- Matthew 13:34-35

Jesus often couched his most subversive teaching in parables. These parables conveyed insights in a narrative form, using characters and symbols that would have been familiar to his listeners, while revealing an unexpected--sometimes startling--truth.

While we often tend to spiritualize the meaning of these parables, there is also another level of truth to be explored. As Rev. Celena Duncan so aptly demonstrated in a recent workshop at Metropolitan Community Church of Topeka, we much more readily accept the spiritualized understanding of the meaning of parables while almost never perceiving their more practical "nuts and bolts" meaning for daily life.

For example, the so-called "parable of the tenants" in Matthew 21:33-39 tells the story of a landowner who leased property to tenants and is often used to convey the image of God sending prophet after prophet (the servants) who are consistently mistreated until finally as a last resort sending the son and heir whom the tenants kill, thinking to possess the land for themselves. This is the most common sense that is made of this passage.

However, on another, more practical level, it can also be instructive for us about the futility of repeating the same actions, choices or behavior all the while expecting a different result each time. Such repetition can be costly indeed.

These are the often hidden truths of the parables that seem to lie just below the surface, beyond our popular and more common approaches to them.  They are there for the finding.  Try engaging a parable for yourself. Let the story question you. See what unexpected truth you find.