In his booklet on the theology of story, John Dominic Crossan argued that, while a myth is a story that confirms the status quo and reconciles its apparent contradictions, a parable is a story that undermines the status quo and reveals its contradictions.
The subversiveness of a statement like: “Those who exalt themselves will be humbled and those who humble themselves will be exalted” (Lk 14:11; 18:14; Mt 23:12), is brought home to us in the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector who go up to the temple to pray (Lk 18:9-14).
In Jesus’ time, the scribes and the Pharisees were held in high regard. With the chief priests and elders they were the religious leaders who knew what was pleasing to God and what was not pleasing to God. The tax collectors, on the other hand, were universally hated and treated as outcasts in that society. The tax system was grossly unjust. The poor were mercilessly bled by a triple tax: the Roman tax, Herod’s tax, and the temple tax. But it was those who were employed to collect the taxes who had to face the anger and rejection of the people. They no doubt often exploited the situation for their own benefit. Jesus, however, had some sympathy and understanding for these men who, like the prostitutes, always got the blame. Against everyone’s expectations he chose to stay at the house of Jericho’s infamous tax collector, Zacchaeus (Lk 19:1-10).
In the parable all expectations are reversed. The Pharisee, because he is proud and boastful, is not justified in the eyes of God: “God, I thank you that I am not like other people.” The tax collector, on the other hand, because he humbles himself, is justified in the eyes of God.
While everyone assumed that religious leaders like the scribes and the Pharisees, the chief priests and the elders, would be the first to be accepted into the kingdom of God, Jesus dared to stand up and say that the prostitutes and tax collectors would be entering God’s new world ahead of the religious leaders (Mt 21:3 1). That must have upset the assumptions of almost everyone, including the prostitutes and tax collectors themselves. “The first will be last and the last will be first” (Mk 10:31).
The story of the Samaritan who helps a robbed and injured Jew, while a Jewish priest and Levite walk by on the other side (Lk 10:30-37), subverts all the myths about Jews and Samaritans. Samaritans were thought to be half—pagan heretics. Jesus is saying to his fellow Jews not only that they should include the hated Samaritans in their love of neighbor but also that they might even learn something from a Samaritan about loving one’s neighbor.
To appreciate the impact this story must have had on Jesus’ contemporaries, we might retell it as the story of an injured Christian soldier who is helped by a Muslim fundamentalist while a Christian military chaplain and a Christian social worker walk by on the other side. Impossible? Why? The significance of Jesus’ parables even for today is that they shock us out of our prejudices.
In the parable of the workers in the vineyard (Mt 20:1-16), Jesus turns the accepted understanding of justice upside down. When the employer pays those who worked in the vineyard for hour as much as he pays those who worked all day, is he guilty of an injustice? Jesus says no. The employer paid those who worked through the heat of the day the wage that was agreed upon. One denarius is in fact a very generous wage for a day’s work. When these workers complain, it is not because an injustice has been done to them; it is because the employer has been generous to others. In other words, it is not a matter of justice but of envy. The employer chose to pay those who worked for only a short time the same wage because their needs and the needs of their families would have been the same.
In the parable of the prodigal son (Lk 15:11-32), the elder brother feels that he has been treated unjustly. He has always done what is right, so why should there be a celebration for his recklessly wasteful and depraved brother instead of himself? But, as Jesus sees it, the older brother has not been treated unjustly; he is simply jealous. He wants to be preferred. He wants his brother punished, not forgiven.
Read:
The whole Story of the Samaritan (Lk 10:30-37)
The Parable of the Prodigal Son (Lk 15:11-32)
I used the above as a lectio divina during the retreat of our postulants - March 2014
(Excerpt from Nolan, Albert. Jesus Today: A Spirituality of Radical Freedom. (New York: Double Storey Books, 2006.) pp. 47-62.)
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