How would the parables and events of Jesus' life be affected by our modern sensibilities and practices? PAUL CLARK's "modern parables"...

22nd February, 2012
Luke 15:11-31 - The Parable of the Lost Son
There was a man who had two sons. The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them.

Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant land and there squandered his wealth in wild living. After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.

Then he came to his senses, 'What am I doing in this dead end job? Why don't I enroll for unemployment benefits? Then I can eat and drink and take life easy on the beach! I'll never have to take responsibilities for the bad decisions I've made. My life will nearly be as good as one of my father’s hired servants.

His father died broken hearted waiting on the veranda of their homestead.

18th January, 2012
John 8:2-11 - The lady caught in adultery

At dawn Jesus appeared in the temple courts. All the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. The people brought in a woman they had caught doing an unthinkable act. They slandered her and made her stand before the group. They said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught doing something unthinkable according to our ways. Common decency demands us to shame, condemn and ostracize such a women. Now what do you say?”

But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and asked them, “Just what has this lady done?” The accusers answered, "she was teaching our children to treasure their purity. To wait until marriage to become sexually active, and to be faithful to their spouse. How judgmental and condemning, making the rest of us feel guilty."

Jesus stooped down in the dust and wept.