The Language of the Parables: Why Jesus?

By Rev. Bryan Wolfmueller

When I was in college, I spent one of my summers in a remote village in the highlands of Fiji. There was no running water, no electricity. The people of the village spoke English, but whenever there was anything important to discuss the conversation would change to Fijian.

There was a man who would walk around the village each morning chanting the news. I had no idea what was being said. He could have been reviewing the points of the ongoing debate about the benefits of electricity in the village, or he could have said, “Keep the goats out of the toilets.” The business of the village happens in the language of the village; strangers are left out.

The parables of Jesus work the same way. They are spoken in the language of the kingdom of God, spoken for the children of the kingdom. To His followers, Jesus is revealing the truths of His kingdom. To those who do not believe in Jesus, the parables hide these truths of the Lord’s kingdom.

As Jesus gets farther from His Baptism and closer to the cross, opposition to Him grows. The crowds become polarized, pulled off the fence in one direction or the other. In this charged atmosphere, Jesus teaches in parables.

The Lord’s disciples notice this change and ask Him about it. “Why do You speak to them in parables?” (Matthew 13:10). Jesus answers, “Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. For whoever has, to him more will be given, and he will have in abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him. Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.” (Matthew 13:11–13)

When Jesus uses parables, He is speaking in the language of the kingdom, and this speaking is for the citizens of the kingdom. Like the announcements chanted in Fijian, the citizens hear and understand what’s being said; outsiders don’t.

Parables are for Christians. They are for us, the Lord’s baptized. We have learned the language of His kingdom. The parables deliver for us the treasures of our salvation and all the gifts of the Lord and His cross.We are the Lord’s forgiven sinners.

Over and over we hear these joyful themes in the Lord’s parables. We are those who are forgiven much and, therefore, love much (The Two Debtors, Luke 7:36–50). Like the publican, we stand far off and beg the

Lord’s mercy. He answers our prayer, and we are justified (The Pharisee and the Publican, Luke 18).

As the Lord’s Church, we are His treasure, His pearl of great price, purchased not with gold and silver, but with His holy precious blood and His innocent suffering and death (Hidden Treasure and the Pearl of Great Price, Matthew 13). He has planned planted His Word in our hearts, and this Word bears the fruit of eternal life (The Sower, Matthew 13).

We share in the angelic joy, knowing that we, like lost sheep or a lost coin, are sought after by our Lord Jesus, the Seeker and the Savior of the lost (The Lost Sheep and the Lost Coin, Luke 15). The open arms that receive the prodigal son, and the ring, and the robe, and the slaughtered fatted calf are pictures of our heavenly Father’s unbounded love and mercy for us sinners (The Prodigal Son, Luke 15).

In the midst of trouble and tribulation, we take comfort that we are in the Church, the house built on the solid rock of the Lord’s Word (The House Built on a Rock, Matthew 7).We are the unworthy inheritors of the Lord’s kingdom (The Wicked Tenants, Luke 20), and His kingdom is for us a great banquet (The Great Supper, Luke 14) and a joyful wedding feast (The Marriage of the King’s Son, Matthew 22). Not foolish or faithless, the Lord’s Christians are the wise virgins who, by faith, see the joy of their salvation in the eternal wedding feast of the Lamb (The Ten Virgins, Matthew 25).

We trust not in our riches, our goodness, or ourselves, but rather in the Lord Jesus and His blood and cross (The Rich Fool, Luke 12). All these benefits come to us not from our labors, but from the Lord’s promises (The Laborer in the Vineyard, Matthew 20).

We, like a faithful servant waiting for the master’s return, look for the second coming of the Lord Jesus (The Watching Servants, Mark 13), and when the Lord Jesus returns, like the wheat, we will be gathered by the angels into the eternal barn of the Lord’s mercy (The Wheat and the Tares, Matthew 13). Praise the Lord that we are the sheep on the Lord’s right hand of blessing (The Sheep and the Goats, Matthew 25). Praise the Lord that we are baptized into His kingdom. We hear in the Lord’s parables that echo of the Lord’s great and blessed judgment for us,“Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” (Matthew 25:34).

Rev. Bryan Wolfmueller is husband to Keri, father to Hannah, Andrew, Daniel, and another child due in November, and pastor of Hope Lutheran Church in Aurora, Colorado. After ten years, his tan from the Fijian sun has completely faded. He may be reached at pastor@hope-aurora.org.