Pros
update
10 April 08
In the Physio Room
‘Now he told a parable to those who were invited, when he noticed how they chose the places of honour’
(Luke 14:7)
This week we’re starting a new series looking Jesus’ parables in Luke’s gospel.
As a young player wasn’t it true that you hardly ever got injured? Of course I know that different people have different experiences and there are some terrible injuries in young players, but in general the niggling persistent injuries that make you a regular visitor to the physio’s room come about as you get older. Moreover when you become a regular on the treatment table you rapidly learn that you’ve got to accept two things to get better; you have to accept not only the treatment, but also the diagnosis.
The namesake writer of Luke’s gospel was a doctor, (Paul refers to him as ‘the beloved physician’ in Colossians 4:14) and one of the features of this account of Jesus’ life is that it has more parables than any of the other three gospels. As a doctor I think the parables appealed to Luke because of the clever way that they work; you see a parable both diagnoses and prescribes – it tells you both what is wrong with you and how you can be cured. In this way Jesus’ parables are like a physio room in that they take a particular aspect of human life and experience, then through the telling of the parable Jesus puts it on the treatment table diagnoses what’s wrong with it and then prescribes the treatment.
Just consider the opening remark that Luke includes to this parable in chapter 14; Jesus has observed the way that the religious leaders of the day are all jostling for power – ‘they chose the places of honour’ for themselves. More than this he then tells them the parable as a way of saying to them – this is why you’re acting this way, it’s wrong and here’s the medicine that you need to take to be cured.
First you may ask; why does Jesus stick his nose in, why doesn’t he just leave them to get on with it? Well there are three types of people in this world: those who tell you what you want to hear, those who tell you want they want to hear, and those who tell you what you need to hear. Which would you want God to be? Someone who panders to your ego, someone who enjoys the sound of his own voice, or someone who like a physio cares about you enough to tell you what’s wrong with you and how you can be cured. Jesus is profoundly concerned with our needs and so he cuts against human pride and tells us the truth.
Secondly you may wonder why Jesus doesn’t tell it straight – why speak in parables? Well sometimes Jesus does tell it straight, he’s certainly not lacking courage in that respect. However, earlier in Luke’s gospel Jesus tells the disciples that ‘to you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God but for those outside everything is in parables’ (Luke 6:10). He’s saying that he sometimes speaks in parables because how we respond to them reveals how we respond to the kingdom of God. If we stop and listen to them, grapple with them and then accept the diagnosis and cure – then we can enter into the kingdom of God, but if we reject them and their teaching we remain outside. As Jesus says later; those in the kingdom of God ‘hear the word and hold it fast’ (Luke 6:15). So if you consider yourself in the kingdom of God or want to be, the question to ask is – will you accept the physio’s diagnosis and cure? Or will you reject it and remain injured and outside?
More next week…
Pete
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