Some of Jesus’s parables are so historically remote from us that we don’t naturally feel the emotions and tension that the stories stirred up for the original hearers. These six 15-to-20-minute “Modern Parables” creatively translate the main point of one of Jesus’s parables into our context.
Here is an abridged version of my thoughts on these parable-films after I watched them in September 2008.
1. General Comments on the Modern Parables
Strengths
Thought-provoking. They encourage a consuming preoccupation with God’s word (i.e., meditation).
Parallel. They are based on common, everyday situations (i.e., typical people and events), which parallels Jesus’ parables.
Quality. They are professionally done. They are simple and executed well.
Variety. They are shot in different genres.
Endorsed by scholars. For example, Craig Blomberg, a parable-scholar, highly recommends them.
Qualifications
Unclear. Most of the application videos are surprisingly weak and unclear. Not recommended. (They don’t appear to be available for free online.)
Limitations. Turning parable-texts into these parable-films has some limitations and potential pitfalls. (1) It changes the genre in a way that does not adequately capture the text’s context. For example, not one of the parable-films adequately captures the immediate context of the parable, let alone the broader context of the section and book in which it occurs. (2) It could be abused as a crutch for exegesis and exposition or as something that is more exciting than the God-breathed text.
Missing the gospel. This is definitely not a stand-alone means of evangelism because the gospel is virtually absent in the films. Those who are biblically illiterate could radically misinterpret the films and completely miss the gospel. The videos are only supplementary illustrations to the text. (But they could be extraordinarily useful when used in the right context.)
2. Specific Comments on Each Parable
Hidden Treasure. Substituting oil for hidden treasure communicates more clearly in our culture. The acting is slapstick.
Samaritan. Sobering and convicting. It leaves some gaps in parallels with the biblical parable.
The Shrewd Manager. The biblical parable probably does not connect well with most people in our culture, but this video does.
The Widow and Judge. Slower pace and more artistic license than the previous ones.
The Sower. This isn’t exactly a story. This film is nowhere near as engaging as the others. Probably the least effective.
A 5,000-piece puzzle of “Neuschwanstein and Surroundings”
I am not saying that the Bible is like a jigsaw puzzle of five thousand pieces and that all the five thousand pieces are provided, so that with time and thought the entire picture may be completed. Rather, I am suggesting that the Bible is like a jigsaw puzzle that provides five thousand pieces along with the assurance that these pieces all belong to the same puzzle, even though ninety-five thousand pieces (the relative figures are unimportant for my analogy) are missing. Most of the pieces that are provided, the instructions insist, fit together rather nicely; but there are a lot of gaping holes, a lot of edges that cry out to be completed, and some clusters of pieces that seem to be on their own. Nevertheless, the assurance that all of the pieces do belong to one puzzle is helpful, for that makes it possible to develop the systematic theology, even though the systematic theology is not going to be completed until we receive more pieces from the One who made it. And meanwhile, even some systematicians who believe that all the pieces belong to the same puzzle are not very adept puzzle players but sometimes force pieces into slots where they don’t really belong. The picture gets distorted somewhat, but it remains basically recognizable.
This book should be available in about one month (click the image to enlarge the back cover, spine, and front cover):
Introducing the New Testament: A Short Guide to Its History and Message. By D. A. Carson and Douglas J. Moo. Edited by Andrew David Naselli. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2010.
The latest volume in D. A. Carson’s Pillar New Testament Commentary series will be available in about one month, and you can order it from WTS Books for $27.50 (45% off list price) or Amazon for $31.50:
Peter T. O’Brien. The Letter to the Hebrews. Pillar New Testament Commentary. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2010.
Check out the 77-page PDF that samples the 600-page book.
From Carson’s preface (pp. xi–xii):
With his many years of service as scholar, missionary, and long-time lecturer at Moore Theological College, Peter O’Brien has earned a reputation that is well-nigh unique. It is the combination of virtues that is compelling: great care in handling the Scriptures, fairness in dealing with the views of others, a characteristic understatement combined with a passion for the centrality of the gospel, and, uniting all the rest, a gentleness of spirit that has captured the minds and hearts of colleagues, friends, and several decades of students. In the cutthroat world of scholarship it is difficult to find someone who will say a bad word about Peter O’Brien. [Read more…] about Peter O’Brien on Hebrews
Here’s a summary. (It’s not a transcript, but it’s close. The headings are mine.)
1. Love them by not needlessly offending them.
Advice. “I would not attack legalism. I would not preach on Christian liberty. I would not assault their consciences either by flaunting liberty on a personal level.”
Scriptural principle. “I think there is a very important principle that comes at the end of 1 Corinthians 10 . . . . Do you offend the non-believer, or do you offend your weaker brother? The answer in that text is you offend the non-believer, and the message that the non-believer gets is that you love one another. . . . You defer always to the weaker brother.”
Definition of legalism. “In many cases when you’re talking about legalism, you’re not talking really about works-salvation. You’re talking, I assume, about an approach to the Christian life that is needlessly restrictive and narrow and artificially constructed around certain behaviors that aren’t even biblical issues.” [Read more…] about John MacArthur on How to Serve Christians Who Are Needlessly Restrictive
1. General Comments on the Modern Parables
This 160-page book abridges Carson and Moo’s 781-page An Introduction to the New Testament (2nd ed.; Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2005).
Peter T. O’Brien. The Letter to the Hebrews. Pillar New Testament Commentary. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2010.
