A Bevy of Small Parables

Why do we call Jesus Lord? There should really only be one reason. Jesus, himself, asked the same question in the final verses of Luke Six. He asked in Luke 6:46, “And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?” By calling Jesus Lord, we are saying, 'you are the master; say and I will do.' How often do we stop and take stock of the words we use and claim to understand?

They all loved to sit around and hear Jesus speak. We do as well. With thumb and finger to our collective chin, we give the nod of wizened sage, but that nod is more like a congratulatory pat on the back. We came, we listened, we nodded. In doing so, we have only approached the constituents of our lives in the spirit of a master. In our hearts, we never relinquish our white-knuckled grip on the reins. We turn our steed into the onslaught of personal reality and spur the beast for speed.

We rarely stop and take stock. We know the words, but that is simply head-knowledge and a far cry from understanding. Even those of us who understand stand at a considerable distance from the wisdom of acting upon what we understand. What is the wise thing to do? Stop and accept the fact that calling Jesus Lord is an act of relinquishment. That will not occur until, at the stage of understanding, one breaks free of book-smarts and begins to incorporate truth rather than merely recognize it.

Let's do that here. Turn loose of the reins. Climb down from your speeding mount and give due consideration to what Jesus is actually saying.

First up are the blind people mentioned in Luke 6:39. It is apparent that the blind do not perceive the light. This parable is about light and dark. It is the difference between being alive and only existing. It contrasts understanding against book-smarts. It highlights those who incorporate truth. The blind recognize the world around them, but they are not illuminated. The light shines all around them, but they do not see it.

Let us imagine that you are in need. You need to be guided, taken by the hand and led along. People like yourself, and that includes you, will not fit the bill. There is a quality of ineptitude about the blind. They simply lack all experience when it comes to the light. When we accept the hand that is to guide us, we give control to another. Wouldn't we rather have a guide who actually sees more than we do? We know there is a ditch out there somewhere; it is our fervent desire that our guide knows more than we do. In that same light, or lack thereof, why take the hand of a guide if you will not let yourself be led?

In verse 40, Jesus gives an example of being blind. You have taken the master's hand. You handed over the reins. That is a declaration that you at least recognize your darkness and need. All that is left is for you to receive instructions: step here, step there. While you are learning, that is: incorporating what the master gives you, you are not yet complete. Anyone who is complete must be recognized as in possession of the light you seek.

The parable of the mote, verses 41-42, places the disciple in the role of the blind guide. You simply have not reached the place where you may act in that manner. You still need to learn from those who have more light in them than you do. If you recognize that you are at that place rather than at the place of a guide, then you must also recognize that you are engaged in more than the gathering of facts and figures. Knowing about something, even being in a state of agreement with something, is still being in the dark.

The dark and the light are personal levels of you. You must incorporate light, not just know of or agree with it. You must bring that light into who you are. You must remake yourself with the light. Until you do, the darkness remains. If the earnest acceptance of instruction from Jesus brings light into your persona, that is, not just calling Jesus Lord, but doing what he says, then your willing state and propensity to be educable is the end result of the incorporation of light into who you are (becoming.)

The good tree, in verse 43-44, speaks to that nature. If you are the tree that calls Jesus Lord then you bear the appropriate fruit. You will be instructed. You will do the things he says to do and thereby incorporate light into your being. For every tree is known by its own fruit. What this entails is like the acorn tree accepting the instructions of the acorn seed. The acorn fruit is proof of incorporation.

If the fig tree puts forth thorns for fruit, it has not been instructed by the fig seed. It has only provided lip service. If the grapevine calls the grape seed Lord but puts forth brambles, then it is evident in the fruit what the grape has incorporated. It shows. It is there for all to see. You cannot be spiritual if your fruit is the fruit of worldliness. You cannot claim enlightenment is your fruit is only that of facts and figures.

Furthermore, we see in verse 45, that in the comparison of men to trees, it is from the spirit that we produce our fruit that proves who and what we really are. A good spirit produces good fruit and an evil spirit produces evil fruit. Within each of us is an accumulating abundance of our ongoing incorporation. Like busy caterpillars, we continually munch – and we are what we eat: it shows. How does it show? Whatever it is we are all about, that is the thing we will speak of the most. Our conversation will always return to what we believe and what we do.

I've spoken of incorporation of instruction, of light, of truth. How important is it? The final parable of Luke six shows us that we cannot simply come to Jesus and listen. Up to that point, there is only knowledge and understanding. To be at the level of wisdom, we must do the things we know and understand. They must be a part of our persona, our character, our very nature. The thing about having a foundation is a solid connection to the stuff that makes you who you are.

