Of Parables and Parabolas
A Big Deal About Parables
Diana Butler Bass gives a needed lesson in textual criticism by explaining that parables are not puzzles to solve, but mysteries to contemplate (The Cottage, July 30, 2023). The lesson applies to poetry and most forms of figurative language. We should learn that we don't regard texts as "closed" or susceptible to only one interpretation, but as "open," inviting multiple interpretations.
While academically we have a need to ponder and keep questioning, psychologically we need to take something from a parable that will add to our understanding and strengthen our fortitude. Like a mustard seed.
What does Jesus say about parables? When the disciples question him about the Parable of the Sower, he says "Do you not understand this parable? Then how will you understand all the parables?" (Mark 4:13). I discovered that only Mark reports this commentary about the nature of parables, so apparently Matthew and Luke found that addition to the story unnecessary.
If Jesus did say that the Parable of the Sower is key to understanding parables, what did he mean? In this parable, Jesus says, the seed is the word. The word falls on different soils and each soil produces a different quality of plant. Only one soil is hospitable enough to accept the word and bear fruit, "thirty and sixty and hundredfold."
If the word of God fails to multiply in the other soils, Jesus suggests it is because of attitudes and behaviors. In the case of abortive seeds, the soil has not produced fruit, which we understand to be actions that glorify God or that benefit our brothers and sisters. This would be an organic notion of parables. They take root in our lives and change how we live.
Interrogating a parable only carries us so far. The academic approach may give us a humility about interpretation, that we must struggle to understand its meanings. The fruit-bearing part comes from understanding how this parable applies to our lives. It is not necessarily the same for every person, but it requires a resolution, a settled interpretation that changes us.
So I may ask, how do I become like the "good soil"? I may reflect that I should judge my neighbor less and listen to his arguments about who deserves help in our society. I may be used to closing my mind as soon as my neighbor starts to lecture, but I should be learning to listen with compassion. That might be my personal take-away from the Parable of the Sower.
But if I don't try to internalize some meaning of the parable, I won't truly benefit or be changed by it. I should want the parable to influence my behavior, but it can't do that if I only ponder the many possible meanings. This is the age-old tension between action and contemplation. We must allow our contemplation to change our actions or it is only academic exercise.
This is my commentary on the Parable of the Sower; I do not exclude other commentaries. I just need my meaning to internalize in order to change my thinking or behavior. This is what I believe Jesus means by "bearing fruit." Without a meaning that makes me change, the reading of parables is just an academic exercise.
I am not a mathematician, but I imagine the parable mathematically to be like a "parabola," which has the same etymology. In math, parabolas are "special U-shaped curves that form by slicing through a cone-shape."(https://www.dictionary.com/browse/parabola). That bit of geometry is less important to me than the resulting curve, which looks like this
What interests me is that the parabola has one low point, called the "vertex." The path down to the vertex I imagine to be the path of contemplation. Contemplation is like the descending curve of the parabola, a descent of memory and reflection, trying to understand. At some point our contemplation arrives at a personal meaning and begins to rise up from the vertex. As you take the ascending curve of the parabola you touch some of the same vertical points as you touched on the way down. To me this represents re-thinking your life experiences.
The parabola does not necessarily have a beginning and ending, but it has a definite direction from the arc to the vertex. In my simplistic geometry, the parabola represents the "renewing of our minds," as Paul urges in Romans 12:2. But to renew our minds we must first settle on our interpretation of the parable, when we arrive at the vertex. Parabolic thinking!
The blessing of parables is that we can return to them at every stage of our lives and get something new. But my point here is that we have to "get something," not only contemplate. It is not enough to wonder, we must somehow change. The intention of the Parable of the Sower is that we learn to produce fruit by changing: our behavior and our thinking.