On most occasions Jesus did not provide any explanation of
His parables, leaving them like “dangling modifiers” in His teaching. They served as “pictorial ponderables” which could implode within one’s thinking and explode misconceptions. They were puzzling and problematic; veiled with hidden meaning which was concealed in order to reveal. The parables of Jesus had a “back-handed impact” which “upset the apple-cart” of traditional religious thinking. What Jesus was advocating was 180 degrees opposite of the typical religious practice. With a subtle, dry humor, Jesus illustrates that “God’s thoughts are not our thoughts, nor our ways,His ways” (Isa. 55:8,9). Eventually the Palestinian religionists realized that Jesus was talking about them (Matt. 21:45), often making parodies of their piety, and they sought to silence Him.
What is a parody? A parody is a comic caricature, a ludicrous likeness, an absurd analogy, a ridiculous representation which exposes a particular reality by comparing it to another of a different order. Parodies can be a very useful verbal or literary tool to exposes the “red herrings” of diversions which distract attention from real issues; to expose “hobby horses” whereby men keep reverting back to repetitive over-emphases without critical thought; to expose inane traditions which become familiar ruts wherein we fail to recognize the absence d’esprit. By the use of parody one can be direct yet subtle at the same time. Blaise Pascal exposed the Jesuits by showing the absurdity of their thinking in analogical constructs. Soren Kierkegaard utilized and parables and allegory to reveal pompous and fallacious activities in the Church of Denmark. Both were criticized for irreverence, but their writings exist to this day as valid examples of courageous men who stood up for veracity, integrity and genuine spirituality. Sometimes this means “stomping through the tulips.”
In his Provincial Letters, Blaise Pascal noted that “there is a vast difference between laughing at Christianity and laughing at those who profane it by their extravagant opinions. It were impiety to laugh-be wanting in respect for the verities which the Spirit of God has revealed;but it were no less impiety of another sort to be wanting in contempt for the falsities which the spirit of man opposes to them.”
“There are many things which deserve to be held up to ridicule and
mockery, lest, by a serious refutation, we should attach a weight to them which they do not deserve.”
“...what is more fitted to raise a laugh than to see a matter so grave as that of Christianity decked out with fancies so grotesque...”
“...it is impossible to refrain from laughing.”
In documentation of his point Pascal quotes from Tertullian.
“...to treat them seriously would be to sanction them.”
“Can anything be more justly due to the vanity and weakness of these opinions than laughter?”
“Whether ought we to laugh at their folly, or deplore their blindness?”
There comes a time when we need to stand before the mirror to engage in some ecclesiastical self-examination. Those who are not willing to do so “deceive themselves,” and “their religion is worthless” (James 1:22-26). If we cannot or will not engage in self-criticism, we become very in-grown and unhealthy. The body-religious today seems to be in a state of “denial,” unwilling to admit or deal with their “ingrown toenails.” Such a situation is an unhealthy situation that hobbles our effectiveness. The ecclesiastical community today is so myopic that it cannot detach itself from the extraneous criteria of self-image in order to be objective about its munity condition. Perhaps we need to follow Jesus’ advice to “take the log out of our own eye, before we seek to take the speck out of another’s eye” (Matt. 7:3-5).
Hopefully parodies will allow us to “see ourselves as others see us,” and thus to be freed from some of our “foolish notions” and “blunders.”
“Charity may sometimes oblige us to ridicule the errors of men, that they may be induced to laugh at them in their turn, and renounce them.” ~Augustine
His parables, leaving them like “dangling modifiers” in His teaching. They served as “pictorial ponderables” which could implode within one’s thinking and explode misconceptions. They were puzzling and problematic; veiled with hidden meaning which was concealed in order to reveal. The parables of Jesus had a “back-handed impact” which “upset the apple-cart” of traditional religious thinking. What Jesus was advocating was 180 degrees opposite of the typical religious practice. With a subtle, dry humor, Jesus illustrates that “God’s thoughts are not our thoughts, nor our ways,His ways” (Isa. 55:8,9). Eventually the Palestinian religionists realized that Jesus was talking about them (Matt. 21:45), often making parodies of their piety, and they sought to silence Him.
What is a parody? A parody is a comic caricature, a ludicrous likeness, an absurd analogy, a ridiculous representation which exposes a particular reality by comparing it to another of a different order. Parodies can be a very useful verbal or literary tool to exposes the “red herrings” of diversions which distract attention from real issues; to expose “hobby horses” whereby men keep reverting back to repetitive over-emphases without critical thought; to expose inane traditions which become familiar ruts wherein we fail to recognize the absence d’esprit. By the use of parody one can be direct yet subtle at the same time. Blaise Pascal exposed the Jesuits by showing the absurdity of their thinking in analogical constructs. Soren Kierkegaard utilized and parables and allegory to reveal pompous and fallacious activities in the Church of Denmark. Both were criticized for irreverence, but their writings exist to this day as valid examples of courageous men who stood up for veracity, integrity and genuine spirituality. Sometimes this means “stomping through the tulips.”
In his Provincial Letters, Blaise Pascal noted that “there is a vast difference between laughing at Christianity and laughing at those who profane it by their extravagant opinions. It were impiety to laugh-be wanting in respect for the verities which the Spirit of God has revealed;but it were no less impiety of another sort to be wanting in contempt for the falsities which the spirit of man opposes to them.”
“There are many things which deserve to be held up to ridicule and
mockery, lest, by a serious refutation, we should attach a weight to them which they do not deserve.”
“...what is more fitted to raise a laugh than to see a matter so grave as that of Christianity decked out with fancies so grotesque...”
“...it is impossible to refrain from laughing.”
In documentation of his point Pascal quotes from Tertullian.
“...to treat them seriously would be to sanction them.”
“Can anything be more justly due to the vanity and weakness of these opinions than laughter?”
“Whether ought we to laugh at their folly, or deplore their blindness?”
There comes a time when we need to stand before the mirror to engage in some ecclesiastical self-examination. Those who are not willing to do so “deceive themselves,” and “their religion is worthless” (James 1:22-26). If we cannot or will not engage in self-criticism, we become very in-grown and unhealthy. The body-religious today seems to be in a state of “denial,” unwilling to admit or deal with their “ingrown toenails.” Such a situation is an unhealthy situation that hobbles our effectiveness. The ecclesiastical community today is so myopic that it cannot detach itself from the extraneous criteria of self-image in order to be objective about its munity condition. Perhaps we need to follow Jesus’ advice to “take the log out of our own eye, before we seek to take the speck out of another’s eye” (Matt. 7:3-5).
Hopefully parodies will allow us to “see ourselves as others see us,” and thus to be freed from some of our “foolish notions” and “blunders.”
“Charity may sometimes oblige us to ridicule the errors of men, that they may be induced to laugh at them in their turn, and renounce them.” ~Augustine
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