The caterpillar locks his many legs into his food source, physically becoming one with it. As food sources go, the caterpillar chooses to incorporate only what he is locked into. The evidence of preference will be there for all to see. Between the man with a foundation and the man without a foundation, the stream that beats vehemently against them is one and the same. That is to say that there are not two sets of rules. Those who espouse a worldly philosophy are subject to the same spiritual stream. While they insist on being the master of their own destinies, they have failed to avail themselves of things necessary for their completion.

Beatitudes and the Afterlife

A topic often preached in churches is that of the beatitudes. The blessings are regularly taken out of context as if they are a stand-alone concept. What is the context they are taken out of? They follow on the heels of Jesus healing the multitudes, everyone seeking to get in close and touch him.

That follows on the heels of Jesus praying all night before choosing twelve apostles from among his disciples – which should tell us that Jesus had more than twelve disciples. That followed the accounts of two Sabbaths upon which Jesus angered the authorities of the synagogues. Jesus rubbed their noses in the law and, thus, made enemies. And finally, the beatitudes lead into the commandments that govern Christian behavior, for example, love your enemies.

I am taking this study from the sixth chapter of Luke. I wish to highlight the broader implications of the beatitudes and the commandments, both of which may be classed with the parable of Lazarus. The parable of Lazarus deals with the difference between our present lives and our lives to come. To put that in alternate phrasing, the beatitudes and the commandments for Christian behavior deal with the contrast between worldly physical lives and the spiritual lives to come – lives without physical bodies.

Jesus makes comparisons between the two states of existence that are as stark as comparisons between night and day. They may be seen to be as simple as cause and effect. They may be viewed as comparable to Yin and Yang. They may also be interpreted as present proofs of transcending truths. Let us look at a few examples.

Luke 6:21 states, “Blessed are ye that hunger now: for ye shall be filled.” This states rather plainly that the tables are due to be turned. What is 'down' in our present existence will be 'up' in the life to come. This reckoning is given as a proof of just whose company the Christian stands in, as seen in Luke 6:22-23, “Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man's sake. Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy: for, behold, your reward is great in heaven: for in the like manner did their fathers unto the prophets.”

The Christian, first of all, must see that he stands in the company of prophets, but secondly, he must see the 'reward' in heaven as the 'effect' end of cause and effect. In the example of night and day, one does not merely cease to be as its opposites steps in to replace it. Night works toward day. The night actually 'achieves' the day. In that sense of working toward our spiritual reward in a spiritual heaven, we must do those works that achieve the desired ends.

In the beatitudes, Jesus tells us that there is a bright day to follow for those of us in the company of prophets – but we must work for it. To reach an easterly destination one must actually walk in that direction. In opposition to that desired day, Jesus speaks of the children of the men who persecuted the prophets of old. He tells us the same truths, that because they are full in this present existence, the tables will turn in the life to come and they shall know only want.

In all of the beatitudes, the condition of the present existence becomes its exact opposite in the life to come. Some say that life here on Earth is no life at all, but only existing in a state of day to day survival at the barest level. That will be a spiritual truth for many in the afterlife – it will not be life for them. Because everything that Jesus says in the beatitudes may be seen in the light of Yin and Yang, that is to say, in the light of opposites, it is needful to see the following commandments in that light also.

Jesus did not present the beatitudes and stop there, he immediately followed with protocols that are necessary to achieve an opposite spiritual outcome. Let me ask this, if those who have this world's good end up with the opposite in a spiritual afterlife, what will 'loving your enemies' achieve? Those enemies who remain enemies will have already received their reward by the time they come to the afterlife. From that point and forward, the opposite will be their truth.

They will have been handed a state similar to the rich man in the parable of Lazarus. They will find themselves in a state of personal torment. They will desire relief and comfort. They will call for compassion and sympathy. However, they will only receive the hot coals of their own misdeeds. When a Christian turns the other cheek, he is actually playing a winning hand. All these things must be done with the future state in mind. With whatever measure you mete out, it shall be measured to you again – or, you only get out of it what you put into it.

The Christian stands not only in the company of prophets. When we exercise those 'spiritual muscles' that are God: i.e.: mercy, we are children of the most high. Like father like son. We stand in the company of the first begotten son of God.

Chapter six ends with several parables. This point must remain clear: all of the parables at the end of chapter six must be read in the context of the above. They were employed to clarify both the beatitudes and the commandments. I leave you, the reader, with this simple question: are you working toward the night, or are you working toward the day?

