Jesus’ best figurative stories contain a surprise. They are like a box that contains a spring — and when it is opened, the unexpected happens. They are like a trap that lures you into its world and then closes on you.
A typical example can be found in Luke 12:13 – 21. Rabbis were often called on to arbitrate civil disputes regarding property. On one occasion, a man’s brother would not divide the inheritance. It was a squabble about the division of property.
And [Jesus] told them this parable. “The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’
“Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.” ’ ”
In this short story Jesus sets up an assumption that was commonplace in first-century Judaism: material prosperity was a sign of God’s blessing and greater accumulation was the prerogative of those who enjoyed God’s good favor. At this point in the story, Jesus’ audience would have been pleased, recognizing at once the privileges of the few. Then suddenly, Jesus springs the trap:
But God said to him, “You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?”
An unexpected, harrowing question is raised in a matter of seconds. The expansion of estates, the accumulation of property, the gathering of wealth might be the quest of the fool because at any moment, we might die. And we cannot take our estates with us. With clever storytelling, Jesus dodges the dispute and strikes at the heart of each person’s motivation.
There is considerable discussion among scholars who try to give guidelines on how we should interpret the parables. The instinct to allegorize each of them down to the smallest detail has now been widely rejected. By making every element bear some meaning, we will introduce ideas into the parables that are completely foreign to them. In the last century scholars emphasized that at the heart of each parable lies a crisis — a point or points of stark contrast that shock us, forcing us to make a value judgment on a theme or character.
