Imagine an eccentric old woman had written a book about how you could sacrifice a couple of niggling character elements (pride, lust, gluttony..) for endless wealth.

And she decided as a public service to leave these unassuming books on car windows at truck stops, parking lots, parks.

Then imagine you found one on your windshield.. Would you open it? Read the back cover? Or would you do this—

Pick it up like it was covered in bat guano. Wrinkle your nose. Exclaim with distaste–what is this? And leave it on the sidewalk.

That’s my parable’s parable. Jesus doesn’t have to tell his stories. And he doesn’t have to make stuff up.

We are the ones who need ears to hear–

Mark 4:9-20 (NIV)
Then Jesus said, “Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.” [10] When he was alone, the Twelve and the others around him asked him about the parables. [11] He told them, “The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you. But to those on the outside everything is said in parables [12] so that, “ ‘they may be ever seeing but never perceiving, and ever hearing but never understanding; otherwise they might turn and be forgiven!’ ” [13] Then Jesus said to them, “Don’t you understand this parable? How then will you understand any parable? [14] The farmer sows the word. [15] Some people are like seed along the path, where the word is sown. As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them. [16] Others, like seed sown on rocky places, hear the word and at once receive it with joy. [17] But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. [18] Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word; [19] but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful. [20] Others, like seed sown on good soil, hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop—some thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times what was sown.”