Just before talking about the common practices of giving, praying, and fasting, Jesus gives his hearers this warning: “Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven” (Mt 6:1, NIV).
There are at least two things to make note of with that statement.
Parables, by their very nature, are not easy to understand… at least, not at first.
A parable is a unique type of story designed to promote observation, meditation, and action. A parable that does not invite this sort of deep thinking and eventual active response to the meaning contained within the story is not a parable after all.
I was listening to a podcast on Jesus’s parables and, as the host introduced the episode by giving a quick rundown of what was going to be discussed—as all good hosts do—he said something that caught my ear. While setting up the importance of Jesus’s parables he referenced a place in Mark’s gospel where the evangelist writes about Jesus’s teaching style and this host said, “It even says specifically that when Jesus taught the masses…he taught exclusively in parables.”
