“Clear as mud.” We are so familiar with hearing Jesus’ unique way of teaching, his use of that special story form known as a “parable,” that we miss the fact that for many first-century/first-time listeners, these illuminating animations were as “clear as mud.”

Jesus’ message of the kingdom was a new idea presented in a new manner before crowds of simple, old-fashioned Galileans. These Galilean fishers and farmers lived and worked and worshiped the same way for centuries. “Newness” itself was new. Even from our twenty-first century perspective, it is as hard for us to understand Jesus’ non-linear parables as it is for some movie-goers this summer to understand the Brad Pitt non-linear movie “The Tree of Life.” No wonder first-century audiences regularly “didn’t get it.”

Missing the messa…