The Vertical and Horizontal Power of Parables

Parable is a fantastic vehicle for making sure one's message endures and Jesus himself noted the difficulty of interpreting such stories his disciples wanted to know what he meant can't you just tell us the meaning. John dreary writes that narrative engages its readers by feeding them a mixture of the hidden and the open we are told enough to get us interested because we understand it enough is kept back from us to keep us interested  by presence of things which we do not understand but hope to understand by reading on or reading again more carefully. You can tell if a work of literature is truly great because it holds up to rereadings not only sustains rereadings but demands them.