Preaching the Parables , livre ebook

© 2004 by Craig L. Blomberg
Published by Baker Academic
a division of Baker Publishing Group
P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287
www.bakeracademic.com
Ebook edition created 2013
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—for example, electronic, photocopy, recording—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
ISBN 978-1-4412-0578-0
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, Today’s New International Version™. Copyright 2001 by International Bible Society. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version . NIV . Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com
Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright Page
Abbreviations
Preface
Introduction
1 The Parable of the Prodigal Sons and Their Father
Luke 15:11–32
2 Can I Be Saved without Stewardship?
Luke 16:19–31
3 Who Is My Most Important Neighbor?
Luke 10:25–37
4 Can I Be Saved If I Refuse to Forgive Others?
Matthew 18:23–35
5 Shrewd Stewards
Luke 16:1–13
6 Let’s Play Wedding, Let’s Play Funeral
Matthew 11:16–19
7 How Do You Hear?
Matthew 13:1–23
8 Seeds, Weeds, and Explosive Growth
Matthew 13:24–43
9 The Kingdom of Heaven: Priceless
Matthew 13:44–52
10 The Basement of the Hard Rock Café
Matthew 7:13–27
11 The Parable of the Recovering Homosexual
Luke 18:9–14
12 Pray and Persevere
Luke 18:1–8
13 The Cost of Discipleship
Luke 14:25–35
14 How to Prepare for Christ’s Return
Matthew 24:43–25:30
15 Who Really Are the Sheep and the Goats?
Matthew 25:31–46
Conclusion
Notes
Subject Index
Scripture Index
Abbreviations
ABR
Australian Biblical Review
ASTI
Annual of the Swedish Theological Institute
BI
Biblical Interpretation
Bib
Biblica
BSac
Bibliotheca Sacra
BYU
Brigham Young University
CBAA
Catholic Biblical Association of America
CBQ
Catholic Biblical Quarterly
CSR
Christian Scholars’ Review
CT
Christianity Today
CTQ
Concordia Theological Quarterly
CTR
Criswell Theological Review
EQ
Evangelical Quarterly
ExpT
Expository Times
HBT
Horizons in Biblical Theology
Int
Interpretation
JBL
Journal of Biblical Literature
JETS
Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society
JSNT
Journal for the Study of the New Testament
JSOT
Journal for the Study of the Old Testament
JTS
Journal of Theological Studies
LexThQ
Lexington Theological Quarterly
Neot
Neotestamentica
NovT
Novum Testamentum
NTS
New Testament Studies
PRS
Perspectives in Religious Studies
RB
Revue Biblique
RestQ
Restoration Quarterly
RevExp
Review and Expositor
SBET
Scottish Bulletin of Evangelical Theology
SJT
Scottish Journal of Theology
ST
Studia Theologica
SWJT
Southwestern Journal of Theology
TJT
Toronto Journal of Theology
TrinJ
Trinity Journal
TynB
Tyndale Bulletin
USQR
Union Seminary Quarterly Review
WTJ
Westminster Theological Journal
ZNW
Zeitschrift für die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft
Preface
T o some readers it might seem presumptuous for a professional New Testament scholar to write a book on preaching. Not only do I not preach week-in and week-out like countless pastors, I have never even held a full-time paid pastoral position! When I compare my sermons with an “all-star lineup” of favorite messages from preachers I highly respect, I am tempted to agree that my meager offerings scarcely merit publication. Most Sundays find me “merely” in an adult Sunday school classroom for my primary weekend ministry.
On the other hand, I have learned from some outstanding teachers Lloyd Perry, Haddon Robinson, Paul Borden, and Scott Wenig. From my seminary days onward, sitting under excellent exposition has always been a high priority in choosing a church, and I am grateful for all that I have imbibed less formally from Wayne Lehsten, Ray Inkster, Richard Walker, Roy Clements, Frank Tillapaugh, Clyde McDowell, Bill Muir, Jerry Sheveland, Sid Buzzell, and Mike Romberger. Teaching in a Christian college for three years and in a theological seminary for seventeen years has given me the chance to hear many outstanding chapel speakers. While I have not worked as a full-time pastor, I have done interim preaching on more than one occasion, and I usually am invited to give sermons in various churches seven or eight times a year on average. In fact, one advantage of not speaking regularly from the same pulpit to the same congregation is that I can revise and reuse some of the sermons that I write within a fairly short period of time, so that hopefully they improve with each successive revision.