Luke 5

There are an awful lot of facts presented in the Bible. They assail us in a constant flow; we find it difficult to keep the newer information in context. For instance, as being in the fifth chapter of this book, we feel confident about the status of Jesus' disciples. In Luke 5:11, after a miracle on the sea, it is said that they forsook all and followed him. But wait – weren't they already disciples?

Before the miracle, Jesus was staying in Simon's house. It was in the city of Capernaum. Jesus had preached in their Synagogue, after which, he departed to Simon's house and healed his mother-in-law – chapter four, verse thirty-eight. Before that, Jesus was in his hometown of Nazareth, and before that, Jesus was at the place where John baptized him.

According to the gospel of John, Jesus was still in that same place where John the baptist did his baptism thing. It was the day after the baptism when two of John's disciples left John to be disciples of Jesus. One of them was Andrew, Simon's brother, who went and told Simon and brought him to Jesus. We were all under the impression that it was there, at the place of baptism that Jesus accepted Simon as a disciple, naming him Peter.

However, the gospel of Luke changes that all around. No doubt, they attended the Sabbath service in which Jesus exorcised the unclean spirit. He took Jesus home with him and witnessed the miraculous healing of his mother-in-law, but still, it took the miracle of the fishing trip to make them forsake all.

Let us look a little closer. Whose ship did Jesus enter to preach? It was Simon's ship, one of two in a fishing partnership. It is a safe bet that fishing was the family business. When Simon had cast out at Jesus behest, he had been up all night fishing without success. He was tired and sleepy. Why would he go to all that trouble for a stranger? It appears that Jesus' word was good enough – indicative of experience drawn from a relationship. Perhaps the early disciples needed to fully commit.

So Simon and Andrew were disciples. There was the one other mentioned but not named from the gospel of John. What about the fishing partners? James and John were just as amazed by the miracle on the sea. That brings the number of disciples to five, with at least four of them definitely known to come from Capernaum. Then, Jesus picks up Levi in the same city. That's half his disciples from one place.

It takes but a brief perusal of available documents to see that all but one of the disciples was from that general area of Galilee. Most of them were related to each other. Bartholomew (Nathaniel) was from Cana, with a possible connection to the wedding Jesus attended, and Judas was from southern Judea near the lower end of the dead sea.

Speaking of disciples, was discipleship some willy-nilly everyday commonplace occurrence, or was it a more controlled and restricted practice? Who had disciples back then? We note this indicative question in Luke 5:33, “Why do the disciples of John fast often, and make prayers, and likewise the disciples of the Pharisees . . ?”

It seems to me that discipleship was a practice restricted to accredited religious groups and personalities. If Pharisees had disciples, was John a Pharisee? If Jesus prayed at his own baptism, after the practice of the disciples of John, was he also a disciple up til then? If discipleship was limited by accreditation, was Jesus a bonafide Rabbi of one of the accredited religious orders? Mark 5 has so much food for thought, we might have to loosen the belt.

Let us return our attention to the multitudes. Mark 5 presents the reader with a time in Jesus' early ministry in which he was swamped by literal throngs. News of him had gotten out. He was famous. People knew that he had healed infirmities, so they gathered all their sick folk and flocked to him. Even in his preaching, he had to sit in a ship that sat at a distance from the shore. On top of this, we see that many Pharisees and doctors of law had come from surrounding areas to hear him.

Luke 5:17 tells us that there were “Pharisees and doctors of the law sitting by, which were come out of every town of Galilee, and Judaea, and Jerusalem . . .” That's a lot of people. So then, how do we reconcile the fact of Jesus preaching from inside a house. Was it the house of Simon Peter? The multitudes, in their attempts to set their infirm loved ones before the healer, let them down 'through the tiling into the midst.' That speaks clearly of an interior. Perhaps Jesus sat just inside the doorway with the crowds gathered outside. Standing room only.

It is in this context that we must read the things Jesus said as he spoke to the people, and to the Pharisees, and to the doctors of the law, emphasizing the points he wished them to understand. Points like:

“They that are whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”

“Can you make the children of the bridechamber fast while the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then shall they fast in those days.”

“No man putteth a piece of a new garment upon an old; if otherwise, then both the new maketh a rent and the piece that was taken out of the new agreeth not with the old.”

These are not stand-alone sayings, but they must be filtered by the context in which they are found. I came not to do 'this but 'that.' Why? No man puts this on that. Why was that said to these particular people at this particular time? Seekers have great minds. What would you find if you really applied yourself?