Tuesday, August 19, 2008

IDEA: The text without a context may be a pretext.

PURPOSE: To see how the context informs and enriches the parable.

One of the rules we have stressed is that a text taken out of its context may be a pretext. What does that mean?

Jesus told a story that seems rather complete in itself. Yet Jesus never told His stories in a vacuum. He always told them in response to a specific context. Let’s listen to the story He told in Luke 16:19-31 and then see how it fits its context.

[Luke 16:19-31 read by Max McLean.]

Let’s look back at the setting of this story: what are some of the elements found in the context to which this story relates?

It is told to the Pharisees “who loved money” and were sneering at Jesus, Luke 16:14-15.

The law and the prophets had been ignored by the Pharisees who felt they were blessed by God, Luke 16:16-18.

The rich man, like his five brothers, has the law and the prophets but ignores what they teach.

Whoever can be trusted with very little can be trusted with much, relates to this rich man who did not see his money as a stewardship but as an ownership, Luke16:10.

Use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves so that when it’s gone you’ll be welcomed into eternal habitations, Luke16:9.