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Tuesday, 12 April 2016

Action Packed Dramas VIII

The Parables: Jewish Tradition and Christian Interpretation,
Brad H Young, Hendricksen, 1998
Chapter 11, "The Find" (pp. 199-221), page 220

It's all a question about choice: will you take the choice, will you accept the risk, will you buy? Young says that obtaining the treasure or the pearl will change your life for ever!

Three action verbs capture the attention of the listener: find, sell, buy. Finding is confrontation. Selling is decision. Buying is risk. Giving all one has for something of inestimable value is the plot of the parable. The risk involves te unknown and the unknowable G-d. The action is so urgent that risk is completely forgotten. The find oouts one on a new path.

If the ordinry mand or the extraordinary merchant, to borrow Young's labels, are to get, go, be what they want, they have to take a decision and make the sacrifice.

The parable involves everyone in the audience. One person will identify with the man who finds the treasure and another with the merchant who finds the pearl. The wide appeal of the illustrations reaches out to involve all people - the poor and the rich as well as those who find without a search and those who seek diligently to get what they want. In both illustrations, the actor finds, sells all and buys.

Will you buy into the kingdom with that level of commitment?

Posted By Jonathan, 8:12am Comment Comments: 0