In the gospels of the New Testament, Jesus is asked more than once why He speaks to people using parables. His audiences sometimes get frustrated with that manner of speech and they request that He just "speak plainly." We've recently finished a few weeks of Sunday gospels in which we've heard multiple parables from Jesus:  the king's wedding feast for his son; the vineyard owner and his wicked stewards; the employer and the day laborers who all get paid the same. Elsewhere, we can read parables about mustard seeds, lost and found coins, lost and found sheep.

We ought not pass over that simple question too quickly:  Why DOES He speak in parables rather than clear conceptual statements? I think that there are at least a couple of very good reasons. For one, note that in each case Jesus is trying to speak about this thing called "The Kingdom of God." It can be recognized partially already in this world, at least in fits and starts, but it is clearly not limited to the here and now. That "Kingdom" is ultimately transcendent, coming from and involving God himself. And God is not adequately defined in neat categorical language. That's why we Christians often speak of Holy Mystery. If the Kingdom were capable of being concisely defined in a textbook, then Jesus would seem to have been cruel not to share that information plainly with us. The fact that He often chooses parables is already telling us something about the subject matter; it's bigger than we can imagine.

The second good reason for parables is that they have the capacity to speak to new people and situations throughout history and across cultures. They're not supposed to mean exactly one thing for all time. I experience this personally in the ministry of preaching. I'm now into my 32nd year of doing this, which means that I have gone through the entire Sunday Lectionary, with all its parables, more than 10 times, and I've never preached the same homily twice. That's not because of my cleverness; it's because a parable says something different, for example, in a time of COVID-19 than it did before, or in a time of war rather than peace, etc. There's a richness of meaning in a parable that permits it to be heard uniquely every time.

So there's your unsolicited bible commentary for the week!