Preaching on Parables: A Simple Framework to Teach Them Effectively

A Special Kind of Story

Most Christians have some idea of what a parable is. Ask an adult Sunday school class and you might hear: “It’s a story!” Another might chime in, “with a moral message!” Merriam-Webster defines a parable as "a usually short fictitious story that illustrates a moral attitude or a religious principle."

True, but helpful for preaching, probably not.

My favorite definition of a parable comes from Eugene Peterson, who gets a lot closer in this excerpt:

Jesus' favorite speech form, the parable, was subversive. Parables sound absolutely ordinary: casual stories about soil and seeds, meals and coins and sheep, bandits and victims, farmers and merchants. And they are wholly secular: of his forty or so parables recorded in the Gospels, only one has its setting in church, and only a couple mention the name God.

As people heard Jesus tell these stories, they saw at once that they weren't about God, so there was nothing in them threatening their own sovereignty. They relaxed their defenses. They walked away perplexed, wondering what they meant, the stories lodged in their imagination. And then, like a time bomb, they would explode in their unprotected hearts. An abyss opened up at their very feet. He was talking about God; they had been invaded! (The Contemplative Pastor: Returning to the Art of Spiritual Direction, Erdmans, 1993.)

This gets us far closer to the reality of parables, but we still need some help to create a framework in which we might faithfully preach parables in such a way that the listener walks away really grasping not just the parable itself, but the intent Jesus had in telling them.

The truth is, parables are a very special kind of story with a few key features. And unless we really understand those features, we won’t fully grasp what Jesus is up to in the parable, nor will we be able to get the main point across in our preaching. That message of course, is that the kingdom of God is upon us, the gospel message of salvation is here for those willing to listen.

A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to preach a sermon on the Parable of the Wedding Banquet in Matthew 22. Incidentally, we have a great Scripture Guide on this text, if you are interested. Anyhow, as I began writing the sermon, a thought occurred to me. What if, instead of trying to simply explain this confusing parable (and they’re almost all confusing…but we'll get there in a minute), I actually explained what a parable is by using my text as an example?

I’ve done a fair bit of thinking and writing on parables throughout the New Testament, and so it wasn’t too challenging to explain the concept and then incorporate the parable of the banquet into that framework.

The exciting thing is—it seemed to help the congregation better understand both the wedding banquet text and the nature of parables. So I thought, what if I shared how I went about this with church leaders? Then, if it’s helpful, you can incorporate it into your own ministry and in your own sermons in church.

Parable Feature #1: A Common, Easy-to-Understand Setting (at least for Jesus’ listeners)

The start is the easiest. Whenever Jesus would tell a parable, it would take place in a setting his audience would understand without effort. For example, Jesus tells us,

• Two sons are vying for their father’s inheritance

• a man is traveling to Jericho

• A woman is searching for her lost coin

• a vineyard being worked by hired hands)

Each of these examples would be completely comprehensible to Jesus' listeners. This is how I put it in the sermon:

So one key feature of a parable is that they always involve a common setting. When Jesus describes a king giving a wedding banquet for his son, this would have been second nature for the listeners to both comprehend and grasp how the social/religious dynamics were expected within the story…Everyone in the audience would have recognized the dynamics of a wedding banquet for a King’s son.

Throwing a banquet would have been a major deal, not just for the family, but for everyone involved. It would have required significant expense, and significant planning, and everyone would know that when the banquet was ready, their job was to come and enjoy the feast.

So the setting is completely understandable. A king is throwing a party for his son, and everything is ready…now all the guests must do is come prepared to celebrate the feast. But things don't go according to plan...

But here is a really important point that we cannot miss if we want to effectively preach on the parables: what was completely understandable to Jesus' listeners is not always understandable to us. Our culture is very different than the world of the first century.And so the preacher must effectively explain the setting of the parable if we want to preach effectively.

As we'll see, it's not just that Jesus' audience understands the setting of the story, it's that they also know exactly how one is expected to behave in those settings.

This is a bit difficult for us because we mostly live in a very informal low-context culture, where dress and behavior are far less regulated than they would have been in Jesus' time.

Parable Feature #2: A Shocking Event Takes Place

Nevertheless, there remain a few places (for example, weddings, funerals, business settings) where dress and behavior come with certain expectations. In the same way, the listeners of Jesus' parables notice too when the parables suddenly included a shocking twist.

This is how I put it in my sermon:

But then there is this second dynamic to a parable, quite the opposite from the first. And that is this, within the story, something will take place that would be so shocking, so out-of-the-ordinary that its listeners would most likely have a visceral if not violent reaction.

And so, that’s exactly what happens in our passage when the king sends his messenger to invite his guests:

…let’s pick up in verse 5:

But they paid no attention and went off—one to his field, another to his business.

The rest seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them.

Here again, it’s important to remember the audience Jesus is speaking to. Remember, Jesus is in a sparring battle with the chief priests and scribes. These are people who embody the famous song from Fiddler on the Roof: “Tradition, Tradition!!!!”

To murder a king’s messengers for inviting them to a feast would be the ultimate breaking of the traditions expected of them as his guests.

Knowing Jesus intentionally adds this element by design is extremely helpful. We may assume Jesus is without guile, but the parables are case-in-point that this is not the case.

What would this look like in our own day? Let's say, Jesus was telling a story about a judge. He might say something like, "the judge showed up in a pair of torn jeans, a Slayer t-shirt and a face tattoo, we'd be shocked. Not just because of the clothing, but at the disruption of the status quo.

That's just not how a judge is supposed to dress. In the same way, for party attendants to murder the king's servants would be equally shocking. It might actually invoke thoughts emotions of disgust on the part of the audience. Again, this is all by design.

Parable Feature #3: A Disruption of the Religious Status Quo

Parable Feature #3: A Disruption of the Religious Status Quo

The third element of preaching parables hinges on the first two: create a common scenario, then incorporate a shocking event, in the hopes of then making his listeners wrestle with their understanding of their faith. Here’s how I put it in the sermon:

And so this brings out the third and final major aspect of Jesus’ parables. The whole purpose of a parable is to shock the listener, which ultimately disrupts their pre-existing beliefs about God.

We see this in some of the other well-known parables. Why did Jesus make a Samaritan, the hated Samaritans, the hero of that story in Luke 10?

To disrupt the Jews understanding of who their neighbor was.

Why did Jesus tell a story where a younger brother would ask for his inheritance, which was to essentially wish his father dead? To disrupt the Jews the status quo understanding of works righteousness and point them to grace.

And why does Jesus tell this parable of the King’s Wedding Feast? To disrupt his fellow Jews from believing that their identity as priests or scribes or Pharisees was going to cut it when it comes to their eternal destination.

In other words, this strange new kingdom Jesus is preaching about has very little to do with the way things usually work–where the rich, the powerful, the well-connected receive all the goodies, leaving the rest of humanity reaching for the scraps. It’s an upside-down kingdom, where “the first will be last and the last will be first.

Conclusion

The truth is, while most Christians think they understand parables, many are missing one of these key ingredients. By describing the nature of this storytelling art form and then using the actual parable to illustrate what Jesus is teaching in the parable you are preaching on can be a really effective way of bringing the text to life.

Keep it simple as well. Using these three core features that anybody can understand will ensure your congregants will follow along.

Stu

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