“Why didn’t Jesus talk plainly? Why didn’t he just say what he meant?” The student asked. “What is, ‘You are the salt of the world’ supposed to mean? I use salt on my eggs!” The quip got a big laugh.
My freshman-year student was genuinely puzzled over Jesus’ parables and metaphors. “How are we supposed to understand what he is saying?”
“Good questions,” I encouraged, impressed by her candor.
“Metaphors are a mercy of God for us,” I told the class. He wanted to transform his disciples – and us. Jesus hoped to change our views of our world, ourselves, and him. He wanted us to feel what he feels, to love others as he loves others.
I was not surprised by this question. After all, Jesus’ disciples asked him this. Jesus had answered, “Because knowledge of the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven has been granted to you…” (Matthew 13:11). Christ offered us his divine metaphors as a different kind of language to draw us into his very different kind of kingdom.
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Metaphors, similes, and parables are essentially comparisons between two very different things or acts. They use familiar comparisons to expand our experience with less familiar acts of God’s presence. In the well-known metaphor that my student asked about, for example, Jesus said that those who know and do his word are the “salt” of the earth. What is not well-known, however, is the way metaphors open us up to new ways of knowing and experiencing Christ.
Metaphors offer us intuitive, “feeling” words to talk about his kingdom. As any religious teacher knows, we cannot describe and analyze God’s kingdom the same way a science teacher might talk about a chemical reaction. It degrades the kingdom of God to define it “clinically,” as if it were just another physical location. Metaphors liberate the kingdom from everyday definitions and develop expansive ways to understand and experience God’s presence. Metaphors engage our affect and intellect in ways that allow us to wrestle with ambiguities, challenge our worldviews, and help us to feel what others feel.
To engage with us more intimately, Jesus chose the metaphorical logic embedded in the heart’s mind. “The National Directory for Catechesis” encourages educators to continue using metaphors just as Christ did.
Jesus used metaphors and parables for our salvation. Metaphors link different ideas that normally do not connect. Who would have thought to connect “salt” and “God’s Kingdom”? These links pave pathways to new ideas, new perceptions, and more complete ways of knowing and experiencing God.
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When we consider the different metaphors of Christ, we can explore new ways of understanding God’s Kingdom — our feelings and our thinking, our imaginations, and our ability to relate to others’ feelings. These qualities invite us further into God’s kingdom — to “feel it” as well as understand it.
Jesus knew that the very process of pondering metaphors is what produces new ways of understanding. The main task in teaching merciful metaphors and parables is to help students meditate upon them. In this way, educators offer valuable “sparks” to students’ brains that allow students to relate to Christ with their full minds and hearts.
How to accomplish this?
First, educators can introduce the “salt” metaphor by reading the passage in Matthew 5. Ask for any initial responses. Then reread the passage. Show a salt shaker and invite them to describe its function.
Second, the educator can ask students how they use salt today. The more ways students can relate to salt, the better. For example, do any students use electrolyte-restoring liquids when exercising? Has anyone gargled with salt water when they had a sore throat? How does salt enhance the taste of food?
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Third, the educator may offer insights about salt during Jesus’ time. For example, sometimes Roman soldiers were paid in salt because it was so valuable; even as valuable as gold. Teachers might note how salt is crucial for a proper diet and that salt was used to preserve meat. Some cultures rubbed salt in wounds to sterilize them.
After expanding their understanding of salt, return to the question of how Christians are like salt, as Jesus said. How can we act like salt’s healing or life-preserving qualities?
Fourth, ask “How can we all become even more ‘salty’ Christians?”
Fifth, ask students to suggest other metaphors for Christians or the kingdom of God. What other more modern metaphors could describe the healing, health-giving, sustaining, or life-giving acts of Christians?
In teaching by metaphors and parables, Christ used common images to draw his listeners into his uncommon life. Let’s continue that tradition.