Canter Bridge

Jesus’ parable of the sower stands out from similar stories transmitted to us in the four gospels. It is unusually allegorical. Elements of the story point to real-world referents in an almost one-for-one fashion that is extraordinary when compared to the body of Jesus’ signature teaching style.

There is tragedy in this tale of seeds, soil, and a sower. For multiple reasons, seed is wasted. The promise of life and harvest turns out to have been betrayed. Rocks, hard-packed earth, and thorns are for the most part the unattractive victors in this story of long odds. Continue Reading »

The focus of the gospels on presenting Jesus within his real-world Palestinian millieu does not allow for a nuanced portrayal of the Pharisees. It is all too easy to fall into caricature.

Yet even when the proper interpretive precautions have been taken and caveats installed in all the right places, the Pharisee movement appears to have got some things quite wrong. At least when viewed from the perspective of Jesus and his chroniclers, a well-intentioned commitment to fostering holiness across the breadth of their ‘Israel’ had engendered some ugly myopia. Continue Reading »

As the old saw used to put it, ‘Children are to be seen and not heard.’

Jesus’ teaching on righteous behavior is even more severe. Good deeds ought to be neither seen nor heart, at least not in a way that reflects creditably upon their practitioner:

Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them; for then you have no reward from your Father in heaven. So whenever you give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be praised by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your alms may be done in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you. And whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, so that they may be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

Jesus tackles both the horizontal and the vertical axes of piety with this potent offensive against religiosity. That horizontal sharing of resources with one’s human neighbor is to be carried out unnoticed. It’s objective is the mere application of mercy and allocation of resources where they are needed. No referendum on the actor’s stature is to figure in the equation. Continue Reading »