Real Men Read Jesus’ Parables: A Twenty-First Century Study of Jesus’ Parables for Men

Copyright © 2014 Osmond A. Lindo, Sr..

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™ All rights reserved.

Scripture taken from The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. The Living Bible, TLB, and the The Living Bible logo are registered trademarks of Tyndale House Publishers.

Scripture quotations taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996, 2004. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

All Scripture quotations in this publications are from The Message. Copyright (c) by Eugene H. Peterson 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.

WestBow Press books may be ordered through booksellers or by contacting:

WestBow Press

A Division of Thomas Nelson & Zondervan

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN 47403

www.westbowpress.com

1 (866) 928-1240

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

ISBN: 978-1-4908-3092-6 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4908-3091-9 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4908-3093-3 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2014905451

WestBow Press rev. date: 05/21/2014

To my sons, Osmond Jr. and John,

and every boy who wants to be a real man

CONTENTS

Appreciation

Introduction

1.   On Becoming a Mature Man (Part 1)

Jesus—A Model of Mature Manhood

2.   On Becoming a Mature Man (Part 2)

Passage from a Boy to a Mature Man

3.   Being a Good Listener

Learning to Listen to God and Others

4.   Dressing Appropriately for the Party

After the Wedding Come the Marriage and Family

5.   Earning a Decent Living Wage

The Right to Work and Unionize

6.   Making Wise Investments

Learn to Invest What God Has Entrusted to You

7.   Respecting the Value of Human Life

Recognizing the God-Given Value of Human Life

8.   Serving God Our Leftovers

Set Priorities, Stop Making Excuses

9.   Practicing Over and Again

Faith as the Foundation of a Man’s Life

10.   Being a Man of Persistent Prayer

Managing Crises, Including Middle-Age Crises

11.   Living a Long and Healthy Life

Men Caring for Their Health

12.   When Everything Is at Stake

Acting Boldly, Resolutely, and Prudently

13.   Which Band of Brothers Do You Resemble?

On Being Fair and Compassionate

14.   Always Prefer Grace to Violence

Forgiveness vs. Violence

15.   Replacing Your Demons

Struggling with Addictions

16.   Be Ready for the Inevitable

Facing the Issues of Retirement and Death

Study/Discussion Guide

APPRECIATION

Every boy, as he grows into manhood, needs a strong man with a deep Christian experience who cares enough to help guide and mentor him. Unfortunately, such fathers or father figures are in short supply today. My father died when I was four, and my mother never remarried. As a result, my three sisters, my brother, and I grew up without a father figure. My widowed single mother, Cislyn T. Lindo, who is now deceased, did extremely well at raising us. She taught me the importance of faith in God, of getting an education, of earning a living through honest work and of serving others; for which I thank her. However, I have always wondered how much better my life would have been if I had had a wise, loving, Christian father or another positive male figure as well as her. Maybe it would not have been any better because my father or another man may not have been able to give me much more guidance on how to become a mature man since, in all likelihood, his father may not have had many fathering skills either.

Undoubtedly, I fumbled the ball as well and was not able to pass on to my sons any coherent guidance on what it means to be a real man; nor was I able to pass on to my daughter what to look for in a man. This is true of the majority of us men; we are on our own as far as learning how to be mature men spiritually or otherwise as well as possessing the know-how to pass on to our sons and daughters.

The driving force behind providing the material in this book is to help teenage boys on their journeys to mature manhood. I am grateful for what I have learned, directly and indirectly, from men who crossed my path as I grew up, in conversations with men over the years in general, and from the men in congregations for which I served as pastor.

I want to express my appreciation to my editor Martin McHugh who affirmed the subject of this book as one that is much needed today and helped get my manuscript in shape for publication. My deepest gratitude goes as well to the great professionals at Thomas Nelson WestBow Press.

I thank my wife Miriam, my beloved partner in life and ministry, and my three incredibly gifted children, Osmond Jr., Anastasia, and John, and my daughter-in-law and son-in-law, Endia Jones Lindo and Daix Anderson. Their loving encouragement and support as I put my ramblings and thoughts on paper have been great blessings to me.

I am grateful for my granddaughters, Milan, Sienna and Autumn; they are the promise of our future, my love and great joy.

Most of all, I thank God for ordering my path, for forgiving my mistakes, and for weaving the things that have happened to me, particularly those over which I had no control, into his plan for my life.

