© 2018 JeanMarie Chaise
© 2018 French-speaking Association of Readers of the Urantia Book
JeanMarie Chair
(Quotations from The Urantia Book are in italics. To emphasize their importance, some passages have been put in bold.)
It is interesting to return to the use of parables, their meanings, their effects and their advantages. Thus, on page 1692, Jesus enlightens us very well on the use of parables, especially those referring to nature:
3. In teaching the apostles the value of parables, Jesus called attention to the following points: ([UB 151:3.5)
There is first a call for coordination between the mind and the spirit. This seems simple, but this coordination requires a real effort. Another advantage, the stimulation of the imagination is very real and can only provoke critical thinking not only towards the different aspects of the parable to finally find a unique and directive meaning, but also provoke a critical sense of the person who tries to use a parable, and this is so true that the enormous advantage of using the parable can only provoke sympathy without arousing antagonism, because people who do not discern the true meaning of a parable will not be angry about it.
It is noteworthy that Jesus advises against the use of allegories and fables. For him, the value of using analogies between the natural and spiritual worlds combines very well in parables. For Jesus, nature is the unreal and fleeting shadow of spiritual realities.
The parable proceeds from the things which are known to the discernment of the unknown. The parable utilizes the material and natural as a means of introducing the spiritual and the supermaterial. ([UB 151:3.7)
The parable can be compared to a window, used and understood wisely, opening onto the technique of revelation. It allows us to discern the spiritual and supramaterial unknown.
Parables favor the making of impartial moral decisions. The parable evades much prejudice and puts new truth gracefully into the mind and does all this with the arousal of a minimum of the self-defense of personal resentment. (UB 151:3.8)
What are these impartial decision-making processes? It is relatively easy to make a decision that allows us to get around or avoid an experience that will require an effort, or that will cost us a lot, or that challenges our prejudices, but which deep down is the right decision. The example that a parable gives us seems to favor a moral and impartial decision without provoking our defenses and personal resentments too much.
Parables favor the making of impartial moral decisions. The parable evades much prejudice and puts new truth gracefully into the mind and does all this with the arousal of a minimum of the self-defense of personal resentment. (UB 151:3.8)
In other words, to reject the teachings of a parable one must consciously appeal to the rejection of what is good, beautiful and true. It is through the heard word that we are able to better discern the true meaning of a parable, in other words a parable is better understood when it is heard by our auditory sense, it must therefore be said rather than transmitted in writing.
To reject the truth contained in parabolical analogy requires conscious intellectual action which is directly in contempt of one’s honest judgment and fair decision. The parable conduces to the forcing of thought through the sense of hearing. (UB 151:3.9)
By means of parables, Jesus presented new and sensational truths without his apostles and other listeners really being aware that these truths were sensational. Apparently, those who heard Jesus’ expositions in the form of parables either did not understand them or readily accepted them.
Toward the close of the evening’s lesson Jesus made his first comment on the parable of the sower. He said the parable referred to two things: First, it was a review of his own ministry up to that time and a forecast of what lay ahead of him for the remainder of his life on earth. And second, it was also a hint as to what the apostles and other messengers of the kingdom might expect in their ministry from generation to generation as time passed. ([UB 151:3.13)
The parable also possesses the advantage of stimulating the memory of the truth taught when the same familiar scenes are subsequently encountered. (UB 151:3.11)
In the second part of Jesus’ explanation it is clear that this remark is intended for all messengers and teachers of the time in their ministry to their fellowmen. I think that the use of the parable may even be used on the morontia and spiritual levels.
It is undoubtedly thanks to the analogies with nature that the truths taught by means of parables seem familiar to us and that we have no difficulty in remembering them.
Before he dismissed the group for the night, Jesus said: “Now will I tell you the last of the parable of the sower. I would test you to know how you will receive this: The kingdom of heaven is also like a man who cast good seed upon the earth; and while he slept by night and went about his business by day, the seed sprang up and grew, and although he knew not how it came about, the plant came to fruit. First there was the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. And then when the grain was ripe, he put forth the sickle, and the harvest was finished. He who has an ear to hear, let him hear.” (UB 151:3.15)
Jesus never again mentioned this addition to the parable of the sower. Here is how I understand this addition: The potential power of the truth found in good teaching manifests itself over a more or less long time provided that the mind that receives it is adequate. It is at this moment that the teacher receives his reward.
My ear heard.
See page 1694 for the different parables Jesus used to describe the kingdom of heaven. Jesus used the parable to teach the crowds. But…
Many other parables spoke Jesus to the multitudes. In fact, from this time forward he seldom taught the masses except by this means. After speaking to a public audience in parables, he would, during the evening classes, more fully and explicitly expound his teachings to the apostles and the evangelists. (UB 151:4.7)