, leaving the man bloodied, bruised and unconscious, lying on the pavement. The streets were deserted. There was no-one to give this victim aid.

Father Francis O’Malley, a catholic priest, was driving up the Walworth Road on his way to St. George’s Cathedral to hear confessions. He had only been asked to do this at St. George’s a few times before and he felt it a great honour. His car slowed as it reached the point where I victim lay on the pavement and Father O’Malley looked out. Poor fellow, he thought but I don’t think I can do much for him. He looks past help anyway. Obviously a victim of a mugging by some black thug. But I must get my priorities right. My first duty is to those who have come for confession and I mustn’t be late. Who knows how many years I might save some of these wretches from purgatory through my ministry of absolution? Father O’Malley drove on.

Close behind Father O’Malley’s vehicle was a car driven by Canon Michael Shorncliffe-Smith. Canon Shorncliffe-Smith (he always liked his surname used in full and never abbreviated to Canon Smith) was the vicar of St. Anselm’s, a prosperous parish in leafy Surrey just within the border of Southwark Diocese. Canon Shorncliffe-Smith was on his way to a Diocesan Synod meeting. He would have quite a bit to say on each agenda item and he hoped the bishop would be there to hear him. He was one of those people with the strange gift of being able to open his mouth and let words tumble out in sentences with perfect syntax and which even sounded plausible but when one thought back to what he’d said, it was difficult to distil from his ramblings any coherent thread of thought. How did he manage to preach meaningful sermons? He