In his parables, Jesus often uses incongruous images or anecdotes, which would have made people in the culture of his time do a double take. The purpose of this technique is twofold. One is to engage the audience all the more by making them think through the incongruities. The other is to illustrate certain points more clearly through exaggeration. For us today, removed as we are from the culture in which Jesus lived, the rhetorical technique is harder to follow. We have to make an effort to enter into the culture of the time.
For example, the parable of the lost sheep would have been very startling in the culture of Jesus. In the story, the shepherd leaves the ninety-nine sheep to chase after the one sheep that was lost. Such an act would have been incredibly reckless for a shepherd whose entire livelihood depended on safeguarding the flock. He could not have risked losing all the other sheep in order to save the one. He would have had to cut his loses and protect what he still had.
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Image Credit: Irrigated Wheat field, from Wikimedia Commons.
