Part of what made Jesus of Nazareth such a provocative teacher was the way his parables used images that would have been part of the experience of his audience – likely an agrarian experience for many of them. (In fact, scholars seeking to identify the actual words of the “Historical Jesus” prioritize sayings and parables that exhibit clear “Palestinian coloring.”) Jesus described the Reign of God in similes to which the listener could relate, using experiences with which he would likely have had some familiarity himself.
It should not have come as a surprise to me, then, when my Salvadoran hosts, taking me to work in the cornfields, spoke about the theological premises of their work using the images of soil, corn, and beans. The bean plants had sent out their tendrils, which had, in many cases, begun wrapping themselves around the nearby corn. As we unwound the beans from around the corn, Gustavo explained that plants, like people, need to be set free, not strangled. Our service, though, did not end with the liberation of the corn. We planted stakes next to the beans, stakes that would support the plants. Instead of strangling the corn, the beans would wind up and around the stakes. In this way, both corn and beans would flourish.
Gustavo said quite a bit more too, about preparing the soil and so on. I’ll include it down below. If your Spanish is any better than mine (which is NOT a high standard), it’s worth a couple minutes of your time.
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