Concerning Humanity
Southwestern Journal of Theology
Volume 59, No. 1 – Fall 2016
Managing Editor: W. Madison Grace II
By Jared C. Wilson. Wheaton: Crossway, 2014. 192 pages. Paperback, $14.99.
In The Storytelling God, Jared Wilson demonstrates that the parables of Christ are tales designed to point to the glory of Jesus, rather than moral urgings for upright living. Working against the tendency to moralize these parables, Wilson drives home the parables’ primary purpose of providing a glimpse into the kingdom of God.
Among the introductory matters charted in the book, chapters 1–2 explain the issues in defining a parable and common errors that can result. Wilson argues that rather than seeing them as inspirational short stories, Christians should understand the parables as “wisdom scenes,” illustrations that are meant to “run alongside their points and reveal them in rather immediate ways” (28). If these parables are truly wisdom scenes, then what wisdom are they depicting? As chapter 3 states, Christ is the embodiment of the wisdom of God, and these wisdom scenes underscore “the centrality and supremacy of Christ” (55–57).
Continuing along these lines, chapters 4–7 examine the nature of the parables specifically, focusing on the glory of Christ as the underlying theme of each parable. Chapter 5 states that by making a lowly shepherd or a woman the heroes of these parables, Jesus is identifying with these kinds of commonplace people. He is not lording over them but rather debasing himself to say that the kingdom is specifically for them. Through examples such as these, Wilson makes a case for the gospel in the parables by stating that Christ is willing to be put in the place of people such as these, or rather, such as us. Setting forth the idea that Jesus is willing to be numbered among the transgressors (Isa 53:12, Luke 22:37) to become like us, that we might become like Him (71).
Chapter 8 notes that even much of the old covenant prophecy could be labeled a parable, as Wilson recalls that the Hebrew word for parable (mashal) in the Old Testament is also used for proverbs, riddles, and similes. Here, he identifies parables in the Old Testament that connect to the kingdom of God and convey God’s prophetic truths, such as the prophet Ezekiel’s parables (Ezek 20:49). Wilson evaluates poetic stories and narratives in the Old Testament to conclude that they serve to reveal God’s truth in a parabolic way to their hearers, just as the parables of Jesus do.
Wilson has not sought to address every clearly identified parable of Jesus, much less every momentous occurrence of metaphor and symbol found in the Gospels. However, the seven peculiar statements from the Johannine narratives demand inclusion into his book because of the way they so closely resemble a parable’s subject and object. That is to say, the “I am” accounts that Wilson deems fit to list in the book exist there because of their complex comparisons to the kingdom of Christ and revelation of the kingdom, not unlike the rest of the parables told by Christ. In the last chapter of the book for instance, Wilson addresses specifically seven of these “I am” statements (e.g. “I am the light of the world,” “I am the bread of life,” “I am the door”) since these sayings reveal that Christ is ultimately the living parable. One might consider this point the climax of the book. Just as the parables themselves contain the spiritual power of awakening or deadening within stories of human experience, so Christ is the Spirit-conceived power of God undergoing human experience. (144–60).
Wilson’s treatment of parables is a good example of Bible reading that takes into account the impetus of the kingdom of Christ in Scripture. Ministers and those in training would benefit from the content of each chapter as well as Wilson’s underlying challenge to understand these parables as a window into the kingdom of God, designed to drive us to Jesus in wonder, reverence, and worship.
