Story: The Language of the Heart

by Mike Chong Perkinson

Capturing the heart and securing devotion for the cause of God’s Kingdom is that elusive element that all of us face head on in this enterprise we call ministry. Trying to find ways and methodologies hopefully inspired and empowered by the Holy Spirit to speak to the heart of humanity drives much of our literature, conferences and seminars.

It has become apparent that as great as information is, even the acquiring of Biblical information, it does not automatically lead to personal transformation. The American church is one of the most informed churches in history and yet, the hearts of many are no more devoted to living the Way of the Kingdom than they were before they knew the information. Maybe as leaders we give too many answers? Maybe we should be asking more questions? Maybe the questions would give more answers than any answer ever will? Maybe the answer is in a Person (expressed in the narratives, poems, songs, and propositions of Holy Scripture)? Maybe there is another way to teach and share that would open the heart?

Jesus had an interesting way of communicating with the crowds that allowed Him to communicate clearly with His audience, capturing the heart as He conveyed the simplicity of the good news of life in the Kingdom. More specifically, He was following in the vein of the Rabbis utilizing haggadah and halakah. Oddly enough, there is the occasion that His disciples asked Him what this parable meant. He said, “The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of God has been given to you, but to others I speak in parables, so that, ‘though seeing, they may not see; though hearing, they may not understand.’” For someone that was trying to speak the language of the heart, resulting in surrender to Him as the Way, the Truth and the Life and living in this new Kingdom reality, I find it odd that such a statement was made.

Rabbinic Teaching Methods

If you allow me to take us back historically to second-temple rabbinical thought, we find there existed two primary modes of teaching – haggadah (knowing/devotion/meditation on scripture) and halakah (doing the Word, walking in the Way). Our modern day classification of these two forms would probably classify haggadah as “knowing the Word” (orthodoxy) and halakah as “doing the Word” (orthopraxy). R. Abraham Heschel, a deeply respected Jewish rabbi of the 20th century, says of these two modes of teaching that:

Halakah without haggadah is fanatacism, Haggadah without halakah is irrelevant.

In other words, to do the Word without faith or proper understanding of it is to be a blind follower, and to have faith and understanding in the Word without fully living it out is irrelevant. This speaks to our modern day dilemma in our churches and in the world of Christian faith – we know and don’t do or we do and don’t know, seeing but not hearing or hearing but not seeing.

It is apparent that there is a way of life that the haggadah is framing that leads to life lived in and around the centrality of Christ that is most poignantly expressed in the “irreducible core”.

Parables: Did you hear it? No, really hear it?

Halakah has a subset in its approach which stands apart. This subset is called parable – a concept with which we are very familiar as one-third of the recorded sayings in the synoptic gospels are conveyed in parabolic form.

Let me take you back to Luke 8:9-10 (cited above), there are some who like to quote it or its synoptic equivalent to mean that Jesus taught in parables to confuse people. At first glance that is what seems to be the motive to Jesus’ use of parables. However, when we examine His quotation of Isaiah, along with the historical usage of parables, quite the opposite is true.

In rabbinic teaching, every parable has at least one “secret” or “key” that the story was conveying. With Jesus, most of his parables had at least two:

1) A key theme or high level “secret”, that dealt with the “kingdom of God” or “kingdom of heaven”, which would be better termed in English “the reign of God”, because it describes how God’s people should live – NOW – demonstrating His reign in the daily rhythms of their lives.

2) A second “secret” that dealt with a demonstration of how we are to act in the kingdom - this is the most obvious meaning or application of the parable. More simply, how we are to live based on what the parable reveals.

In the teaching the “secrets” or “keys”, rabbis were expecting two things from their listeners: to understand their “secret”, and to accept that teaching and apply it to their walk. In Luke 8:10, Jesus chooses to refer to the words of the prophet Isaiah. He said, “Go and tell this people: ‘Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving.’”