Lord, grant that the words of this book may guide young men into your loving presence and the knowledge of Jesus’ life-giving grace and an experience of the Spirit’s transforming power; may they be open to accept your plan for their lives as they grow into mature manhood.

INTRODUCTION

The aim of this study of the parables of Jesus is to encourage men to discover the relevant, moving message the Word of God has for their lives. There is such richness in the parables that speaks immediately to men’s needs. Not that the rest of the Old and New Testaments are irrelevant or unworthy of being read, studied, and applied to life, but the parables offer men direct access to Jesus, his teachings, and his message for men today.

Men between eighteen and thirty-four and beyond can read, study, and discuss the parables in a men’s group at church, with a friend, or with a coworker during lunch breaks. This book may be used as a guide by older Christian men to mentor younger men as they seek to understand who they are and what it means to be mature men; how they can come to know God; what is the meaning and purpose of their lives; how they can better communicate with their spouses, children, and others; and how to find solutions to many everyday problems, difficulties, and other life-and-death issues.

When we read the parables of Jesus, we can be confident we come closest to his accurate teachings. We stand right before Jesus when reading his parables, says Joachim Jeremias in The Parables of Jesus. ¹

As we stand before Jesus’ teaching in each of the parables, men must ask, What is Jesus saying to me, to my faith, and to my situation? What is the universal truth in the parable that speaks to me as a man today? What truth in the parable will help me become a real man spiritually, emotionally, morally, relationally, intellectually, and financially?

We are often told a picture is worth a thousand words. The pictures Jesus drew with his words in the parables convey to us more clearly than anything else the good news of salvation and God’s loving rule over our lives. Other religious teachers of Jesus’ time used parables as a teaching method, even possibly using Jesus as their model, but none had Jesus’ clarity and simplicity when it came to using parables. Jesus mastered this teaching approach in the shaping of his message as well as the definite personal style he brought to it.

Parables are simply word pictures. Jesus took incidents in life, things from nature, and things people were familiar with, and through them he communicated wonderful spiritual truths.

SPOKEN TO A REAL LIVE AUDIENCE

The parables were addressed publicly to the crowds that gathered to hear Jesus teach and preach. There were times when Jesus would maybe give some further explanation to his disciples or to a narrower circle of people, such as is mentioned in Mark 4:10, in which Jesus was questioned about what he had said in a parable, but by and large, he spoke to a wide audience that included his twelve disciples and others who were followers and on the fringe of the crowd. There were most likely representatives of the Jewish, male-dominated religious and political groups such as the Pharisees, Sadducees, priests, elders, and scribes, and maybe even some foreigners.

At times, Jesus specifically addressed his parables to these predominantly Jewish male groups who were critical of his message or strongly opposed the Good News to the poor that he brought, and in response to these critics, Jesus often had harsh words. Jesus spoke to real, flesh-and-blood, ordinary people like you and me in occupations not unlike yours and mine. Most of Jesus’ disciples were fishermen by trade; some ran fishing businesses, including boats and employees, and there were other businessmen as well.

Undoubtedly, in the crowd, there may well have been farmers, tentmakers, weavers, fullers, leather workers, and smiths. There could have been olive-oil pressers, bakers, butchers, shopkeepers, traders, innkeepers, carpenters, masons, moneychangers, and tax collectors, who were basically entrepreneurs such as Matthew. There must have been rich men, doctors, day workers, and the very poor.

Women and children were certainly in the crowds that gathered to hear Jesus. We are confident that Jesus had women followers, because when Jesus’ mother and brothers on the edge of a crowd sent word asking to speak with him, Jesus replied by asking and answering a question: ‘Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?’ And pointing to his disciples, he said, ‘Here are my mother and my brothers! For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother, and sister, and mother’ (Matthew 12:46–50 NRSV).

Jesus never discriminated against women; he treated them with respect as equals; he even spoke with them in public, which was against the tradition of his time in which women were regarded as second-class citizens and not to be spoken to in public. Certain women accompanied Jesus and the twelve disciples on evangelistic journeys as mention in Luke 8:1–3, but these women were not included among the twelve disciples, nor were there any non-Jews or Gentiles; the twelve were mainly Jewish and all males.

