Matthew, in his Gospel, reports that Jesus only spoke in parables: "All these things Jesus said to the crowds in parables; indeed, he said nothing to them without a parable." (Matthew 13:34).(To the left is Murillo's The Return of the Prodigal Son.)
Granting the rabbinic and ancient near eastern story-telling practice of exaggeration, we can at least conclude that the most important foundational truths Jesus taught in the form of a parable. But why?
The reason, we're told, is that some had closed their eyes and had rejected the Lord:
“‘...For this people's heart has grown dull, and with their ears they can barely hear, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn, and I would heal them.’
--Matthew 13:14-15
What does this charge of dullness have to do with parables? Parables are stories; somehow, these stories were not accessible to the proud, self-righteous religious leaders of Jesus' day. I think the reason is because they replaced God's story with something else, something less.
In His story, God takes center stage; "something less" is a story that "violates international copyright laws." Its a knock-off tale with out-of-work actors: poor, proud sinners who gave up their spot on Broadway downtown to "star" in a second-rate show in the 'burbs.
"Have you understood all these things?” They said to him, “Yes.” And he said to them, “Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house, who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.” --Matthew 13:51-52
God's story is like a treasure, then. By bringing out things "new and old," God opens the way for the lost, the poor, the outcast, the broken, to upgrade to Broadway. There, they enter into the Great Story of the World, the Great story of the Universe, the Gospel.
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