The Farmville herald. (Farmville, Va.) 1957-current, 1963-01-25
Truth In Stories
Lesson for January ~. 1868

Sometimes Jesus spoke in
plain blunt words. At OF h er
times He told stories. Of the
two forms His teaching took.
people have always remembered
and loved the stories rather
than the bare direct assertions.
Mark, in fact, says with exag-
geration we can easily under
stand, that Jesus said nothing
in public that was not a parable.
The reader will find even in
Jesus simplest statements
something of parable and Of
poetry.
What strikes many person
as odd is not that Jesus told
stories as His favorite way of
making a point. Many 9th e r S
have used the same method. The
odd feature is the reason that
Jesus gave, why He used par
ables SO much. Most ople
would think that putting truth
into stories would make it easier
to take.
At Lowly Doors"
Now there is some truth in
that. There is a patented device
for administering medicine, call
ed by the drug company manu-
featuring it, spar sule."
Everybody has taken capsules;
that's a fairly large dose 1T
once. If a patient is allergic to
capsules, if a strong medicine
makes him sick, or if he has
to take several kinds Of medi-
cine. then the spansule may be
just the thing, for it is filled
with various kinds of medicine,
and some take much longer TO
melt than others, so the span
Sule' is a neat way of giving
medicine half the day OF longer,
in many doses, but all at once.
Parallels are a little like that.
The parable is a spansule; it is
easy swallowed. and the patient
doesn't realize how long it will
stick with him. He keeps re-
membering the parable, and
thinking about it, and while it
may need some time before the
man can absorb the new truth
into his system, the parable
stays there, in his memory, it
keeps talking to him. and finally
he accepts the truth indeed
it may seem as if he had al
ways know it which he would
have rejected if it had been pre-
Sented to him cas- it Werel raw.
The poet Tennyson long ago re-
marked that
Truth embodied in a tale
Shall enter in at loWly doors. -
Truth Unpersuasivc
Oh, it doesn't always act like
that. Some men resist truth no
matter how it comes to them.
Put the truth bluntly, and they
will say NO. Put the truth in a
tale, poem, a parable, and
they Will say, Nonsense!
But what has all this got to
do with Jesus? Simply that He
gave an unexpected answer to
the. question why He used par
ableS; In fact, He gave t h e
a n wei before any one got
around to asking Him why. He
told stories, He seems to have
said. to keep people from UNI
derstanding what He m a n t..
He seems to have said" but
probably was sarcastic in saying
1t. that if He did not speak in
parallels somebody might be-
Geve Him! Now we know that
Jesus wanted of all things TO be
taken seriously. to be believed:
and we cannot think it Ike Him
to keep people deliberately from
knowing the truth that might
save them.
Any Why Not?
We must recall the conditions
under whicheyesus taught. There
were the immense crowds, al
ways there: and there the few
true disciples. Jesus had to in
terest others in becoming dis
cipleS, and at the same til m e
wear down the curiosity seeking
crowds. The parable would do
both. Some would find the sto-
rleS just silly or childish. and
they would lose interest. Some
would find those simple tales
a m azingly fascinating, and
would stay around to learn just
what Jesus meant.
The question still remains,
why do some people listen well,
some badly and some not at
all? Jesus said it was like a
man sowing seed ON different
kinds of soil. The seed may be
always the same. but som G
sprouts and dies. some never
sprouts at all, and some brings
forth a great harvest. Truth is
a seed, and the harvest can be
great or it can be nothing
1t depends on the kind of per
son tho 1lStapor &c I'D ,,o,rox