Beyond their domestic work and caring for children, few women in the crowds that gathered to listen to Jesus as he taught in parables may have been employed in different professions as well; they may have been merchants, weavers, or seamstresses.

Men’s and women’s roles were clearly defined; the men or husbands were the spiritual and legal heads of the household responsible for feeding, sheltering, and protecting their families, while the women or wives were responsible for preparing meals and taking care of the home, children, and clothing.

While both men and women were in Jesus’ audience, the way they heard and processed what Jesus told them must have differed. Men tend to be logical, factual, and rational; only secondarily do they take their feelings and emotions into consideration, while women, because of their heightened sensitivity tend to react (with some exceptions) more from feelings and emotions rather than from rational thought. Both ways of processing information are equally valid, even as they are today. Gender differences exist in the way we communicate—listening as well as talking.

The women in Jesus’ audience undoubtedly heard the message that they were worthy of God’s love, which they understood from the way Jesus accepted them as full human beings and how he affirmed them as equals in every way. He was sensitive to their emotional and caring natures; he allowed them to touch him and he them. He conversed with them in public and included them as followers in his religious community.

In Luke 13:11–17, in which Jesus addressed a synagogue full of men, he saw a sick woman in the back (the only place where women were allowed), called her forward, spoke to her, touched her, and healed her in front of all those men. This communicated his respect for women, uplifted their spirits, and taught them the courage of caring service.

The men in Jesus’ audience also heard the message of God’s love, but they were concerned mainly with its translation into their preconceived understanding of Jesus as the Messiah who would liberate Israel from Roman domination. The Jewish religious leaders could not accept Jesus as the Messiah because of his teaching and mission and his running contrary to the many laws and traditions they had developed. They could not believe in Jesus and vehemently opposed him.

Jesus’ close disciples had preconceived notions of the Messiah, listened to Jesus’ teaching and description of his mission, and accepted him as the Messiah, but they constantly failed to understand the kind of Messiah he would be; they rejected the thought that the Messiah would suffer, die, and be raised again.

Even after Jesus’ resurrection, the disciples asked, Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel? (Acts 1: 6 NRSV) It was only after the Holy Spirit came upon them that they fully grasped Jesus’ message of salvation and the meaning of sacrificial service.

For the sake of this writing, however, I will concentrate on what the disciples and other men listening to Jesus’ parables may have heard in their time and what men today can learn from them.

In his parables, Jesus sought to make particular points regarding the Kingdom of God clear to his disciples, his critics, and his general audiences. While the parables speak to particular people in a particular setting, the parables held truths that were and are universal and valid for all people and all times.

In this study, I want men to understand the message of the parables and to use the universal truth each makes to focus on the unique needs of men and in a setting in which men can build strong, trustworthy male friendships and relationships. I want this study to create the opportunity for men to meet weekly, face-to-face, over a period of months to honestly discuss issues such as their relational, physical, and spiritual struggles as well as their hopes, dreams, and desires. It will give men an opportunity to grow closer to God and to one another as disciples of Jesus Christ and find support in small groups to face and deal with the challenges confronting them daily.

Jesus used each parable to speak to an actual or specific situation of his life or that of his hearers; the parables were conceived, developed, and delivered on the spot; in many cases, the parables may have been formulated as Jesus was either defending the gospel against opponents, responding to conflicts, attacking injustices, issuing challenges, or illustrating his teaching. These parables were handed down through the early church orally in its proclamation, teaching, and preaching and then finally written down. In all likelihood, as the early church members applied the parables of Jesus to their own situations and different audiences, the original context in which Jesus spoke became covered over with slight embellishments or shifts in emphasis to make this or that parable more relevant to their immediate situations.

We can be confident, however, that even though the church elaborated on the parables in its teaching and exhortation, it did not introduce any foreign elements into them. We need only to be aware of the fact that the parables as they have come down to us in the gospels have in many cases undergone elaborations or added interpretation; the limited scope of this study does not allow us to attempt to recover the original settings or the historical events that caused Jesus to speak the parables.

We now accept them as they have been handed down to us mostly in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and we seek to grasp what they meant to the people who heard them. Specifically for our purpose, we want to delve into what was being said to the twelve male disciples and other men in the crowds and what is being said through these parables to men today.

