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Gospel: "Why do you speak to the crowd in parables?"ask the disciples (Mt 13). Jesus says that some will not understand the parables. One NT scholar told me that Jesus wanted everyone to understand them but expected that most wouldn't. Today the parables are available for all...
CH Dodd's famous definition is: "At its simplest the parable is a metaphor or simile drawn from nature or common life, arresting the hearer by its vividness or strangeness, and leaving the mind in sufficient doubt about its precise application to tease it into active thought..."
Jesus's parables are stories, images or riddles that help us understand concepts like the reign of God, a reality too large to be contained by a simple definition. Parables "tease" our minds into new ways of thinking about what is possible, and about what God dreams for us.
Image: The Bay of Parables, on the Sea of Galilee, near Capernaum, where, by tradition, Jesus got into a boat and preached the parables to the crowds standing on the shore. The acoustics of the place (water, natural amphitheater) would have made it easier for them to hear him.
