The Punchline is Grace, The Parables

A woman kneading a lump of dough as big as a steamer trunk. A shifty fraud re-burying a treasure and then buying the field he found it in. Jesus’ parables weren’t just theological constructs or teaching tools, they were jokes in which the punchline was grace. The joy of a son come home, the joy of finding money you thought was lost – Jesus knows how outsized these feelings are, and so conveys them in his parables. It tells us a little about the heart of God and his hilarious sense of romance.