printer-friendly 
email a friend
Bible study offers look at Jesus' parables
Dr. Alyce McKenzie's image is projected on screens as she leads Bible Study May 25 at Annual Conference in Salina. (photo by Rev. Susan Charest Wickiser) |
Written: 6/14/2006
By Lisa Elliott Diehl
Connection editor
Deliberate discipleship means to believe, to be willing to sacrifice, to follow along a path paved with compassion that leads to joy and justice.
Dr. Alyce McKenzie, assistant professor of homiletics at Perkins School of Theology, offered this definition of deliberate discipleship during Bible study at the 2006 Kansas West Annual Conference in Salina. McKenzie led Bible study in two parts on May 25 and 26.
McKenzie developed her definition from the four gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
In the Gospel of Matthew, to be a disciple means to follow. In the Gospel of Mark, to be a disciple means to sacrifice. In the Gospel of Luke, to be a disciple is to have compassion and feel joy. In the Gospel of John, to be a disciple means to believe.
Each of the gospel writers teaches us something different about discipleship, often through the parables the writer included that his contemporaries did not. Each of Jesus� parables was meant to teach us something about the kingdom of God by pairing something ordinary with something unexpected or extraordinary.
�What Jesus was doing with the parables was pointing people toward things that are like,� McKenzie said. �Jesus was helping us to, pointing toward another reality present and yet coming in, by pointing out concrete, everyday situations and setting daily kinds of things alongside the kingdom of heaven so we can see what it�s about. The parables aren�t really about getting you to focus in on them. They are all an answer to the question, �What is the kingdom of God like?��
She said in her 25 years of study, she has come up with four answers to that question.
She characterized the answers as good news and bad news.
�The bad news is the kingdom of God will most certainly threaten our security to the extent that we have defined security as controlling our future, others� responses and the results of our actions,� McKenzie said. �The good news is that our participation in the kingdom of God will bring in a harvest that is all out of proportion with the scope of our efforts.�
Using the parable of the sower as told in the Gospel of Mark, McKenzie reflected that the parable would probably be better named the parable of the seeds, for the seeds are the real focus of the story and provide the real lesson in the importance of giving up control.
�What�s weird in this parable is that there are three failures of seeds that fall on ground that isn�t hospitable,� McKenzie said. �The others yield a harvest that is not just plentiful, but miraculous. The miracle is that in our deliberate giving of control to God, we will make effort that seems small to us that have yields that are all out of proportion to the scope of our efforts.�
In her second session, McKenzie focused on the words of Matthew.
Matthew was teaching a mixed congregation that included both Jews and Gentiles. Neither group felt they had to do much in order to be Christians. The Gentiles felt that since they weren�t Jewish, they did not need to follow the ancient laws. The Jews felt they were entitled to their position because they were the children of Israel. What Matthew was teaching them is that it is not enough to hear the word of God, McKenzie said. Radical obedience was, and is today, necessary to be a disciple of Jesus Christ.
�You must be doers of the word and not hearers only,� McKenzie said. �A genuine hearing leads to doing. Matthew is calling us to a radical obedience.�
She lifted up the parable of the unmerciful servant from Matthew to illustrate God�s expectations of us while modeling a format for Bible study. The model first looks at the parable, looking for the gap between what�s true-to-life and what the parable says, and then inserting questions into that gap between reality and the parable.
In the parable, the unmerciful servant has been shown mercy for his debt, but he does not extend mercy to the person who owes a debt to him.
The unmerciful servant is one of the parables unique to the Gospel of Matthew.
�I think that Matthew is about saying this to us, �There is something that is expected of us,�� McKenzie said. �Something is expected of us, and in the parable of the unforgiving servant, what�s expected of us? That we will forgive. That we will forgive as we have been forgiven.