How to read a parable - Matthew 18.21-35 All Age Talk

Matthew 18.21-35 All Age Talk Hi, today we’re going to start with a story that Billie’s going to tell us. I want you to listen very carefully, and try to work out what the most important, the main point is. Well, just like I asked you to think of the main points, so Jesus when he was telling stories, wanted people to pick out the most important point. We have a special name for the stories Jesus told, anyone know what it is? Parables. Can anyone name any of the parables JC told? And a question for the grown-ups: Why did JC tell lots of stories instead of just talking directly to people? More interesting/remember them better/... Some people think there are 4 main reasons: Ppt Were many people able to read in JC’s time? No. So, if you can’t read, you are used to hearing everything and if you are just relying on hearing, and you don’t have anything written down to check back, then it needs to be easy to remember, (just like Fred said). We are so used to looking things up on Google or writing down a ‘to do’ list, imagine if we couldn’t read or write, how different life would be. Pick up your bibles for a minute (illustrate) and just look at how long the Old Testament is, how much of the bible it takes up, imagine learning that off by heart! (to the kids) imagine if you were revising all of this for your exam! That’s what people did! So... things need to be easy to remember. Second point – people were used to this way of teaching and learning. People used stories all the time to make their points and we can find lots of examples of this in the bible, here are some refs if you want: 2 Sam 12, Isa 5 (on Ppt) Related to this, we need to remember that JC told his parables on the spur of the moment and he set them in context, that is, they were related to things everyone knew about. That made it easier for people to understand and remember. They were earthly stories but with a heavenly meaning. Lastly, I want you all to shut your eyes... now, think of a black horse running over some green grass...did everyone manage to see a black horse in their mind? Was it galloping over some green grass? Did anyone see anything else in their heads? The sun shining? Birds? Trees? The point I’m trying to make is that we often think in pictures, and a parable has been described as a word picture, drawn by JC, on the spur of the moment to teach or explain something. So, how should we interpret a parable? Are they full of hidden meanings? Is JC making life difficult for everyone? Well, a theologian called William Barclay says No. He reckons parables aren’t full of hidden meanings and symbolism, what we have to do with parables is treat them just like you did with Billie’s stories, so what do we have to do with a parable? What do we have to look for? That’s right, we’re looking for the main point of the story, or parable, because we need to remember that JC didn’t spend hours thinking and studying and praying and worrying (like I do when I’m writing a sermon!) No – his stories were given in reply to someone asking a question, just like when you ask your mum or dad to explain something. Barclay said they were ‘sudden, lovely improvisations in the dust and heat of conflict’. Ppt. So, with a parable, there are 3 things we need to do Ppt. We know the first one don’t we? We need to look for the...main point. Great! Yes, we look for the main point JC was trying to make and we don’t try to find the whole Christian faith in one story! Secondly, we need to understand when and why JC told the story; we need to know the context. And finally, we need to think about how to apply it. It’s not enough just to read it and understand it; we need to think what it means for us today and what we are going to do about it! OK then, let’s think about today’s bible reading. But first, I want to tell you about my little sister. She’s not that little any more, she’s 45, but to me, she’ll always be my little sister. Do any of you have little brothers or sisters? Well, my sister, Janet, could be very annoying, she’d take my things, even break them sometimes (she didn’t mean to) and she was always wanting to play with me when I was busy with my friends or things and Mum was always telling me to look after her and so on, you get the picture... In our reading today, we heard about Peter asking JC a question. It sounds to me like he was feeling just a bit fed up with his brother who was called... ahem! ... Andrew – I can’t imagine why he could be cross with anyone called Andrew?! Anyway, he wants to know how many times he has to forgive him. This is actually following JC’s teaching about how to deal with a community member who is in the wrong so it might not have been just about Andrew – phew! So Peter thinks he’s being the nice guy saying he’ll forgive someone seven times, but JC says no! 7 x 70 times! Now, 7 x 70 is only 490. Now I bet that your parents have forgiven you more than 490 times already! JC isn’t really majoring on the numbers here, he’s making a point – you have to keep on forgiving, over and over again, Peter thought he was being generous but he was way short! Now, let’s look at the parable, can anyone remember what it was about? I’ll give you a clue: it was either about some penguins or a mean servant... Ok, was there a king involved? Was his name Gregory? No, we don’t know his name do we, but what we do know is that the king was sorting out all his money and our mean and nasty servant owed him lots of money but when the servant begged the king, the king let him off paying. But then what did the mean servant do, can anyone remember? Someone owed him money too, did he let off? Was he nice like the king was? No! He was really nasty and had the man put in jail. But the king got to hear about it and he was really angry wasn’t he? He called the servant wicked and said that he should have been merciful. Now, we know that JC had just been talking to Peter about forgiving people and then he told this story, so what do you think was the main point of the parable? That’s right, and the last part, the judgment should be treated like an ‘exclamation mark’ said to underline how important it is to forgive people. And how is this relevant to us today? What do we have to do about it? Well, one thing is pretty obvious, we need to forgive others, and we need to be merciful. God is merciful to us and he wants his mercy to be shared with everyone else too. Ppt But, before we finish, I want you to think – do we demand standards of others, including God, which we don’t expect of ourselves? If we are late for a meeting, we think, ‘I missed the bus’, but some else is late, we think ‘they should be more organised!’ If a friend doesn’t stand up for you when someone is teasing you, you think how awful they are, but it’s your friend and you have to stand up to a bully for them, it suddenly feels very different. The point is, we are very good at criticising other people and going easy on ourselves. So, to sum up (Ppt): look out for the main point when you read a parable, don’t try to make things complicated. Think how you can apply it to yourself. Remember, it’s easy to see the faults in other people and forget about our own.