Tag: parables

Categories
life

Seeds, Trees, and Fruit

I read Alma chapter 32 again this week and the analogy of the gospel as a seed. I have always loved the imagery of cultivating the tree of Christlike attributes in our lives through the exercise of faith. As I read through this time it struck me how appropriate the tree imagery was because, like a tree, it can take years of care and nourishment before we truly see the fruits of our efforts even though we will see the evidence that the seed is good, as the tree sprouts, long before we receive the fruit that can truly nourish us. Too often we talk about the gospel as if it is always nourishing to us. I think that it is more accurate to say that the hope of the fruit of salvation is what nourished us early on before we start to receive the fruits of our own tree. Prior to that time any nourishment we receive must come from the fruit of trees which others have long nourished.

The other thing that occurred to me relates to the way we talk about various religions. We may acknowledge that various churches have some truth but we make it very clear that this is “the one true church.” How is it that a bad seed can produce good fruit? We are told that it cannot. This has always bothered me since it seemed that every seed which did not lead to the true church must be a bad seed despite the acknowledgment that other churches are not devoid of truth and I have seen good fruits in the lives of many outside our church.

My newfound realization was that all seeds which bear fruit are good. This is similar to the common Protestant assertion that any Christian church is good. I may prefer my apples to your pears, but I admit that they are both good, nourishing fruit. The difference between our belief and this flavor-of-the-month approach is that we believe that our fruit is actually superior to the competing varieties. What I realized is that while that may be true, we would probably do well to emphasize that just because there is a superior offering available does not make the other options less nourishing. This realization might also help us to admit that more nourishing does not always mean more sweet.

Categories
life

Define “Neighbor”

Reading the parable of the Good Samaritan today I noticed something interesting. The Savior did not answer the same question that the lawyer first posed to Him. The lawyer sought to justify himself by asking who his neighbor was (Luke 10:29) hoping to define the scope of those whom he should love as himself. I had understood the lesson of the parable to indicate that the answer was that all are my neighbors. This is true, but it is not the whole substance of what Christ answered.

At the end of the story, Christ returns a question to the lawyer, “Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbour unto him that fell among the thieves?” (Luke 10:36) The thing that caught my attention was that this question reframes the idea of neighbor. It is not for me to strive to determine who falls within the definition of who is my neighbor. It is for me to become neighbor unto all whom I might encounter. In other words, the question is not, “who is my neighbor?” but rather, “who am I neighbor to?”

Categories
life

Pearl of Great Price (and other parables)

In Sunday School today we were talking about the parables in Matthew 13. After the discussion I got to thinking about the parable of the pearl of great price in particular and about discussions concerning parables in general.

Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls: who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it. (Matthew 13:45-46)

Many times I have heard that parable and the discussion always revolves around the idea that we should give everything to obtain such a pearl if we find it. I could hardly argue that this is wrong, but imagine if the pearl did not cost all that the merchant had – would he have sold all to obtain it if he could obtain it for less? What if all that he had were insufficient to obtain the pearl – is he out of luck?

I believe that the savior talked of him giving all that he had because in obtaining the kingdom of heaven we should never feel that it is out of reach. However, if we could obtain heaven without being asked to give up all the comforts of our lives does that make our obtaining it any less sweet? If the pearl cost more than all his goods, would this merchant have found a way to obtain the resources necessary to secure the pearl for himself? I think the real point of the story is that we must be willing to give whatever is required to obtain such a pearl, whether it turns out to be more than we think ourselves capable of giving or less than all that we have.

For me the real lesson was a reminder to look at the parables from an unconventional viewpoint because the beauty of parables is that they have so many layers of meaning waiting to be uncovered.