Notwithstanding these opportunities, I still would never have imagined writing a book like this except for three additional events. The first was the invitation to co-teach a Doctor of Ministry seminar at Denver Seminary on “Preaching the Parables,” with the man who at that time was my senior pastor, Dr. Jerry Sheveland. Although (or perhaps in part because) we had only four students, we had wonderful interaction with four men who themselves had already established a reputation of being excellent preachers and pastors Tom Hovestal, Brad Strait, Allan Meyer, and Mike Grechko. I learned much from each of them as well as from Jerry. The second event was an invitation from Allan Meyer to participate in a preacher’s conference in Melbourne, Australia, where he pastors. Again we team taught, again on the theme of preaching the parables. It is safe to say that Allan is one of the most gifted preachers in Australian evangelicalism today, and I benefited greatly from his instruction. The third and final catalyst was the suggestion of Jim Kinney, Baker Book House’s academic books editor, that I consider producing such a volume and his unflagging support throughout the process.
I am grateful for the less formal input over the years from students at Denver Seminary for whom I have preached and/or outlined a number of these messages in either classes or chapels. I am particularly appreciative of the opportunity to incorporate several of these sermons into courses and church services cross-culturally as well, in conjunction with teaching and ministry in Dublin, Ireland; Melbourne, Australia; Vancouver, Canada; and Guatemala City, Guatemala. This last context, along with a Denver-area Baptist General Conference Hispanic Churches’ Families Retreat, allowed me to translate and deliver selected messages in Spanish and get feedback from Latino audiences as well.
Additional thanks go to Jeanette Freitag, assistant to the faculty of Denver Seminary, for typing rough drafts of my sermons from their originally tape-recorded oral format and for other editing work in the final stages of revising the entire manuscript. Also my research assistant for 2002–3, Jeremiah Harrelson, provided helpful literature searches for additional bibliography. I am grateful, too, for the courageous decisions of Zondervan and IBS to continue plans for publishing Today’s New International Version , despite widespread and unnecessarily polemical criticism, often accompanied by factually inaccurate information about the translation project. I have used the TNIV for all New Testament quotations in this volume, since it is more accurate in rendering generic language for humans into current English idiom and more literal than the NIV in about three-quarters of the other changes it has made. [1]
There is one more person who has influenced me over the years more than he probably suspects. While attending Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, I worshiped at the North Suburban Evangelical Free Church in Deerfield, Illinois. The pastor of young adults in those years was an outgoing, effervescent young man (only four years older than I) named Lee Eclov. It was at that church that I met the woman who would become my wife, Fran Fulling. It was at that church that Lee gave me the opportunity to be part of his leadership team and to fulfill my field education requirements at Trinity at the same time. While I heard him preach only rarely, his teaching on a weekly basis in our young adults fellowship was always creative, challenging, upbeat, true to God’s word, and an inspiration for the kind of teacher I wanted to be. When Fran and I got married, Lee performed our wedding his first as a pastor! A few years later he became the senior pastor of the Beaver Falls Evangelical Free Church in the Pittsburgh metro area; today he is the senior pastor of the Village Church of Lincolnshire, Illinois, on Chicago’s north shore. He has mentored seminarians, consulted for Leadership and Preaching Today, and written for both journals. His commitment to excellence in the pulpit in conjunction with a well-rounded ministry more generally, his faithfulness to God and to his wife, Susan, and son, Andy, and his personal support and warm friendship over the past twenty-five years all combine to lead me to dedicate this modest volume to him. Thanks, Lee, and don’t ever stop being the wonderful model that you are!
Introduction
P reaching a parable is a novice preacher’s dream but often an experienced preacher’s nightmare.” So declares Thomas O. Long at the beginning of his chapter on parables in an excellent book titled Preaching the Literary Forms of the Bible. [1] At first glance, the parables appear familiar and straightforward, but thoughtful students soon realize they have fallen into a quagmire of interpretive debates.
A Brief History of Interpretation
The history of the interpretation of the parables has been narrated in detail coun