I should call attention at this point that while the word "parable does not appear in the gospel of John, it nevertheless contains stories that have the stamp" of Jesus’ unique teaching style and images such as the Fields Ripe for Harvest (John 4:35–38), the Good Shepherd, (John 10:1–5), the Twelve Hours of Daylight (John 11: 9– 10), and the Vine and the Branches (John 15: 1– 8).

WHAT PARABLES DO

The object of the parables was to embody Jesus’ fundamental message. They were simple, memorable stories that used familiar images that captured the imagination and provoked thought, causing their hearers to mull them over long after they had been delivered. We hear through some parables the broader proclamation that God’s day of salvation has dawned, that the new age is here, and that the Redeemer has appeared. Some parables deal with preparation for the day of reckoning, such as the parables of the wedding garment and the wine skins (Mark 2:18–22), the parable of the fig tree (Luke 21:29–31), the parables of the yeast and the mustard seed (Matthew 13:31–33), and the wise and foolish virgins (Matthew 25:1–13).

Another group of parables contain the Good News that salvation was sent to the poor and that Jesus had come as a Savior for sinners in a narrower sense. It is from this second group that I have chosen the parables in this study, for in them, we hear Jesus declaring that God cared about sinners, about the poor, and about our relationship with God and each other. As we read the parables, we will discover that Jesus used a variety of images and figures to describe himself as the deliverer and the mission he was to fulfill as well as his teaching about God and about life.

THE PARABLES IN A MAN’S WORLD TODAY

The parables demand a response or a decision from us. Jesus’ goal was not only to win over his opponents or the critics of the Good News he brought for the poor but also to win over other unbelievers as well. It was only as they believed that the true meaning of the parables would open up to them and it would become clear who Jesus was and what he meant for their lives.

When Jesus was asked by his disciples why he taught in parables, Jesus gave what seems a very confusing answer in Mark 4:10–12; it appeared to suggest that it was to maintain among believers the secret of the presence of the Kingdom of God so unbelievers would hear about it and see its coming but would never be able to respond. In The Parables of Jesus, Joachim Jeremias ² argues that Jesus’ preaching in general including his parables contained the secret of the dawning of the Kingdom of God even as he spoke. By God’s grace that secret was revealed to the disciples because they had accepted or believed who Jesus was, his message and mission, while those who persisted in not believing in Jesus had resisted God’s grace had shut themselves out and had made it increasingly difficult for themselves to respond. They had closed their eyes, ears, minds and hearts against him.

Jesus was not intentionally teaching in parables to keep a secret among his disciples and to shut everyone else out; his answer could be interpreted as something like You, my disciples, have willingly accepted me and my message, so God, by his grace, revealed the secret presence of the Kingdom of Heaven among you. Unless those who resist me and reject my message turn to God, who will forgive their sin, they will not know or experience the great blessings of the Kingdom of God/the Kingdom of Heaven. They may indeed look, but not perceive, and may indeed listen, but not understand." Mark 4: 12 NRSV

Jesus wants us to understand and respond to the message of his parables. Men who read, study, discuss, and respond to Jesus’ parables will have their imaginations stirred and inspired, possibly find answers to questions they are struggling with, and have the way they live their lives affected.

To help men encounter God and hear what he has to say to them through Jesus’ parables, we will approach each parable using the five movements practiced during the monastic period of reading, reflecting, praying, contemplating, and incarnating. In our twenty-first-century American society, most if not all men of all races struggle quietly to affirm their masculinity, particularly at this point in history, when men have fallen behind in higher education and women have made huge strides in earning college degrees and large inroads into professions once considered predominantly men’s domains.

In the London Olympics 2012, women did much better than men; for the first time, more women represented the United States than men. Women are taking their rightful places alongside men as equals in society, the workplace, the home, the church, on the battlefield, and in athletics. This has created for men some confusion and uncertainty and the need for learning new roles.

Not being able to deal with women becoming their equals or even surpassing them, some men and teenage boys have reacted by perpetrating violence against women and girls. But that is not all that is happening in a man’s world. Men are beginning to realize they do not know who they are supposed to be as men. They are struggling to find a balance between being weak or being brutish and being a real mature man. While some men are aware of the broad expectation that they are be lovers, fathers, providers, and protectors, most men have been left on their own to find ways to fulfill those expectations and responsibilities.

Many men feel alone without anyone to share their struggle with, so they are regrettably going it