The site tagline is ‘Christianity retold. Why?
Well, I’ve always been fascinated by the many and various ways that people retell stories. As a Christian, I read the Gospels a lot and one of the noticeable things is that a particular story, a particular parable that Jesus tells will often be different in different Gospels, as if Jesus varied his parables to suit his audience. Which raises a question in my mind. If I retold the history of Jesus as if it was happening today, would a modern Jesus still be telling stories about shepherds, vineyards and wheat fields?
I don’t think so, unless he decided to visit a rural area. Jesus told parables that were set in the world of the people who were listening to them. Sheep, Shepherds, vineyards – they were all part of the everyday life of First Century Judea and Galilee. I don’t think that he’d use those images for, say, Twenty First Century East London, even if he was trying to make the same kind of point.
Set in the world of the people who are listening to him. What would the parables sound like, if they were retold set in the world of the people who are listening now?
So, I’m going to start this blog with some ‘retold’ parables. First, the parable itself, then a separate post discussing what choices I made and why. I hope it’s going to be entertaining, possibly useful – and might help us see Jesus’ parables in a new way.
The first retold parable is The Parable of the Tenants.