Weak or disjointed analogies are one of my pet peeves. I have sat in audiences having just heard a public speaker’s attempt at making an analogy and still didn’t get his or her point. I know analogies are often flawed, and there are very few, if any, perfect analogies. But the use of a weak analogy is like trying to drive a nail with a pair of pliers.
Analogies most likely drove the thought processes of Thomas Edison, the great inventor. He had 1,400 patents to his name.
His ability to think in analogies contributed to his many successes. He said that to invent all you need is a “good imagination and a pile of junk.” And what is junk? In most cases, junk can be identified as common.
Edison related successfully to areas of mystery by first drawing on the common knowledge of his previous inventions and the many things he learned from such familiar things as cotton sewing thread. He used an entire spool of cotton thread, a few inches at a time while experimenting with what would work best for the filament in the new electric light. All of this gave him a handle to wrestle successfully with the unknown.
Jesus did the same thing with many of his sermons, discourses, and parables. One of His purposes for being here was to announce that the kingdom of God was at hand. But the people of the region did not understand that which pertained to the kingdom of God.
Instead of rebuking them for their ignorance, He helped them to begin to understand things about the kingdom of God by connecting them first to areas of familiarity. Those areas included leaven, seeds, farming practices, lamps, oil, salt, lost sheep, lost coins, and other common items and everyday matters of concern.
From this place of familiarity, He launched them into a better understanding of kingdom concepts.
Jesus did not impress audiences with His insight of deep academic subjects. Instead, he astounded them by showing that the kingdom of God, which they may have stereotyped as profoundly mysterious, or presumed it was something military or political, could be so easily understood using uncomplicated, down-to-earth ideas.
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