Post by thevociferator on Apr 3, 2017 5:26:57 GMT -6
Alright anyone who knows the Bible in a historical perspective knows that Jesus knew his Jewish culture. He knew it do well and crafted stories of heavenly truth by using cultural devices. He knew his audience and spoke in a way that his message would resonate. But however culture has changed and a lot of the stories would be nonsense if shared with non-believers.
A quick example of this is the Good Samaritan. I doubt many non-believers know what a Samaritan is thus the cultural relevance is lost. We all know Samaritans were a hated group of people rumored to be ungodly immoral and other stuff. They were the half-blood Hebrews.
An American culturally relevant Samaritan would be a second generation American Muslim. Of course most of Muslim haters are in the Christian circles there is still an animosity towards them as a whole in America. The story of a Muslim finds a random woman raped on the street as a police officer and a feminist passed by her but the Muslim picks her up and takes her to a hospital and pays her medical bills and also gives extra money for counseling later on is such a more impactful and culturally relevant story than what we read in the Bible because of the cultural difference now.
I actually led and performed a skit in China for a summer camp of over a hundred kids there who probably didn't know what a Samaritan was, so I challenged the team members to change the character to a Japanese person which actually almost offended some of team, which I said is good. The story is meant to be provocative. If you guys dont remember your high school world history class, read about the Rape of Nanjing. Some of the worst atrocities the world has ever seen were committed by Japan during WWII as they sacked northern China. China still hasn't forgiven Japan as a whole and will probably hold resentment against for several more generations. Hopefully you guys can see where I'm coming from.
So now I'm gonna take this in a different direction. Remember when Jesus washed his disciples' feet? What would be the cultural equivalent to that today? What could a pastor do to his staff to show the utmost humility? Or a boss to his employees?
Washing of the feet was super disgusting far more back then than it is now since everyone wore sandals and walked on dusty dirt roads everyday. It was a job or a servant or slave to clean the feet and was one of the most gross jobs in the culture. That is one of the reasons why Jesus washing the feet was such a big deal.
So in my opinion I think unclogging and cleaning overflowing toilets would be the closest equivalent I can think of at this moment. It's a job given to the lowest of employees. Very few people find the occupation interesting. I think it works.
Let me hear your brain processes of this topic. I can list other parables their current day equivalents but just went with one example
A quick example of this is the Good Samaritan. I doubt many non-believers know what a Samaritan is thus the cultural relevance is lost. We all know Samaritans were a hated group of people rumored to be ungodly immoral and other stuff. They were the half-blood Hebrews.
An American culturally relevant Samaritan would be a second generation American Muslim. Of course most of Muslim haters are in the Christian circles there is still an animosity towards them as a whole in America. The story of a Muslim finds a random woman raped on the street as a police officer and a feminist passed by her but the Muslim picks her up and takes her to a hospital and pays her medical bills and also gives extra money for counseling later on is such a more impactful and culturally relevant story than what we read in the Bible because of the cultural difference now.
I actually led and performed a skit in China for a summer camp of over a hundred kids there who probably didn't know what a Samaritan was, so I challenged the team members to change the character to a Japanese person which actually almost offended some of team, which I said is good. The story is meant to be provocative. If you guys dont remember your high school world history class, read about the Rape of Nanjing. Some of the worst atrocities the world has ever seen were committed by Japan during WWII as they sacked northern China. China still hasn't forgiven Japan as a whole and will probably hold resentment against for several more generations. Hopefully you guys can see where I'm coming from.
So now I'm gonna take this in a different direction. Remember when Jesus washed his disciples' feet? What would be the cultural equivalent to that today? What could a pastor do to his staff to show the utmost humility? Or a boss to his employees?
Washing of the feet was super disgusting far more back then than it is now since everyone wore sandals and walked on dusty dirt roads everyday. It was a job or a servant or slave to clean the feet and was one of the most gross jobs in the culture. That is one of the reasons why Jesus washing the feet was such a big deal.
So in my opinion I think unclogging and cleaning overflowing toilets would be the closest equivalent I can think of at this moment. It's a job given to the lowest of employees. Very few people find the occupation interesting. I think it works.
Let me hear your brain processes of this topic. I can list other parables their current day equivalents but just went with one example