2 Brothers Grim
As Jesus was confronted with the many tragic evidences of mankind’s brokenness, he chose parables to illustrate the contrast between Israel’s ways and heaven’s. Each telling had within it an invitation to come, to surrender, to wake up, to trust. And in each, the heart of the Father was always and forever on display as wastefully love-extravagant, with a ”Y’all come!” disposition toward His much-cherished children. The weak link in the communication chain was in the hearts of the listening crowds and in the hearts of his own disciples. They had pre-conceived ideas about the God of their Fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, ideas of a fearsome, wrathful, punishing Sovereign, all of which made hearing Jesus’ warm, welcoming descriptions of his Father vastly perplexing.