On the surface discussing how to preach the parables of Jesus is like discussing how to preach an epistle or a gospel. First appearances, however, can be deceptive. There is no unified body of material like the unity inherent in an epistle or a gospel. Mining the riches hidden below the surface of these "simple stories" is more like the dilemma of a kid in a candy store: Where does one start? Where does one end?

Contrary to how they have often been treated, the parables of Jesus do not all look alike. They come in all different shapes and sizes. Some are skinny; some are fat. Some are short; some are long. Some are negative; some are positive. Some are brimming with grace, and some are burning with judgment. Theirs is a rich variety of form and content. (Remember the kid in the candy store?)

How does one preach the parables of Jesus with power? It will sharpen our response to the question if we contrast how to rob the parables of their power with how to release their latent power.

If I were Screwtape in C.S. Lewis' classic Screwtape Letters -- consciously working for the other side -- the following are strategies I would use to rob Jesus' parables of their power.

First, I would denigrate Jesus. I would claim that His parables add nothing to those of the other rabbis in His day. I would add that not only is there nothing new in them, it is impossible to determine what He really said after the gospel writers edited them. I would ignore any evidence pointing to the fact that the rabbis told parables to illustrate the Law of Moses (not as Jesus did to open up the kingdom of God in dramatic new ways), and I would conceal the fact that nearly all the extant first century rabbinic parables are dated after 70 A.D.1 Undercut Jesus and you minimize His message. This strategy never fails.

Second, I would throw the meaning of the parables into confusion. I would turn the parables into another Tower of Babel by confusing their tongues into conflicting schools of thought on how to interpret them.

I would insist that each parable has only one point. Most scholars in the twentieth century have bought that interpretation even though Jesus drew several points of analogy when He explained the parables of the wheat and the tares or the sower and the soils.

This approach provides a chance to catch liberals and conservatives in the same trap. What an effective strategy!

Then, I would go to the other extreme. I would allegorize every part of every parable. The church throughout the centuries has often used this method. Only the scholars and mystics are able to decipher their many layers, allowing them to interpret a parable any way they want no matter how fanciful. How unlike Jesus whom the common people heard gladly.

Then, I would insist that they are merely simple illustrations meant to clarify Jesus' theoretical ideas even though He often had to explain His parables to His closest followers. He claimed that he told parables to conceal truth as well as reveal it, fulfilling the words of Isaiah's prophecy, "Be ever hearing but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving" (Isaiah 6:9).