By His Wounds We Are Healed

At face value, Jesus’ teachings in the gospels are just that: teachings - - words to live by, moral guidelines, affirmations of what it means to be holy, and instruction on how to be a good and faithful servant. Yet there’s more, much more: a flourish of parable, paradox, allegory and metaphor. However you sift these teachings for meaning, the grandest parable Jesus told is the one he spoke with his own flesh and blood, the parable of his death and the resurrection.

The Pharisees of Jesus’ time often used allegorical stories to teach the Jews about the Torah and how to live the covenant life Moses established with Yahweh. During his three years of ministry, Jesus challenged the Pharisees and their instruction to Jews on the Law because, (1), the Pharisees had become blind to the original Spirit of the Law, and (2), the Pharisees hypocritically preached obedience to the Law bit didn’t practice it themselves.

In contrast to the Pharisees’ use of allegories, the heart of Jesus’ teaching was delivered via parables. He told parables about The Good Samaritan, the Prodigal Son, the Sower, and so on. Unfortunately, Jesus’ disciples often had difficulty understanding these parables and Jesus had to explain the parables to them, including his final parable, the parable of his death and resurrection, which he explained, for instance, to Cleopas on the Road to Emmaus, and Thomas and the twelve in the Upper Room.

Most of Jesus’ parables became allegories or example stories upon their re-telling and recording by the apostles over time (Ludwig, 1). This is of key importance and distinction because an allegory points symbolically to realities of which the listener is familiar, while a parable suggests metaphorical meaning and demands creative interpretation by the audience (Pregeant, 345). In telling parables, and in ultimately demonstrating his own death and resurrection, Jesus was not interested in giving us simple pointers for daily living but in challenging us to a radical new way of living that requires the use of our imagination to understand. I think it is appropriate to say that Jesus was both a parable and a paradox in how he taught and lived. His vision of the Kingdom, for instance, was contradictory to what his followers expected, but in reinterpreting what the Kingdom meant, he revealed an even deeper truth.

How did Jesus’ death and resurrection become a parable? Reading the scriptures, the parable seems to unfold as part of Jesus’ teachings and is then later explained by Jesus himself after demonstrating the parable of his resurrection. In this way he seems to give the standard Dale Carnegie business presentation to the apostles: I’m going to tell you what I’m going to tell you, tell you, and recap by telling you what I told you. While Jesus is alive, for example, he says to his apostles:

• "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." (John 2:19)
• “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” (John 12:24)
• "Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13)
• “From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.” (Matthew 16:21)
• “For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink.” (John 6:55)

After delivering some of these parabolic phrases, Jesus attempts to explain them to the apostles at various times and they clearly have difficulty understanding him:
• After relaying the Parable of the Sower: “He said to them, "Do you not understand this parable? How will you understand all the parables?” (Matthew 4:13)
• After describing the type of death he would die, Jesus says to Peter: “Get behind me Satan!” (Matthew 16:23)

In the midst of his passion, Jesus even attempts to explain the parable of his life and death to Pilate in John 18:33-38:

Pilate then went back inside the palace, summoned Jesus and asked him, “Are you the king of the Jews?” “Is that your own idea,” Jesus asked, “or did others talk to you about me?” “Am I a Jew?” Pilate replied. “It was your people and your chief priests who handed you over to me. What is it you have done?” Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews. But now my kingdom is from another place.” “You are a king, then!” said Pilate.
Jesus answered, “You are right in saying I am a king. In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.”

Pilate, like the apostles has two feet firmly planted in the physical world, and has trouble grasping the paradox and parable of what Jesus is actually talking about. Who is this guy? Is he a king? If so, where is his Kingdom? What is truth? Why doesn’t he just come out with it instead of speaking in parables? Doesn’t he know I have the power to release him or crucify him?

Ultimately, by seeing Jesus die on the cross, rise from the dead, and leave nothing but an empty tomb and a pile of burial dressings as evidence, the apostles begin to ‘believe but don’t understand.’ They garner the faith that the parable of Jesus’ death and resurrection is true, and not just a clever allegorical story or a tale of dynamic rhetoric.

• At the empty tomb, Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James remembered his words, “The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.” (Luke 24:7)
• On the Road to Emmaus, Jesus says to Cleopas, “How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?” And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.” (Luke 25:27)

When Jesus’ Palm Sunday did not lead to Messianic Monday, the apostles’ hopes were dashed, and like Cleopas, they tried to move on and get on with their lives, despite their disappointment. They didn’t get the parable! Their imagination could not conceive that Jesus could still ‘win’ after ‘losing’ on the cross. They knew Jesus’ teachings but the teachings still only had metaphorical or allegorical meaning to them:

• “For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.” (Matthew 16:25)
• “But many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first.” (Matthew 19:30)
• “And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, "This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me." (Luke 22:19)

After Jesus’ many post-resurrection appearances, the apostles did, however; finally ‘get’ the parable and this parable now blew their minds and captured their imagination. If God can raise a man from the dead, what else can he do? The apostles dejection and depression now became boundless hope (Ludwig, 11), and Jesus’ resurrection became more than the bodily return of their friend and teacher, but a redemptive event (Pregeant, 91). The parable predicted by Isaiah and the prophets before him was now a reality, “Son of man, I send you to the children of Israel, to nations that are rebellious, which have rebelled against me,” (Ezekiel 2:3) and “by his stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5).