Mark

The Wall

September 2, 2023 by P A Downs Leave a Comment

Image by falco from Pixabay

An Imaginary Parable

A King lived in a castle, behind a high wall. Whenever he tried to come out and meet his people, his tenants added more stones to the wall. So the wall got higher and higher. One day…

What does that mean? – apart from ‘Jesus is a lot better at parables than I am.’

What is modern?

A commonly asked question is: ‘How relevant can a two thousand year old religion be to a modern urban society?’ Yet, Christianity spread in towns. Towns with running water, baths, a social security system … Christianity and towns — ‘modern urban societies’ — have been together since the time of the first apostles.

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Parables that shouldn’t be retold?

April 22, 2023 by P A Downs Leave a Comment

Image by WikiImages from Pixabay

‘I Am’

Between them, the gospels often include several versions of the same parable. The Flower Seeds and the Pots is a retelling of Luke 8: 5-8, but I could have picked the version told in Matthew 13: 3-8 (and elsewhere, I’ve retold Mark 4: 3-9). They’re all obviously the same basic parable – but with different flourishes.

This happens often enough that it suggests that (as I’ve said in other posts) Jesus varied his parables to suit the needs of his audiences. Varying (or retelling) parables to suit the needs of our modern audience follows in that Jesus-tradition.

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Parables That Don’t Need Retelling

October 15, 2022 by P A Downs Leave a Comment

Do All Parables Need Retelling?

Can we understand a parable – or at least, can people start to puzzle out its meaning – without any interpretation or ‘translation’ by a preacher? Even if they’ve never read the Bible in their lives, and may have no concept of ‘God’?

In this blog I’ve asked the question ‘Does this parable need retelling?’ a few times. But there are two parables where I’d give an answer of ‘Almost certainly not’.

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Comment: The Watchful House Sitter-Luke 12:35-38

August 6, 2022 by P A Downs Leave a Comment

Late night worker — Image by Ambady Sasi from Pixabay

The Watchful House Sitter is based on Luke 12: 35-38

Two Parables

This is an example of a parable that still exists in its two different forms. The version in Luke ends with the master rewarding his slaves by serving them a meal. But there’s another version in Mark (Mark 13: 32-37) which concentrates on the doorkeeper.

The most common explanation is that – in a world where ‘social media’ consisted of sending an expensive letter – Jesus varied his standard parables to make slightly different points. So Mark picked the version emphasising the loyal doorkeeper, watching through the night. Luke chose the version where the slaves working overtime being rewarded with their own party.

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Commentary: Forcing Old and New Together (Mark 2: 21-22)

April 16, 2022 by P A Downs Leave a Comment

Image by Michael Schwarzenberger from Pixabay

Forcing New and Old Together is from Mark 2: 21-22

What’s the Problem?

The main ‘problem’ with these two mini parables is that they’re now the ‘old’ and we’re the ‘new’! They’re both good candidates for retelling, because they’re almost impossible to understand without explanation. So, people listening today might get the idea that there’s some kind of problem putting old and new together, but what they might not realise is that Jesus swaps the problem item between the two parables.

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Forcing New and Old Together (Mark 2: 21-22)

April 9, 2022 by P A Downs Leave a Comment

Forcing New and Old Together is from Mark 2: 21-22

No one repairs an antique chair with a plastic leg. Why? Because the new leg will just make the chair worse, so you end up repairing it again! And no one puts a new processor into an old laptop, either, because the old processor is soldered in! If you put a new one in, you’ll likely wreck both the motherboard and the new processor.

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