It is in understanding this quote that the reader can get a hint at the two meanings of the words “see” and “hear”. When you understand the point the teacher is trying to make, you “see” it. Now, on the one hand, if you understand the message, if you choose to accept it as truth and to act upon it, you have “seen and seen” it. On the other hand, if you choose not to accept it as truth or to act upon it, you have “seen and not seen” it. In either case, the listener has to make a choice – this is the power of parable and story.

Heschel helps us here as he refers to parables as the ‘basket handles’ for haggadah and halakah, because without handles, it is very difficult to lift a basket – particularly a heavy one. This is why Jesus used parables to help the people understand his teaching so that they could make a fully informed decision whether or not to follow them. As gracious and life giving as our Messiah was, He was seeking to find followers that would go with Him in this way of life in the Father’s Kingdom.

I would also note that it was in His use of parable that Jesus was a master contextualizer – able to engage humanity right where they were. In Jesus’ society, which was heavily agrarian and living under monarchies, parables took on earthy themes, king/subject themes and master/servant themes – this was the context of peoples’ everyday lives. Using these types of stories, Jesus was able to contextualize haggadah so that people could follow it with the appropriate halakah.

So What Does This Mean For Us Today?

Using these three aspects of teaching, might I humbly suggest a way to lead in our churches to live out this Kingdom way of life that keeps us centered in a relationship with God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit based in the framework of the “IC”. To help us, let me offer the three basic ways to utilize the rabbinical process.

1) Haggadah – we need to know the Word, study the Word (which includes dialogue, debate and discussion – not necessarily full agreement and certitude on every subject), we need to hold to the truth of the Word – this transcends the culture in which it is taught – the Bible then reads us rather than we read it – we are changed and when we are changed our world has a chance to change. There are things that are part of haggadah – they do not need to be ‘adapted’ to the culture and they must not be forgotten or minimized or marginalized – they are timeless realities. On the flip side, though, to only focus on knowing without doing makes a church irrelevant.

2) Halakah – living out the Word – this is a mixture of both the transcendent and contextual, and it is the heart of being ‘missional’. The Bible contains definite prohibitions (idolatry, murder, theft, sexual sin, divination, etc.) and commands (loving God, loving your neighbor, making disciples, caring for the poor & the oppressed, etc.) which are transcendent – beyond culture, but it also leaves a great deal of gray space – issues and situations – which are not directly addressed. This gray space requires knowing the Word (Haggadah) so that we might differentiate between the “open hand” (engaging and adapting the Kingdom to culture) and the “closed fist” (living out the timeless truths as culture submits to the Kingdom). To perform works of halakah without haggadah in the extreme is fanatacism (think about abortion clinic bombers, the Crusades, Jewish zealots, etc.) and at the least is misguided and sinful, and in any matter does not lead to the kingdom.

3) Parable is the true ‘contextualization’ of the Word – it is teaching and demonstration which takes haggadah (knowing the Word) and translates it into halakah (living the Word) in a way that makes it plain to the hearer how they should live, engaging the heart as the defenses of religion and fallen humanity are minimized and invitation to enter the story is given. If the ‘parable’ is told properly, the hearer will be able to make an informed decision on whether or not to follow the Way. Parable is all about contextualization – because ‘ignorance of the law is no excuse’, is it not important for us to know and teach the Word in such a way as it can be properly understood and followed? Utilizing parable or story is then a beautiful way to speak the language of the heart so that the way of the Kingdom is properly understood and can be followed. Parable more simply allows a person to take responsibility and make a decision (see 2 Samuel 12, the parable told by the prophet Nathan is an excellent example).

And so, at our pulpits, in our classrooms and small groups, I think we would do well to seek out a process of teaching that incorporates haggadah:halakah:parable. Whatever your tradition might be or whatever label you choose, it is imperative that we incarnate the reality of Christ in our developmental process that seeks to bring about a right knowing (theology), the full mission of living out the “IC” and contextualizing it in our homes, neighborhoods, cities, and world. May His Kingdom find its full expression and may we rise up and be those that explicate with full heart the haggadah, incarnating, modeling and engaging our disciples into halakah, as parable and story (sharing of our own as well, Revelations 12:11).