Mark's Story 15

We are doing one last edit on The 150 Parables...What a surprise this book will be for you!

Today's blog...

In Mark's Story 15, in the sS, the disciples are trying to understand the meaning of the two multiplication of loaves events.

(Following the literary form, the wW gives specific meaning to the sS.)

In the Wisdom section of this "parable," the "blind man" is asked by Jesus if he can see. Cleverly, Mark has the man say, "I can see people, but they look like trees, walking." Think about that statement. If the trees are walking, then they have no roots to stand on--no understanding!

The wW is: he looked intently. The wW is telling us that the disciples, through the eyes of the blind man, are searching for an understanding of the two multiplication of loaves events.

(The wAW tells how or why the wW is put into practice)

The wAW, a prediction of the passion, is why the disciples are trying to get a handle on the multiplication of loaves events.

The blind man does have his sight restored, and he sees everything clearly--there is understanding. What is this understanding? The mission entrusted to the disciples by Jesus is defined by the two multiplication of loaves events--and the passion...A topic to be covered in another blog.

Echoes continued...

Each Story written in the literary form of the parable, when diagramed, can be seen as two parallel stories going on at once. This is an important element of the literary form. My dad and I call one of those stories (within the whole Story) the "shaded story" and the other one we call the "unshaded story". That's because in his books he uses shadings to show the story and wisdom statements, which make up a story in itself. These statements are the ones around which the whole Story is built. The other three statements, the focus, reflection and appropriating the wisdom statements make up the "unshaded story". (On this blog, we are not able to illustrate using shadings, but if you look at the 150 parables website, and click on the sample Stories, you can see what we mean by shaded and unshaded stories.)

We talked about Echoes the other day. When reading the diagramed Stories you will find that one of the identical pairs of phrases will be found in the shaded story and the other one will be found in the unshaded story.

Here is the unshaded story of the parable that was introduced in the last post...Matthew 25:14-30:

It is like a man about to go abroad who summoned his servants and entrusted his property to them, the man who had received one went off and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master's money. The man who had received the five talents came forward bringing five more. Well done, good and trustworthy servant; come and join in your master's happiness. Next the man with the two talents came forward. here are two more that I have made." you have shown you are trustworthy in small things; I will trust you with greater;
"You wicked and lazy servant! you should have deposited my money with the bankers, So now take the talent from him and give it to the man who has ten talents. As for this good-for-nothing servant, throw him into the darkness outside, where there will be weeping and grinding of teeth."



Each of the 150 Stories that comprise the four gospels are written in this literary form. Each Story has an unshaded story, and sometimes the writers of the gospels will surprise us in the unshaded story with a possibly unrealized insight into that particular Story (as a whole). Every time you see this type of an echo in the gospels, now you'll know why!

We haven't made as many posts to this blog as we intended!! We've been busy editing the diagramed the Stories in the NRSV, and hope to get them to you real soon so that you can see the 150 Stories diagramed.

Echoes, Matthew 25:14-30

In Matthew (25:14-30), we have a parable about a man about to go abroad who summoned his sevants and entrusted his property to them. In that parable, the following verses are identically repeated:

"Well done, good and faithful servant;

you have shown you are trustworthy in small things;

I will trust you with greater;

come and join in your master's happiness."

If there were commentaries on this parable, and I'm sure there must be, this would probably be called an echo. Echoes emphasize something, and it does here in this parable. I'll talk about this in the next posting.