fell on the rock; and as it grew up, it withered away, because it had no moisture. And some fell among thorns; and the thorns grew with it and choked it” (Luke 8:5–8). And yet, “Some fell into good soil and grew, and yielded a hundredfold”—amply making up for all the losses. Nor should we pull up the weeds that seem to choke the wheat, “lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. Let both grow together until the harvest” (Matthew 13:29–30). Why do we so quickly grow impatient? The seed is growing. The bread is rising. All we need is patience.
Our common sense, if we’d but use it, is in tune with the patience of nature, “as if a man should scatter seed upon the ground, and should sleep and rise night and day, and the seed should sprout and grow, he knows not how. The earth produces of itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. But when the grain is ripe, at once he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come” (Mark 4:26–29). “Indolence is often taken for patience,” says a French proverb.
But the truly patient are anything but indolent: they know
A calf is not afraid of its mother’s horns.
— GALLA
The lion growls at its cub but won’t eat it.
— ILA
when to act. Wide-awake to the right moment for the harvest, the reaper in Jesus’ parable puts in the sickle “at once.” Common sense gives us both patience to wait and alertness to strike while the iron is hot.
3. Now is the moment. Another set of parables gives us flash images to sharpen our sense for the decisive moment. Someone’s sudden death, a lightning flash, a burglary: challenges to expect the unexpected. “The land of a rich man brought forth plentifully; and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ And he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones; and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; take your ease, eat, drink, enjoy yourself.’” The broad flow of this narrative makes the ending sound all the more sudden: “Fool! This very night your life will be demanded back from you” (Luke 12:16–20). “Death keeps no calendar,” as the English proverb says. Neither does a burglar make an appointment. “If the householder had known at what hour the thief was coming” (Luke 12:39), he would have watched. Watch out! Can you foretell the moment when lightning will strike? Or, in the colorful language of a proverb from the southern United States, “Mule don’t kick according to no rule.”
In a time of momentous change, we must be awake and alert.We must watch out for sudden opportunity and, when it pops up, go after it.We must be ready at a moment’s notice to let go of the old and invest everything we have in the new order.
Expecting nothing, a plowman plods along. With a clank, his plowshare hits hidden treasure. What would you do? He doesn’t think twice. “In his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field” (Matthew 13:44). Another — a merchant in search of fine pearls — is already on the alert. He knows a priceless pearl at first sight — and he goes for broke (Matthew 13:45–46). Common sense is as daring as it is patient. “Nothing wagered, nothing won.”
4. Trust in God, yet act as if everything depended entirely on you alone.
In a particularly colorful series of parables, the main characters are, above all, enterprising. Some industrious servants — firstcentury venture capitalists — double the money their master entrusted to them. With great determination, a man makes a nuisance of himself by coaxing his friend out of bed in the middle of the night and gets what he needs. An obstinate old woman pesters a judge so relentlessly that he promises a just sentence on her behalf even though he is corrupt to the bone. A manager who has embezzled money and is about to lose his job feathers his bed for an early retirement by quickly embezzling a good deal more. These are not edifying stories featuring models to be imitated, but jokes that make a point: Doesn’t common sense tell you that one has to use one’s wits to get ahead in life? You know this? Why then don’t you put some effort into making this a better world, a world run by common sense? Why don’t you start now? As the Bantu say, “If you want to sweep the hut, why do you sit on the broom?”
One who rides in a litter doesn’t realize how far it is to town.
— HAUSA
Those who wear pearls do not know how often the shark bites the diver.
— ETHIOPIA
Mr. Fullbelly doesn’t know Mr. Hollowbelly.
— GERMAN
One eats the roast; the other licks the spit.
— HUNGARIAN
One who hasn’t carried your burden knows not its weight.
— HAYA,EAST AFRICA
And yet, in our spiritual practice, the supreme goal of all effort is to make no effort. This, too, common sense teaches us — the sense we have in common with the “birds of the air” and the wildflowers. “Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them… Consider the lilies how they grow; they neither toil nor spin; yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his glory was arrayed like one of these” (Luke 12:24–27). In the midst of acting as if the outcome depended entirely on us, we can live carefree lives because God cares.
How do we know that God cares? We know that God cares because we care. This answer is the most staggering implication of Jesus’ parables: To follow the guidance of common sense is to share the mind of God. Decades before the parables were written down, Paul put his finger on this crucial point. “The Spirit reaches the depth of everything, even the depth of God” (1 Corinthians 2:10). In the parables, Jesus presupposes precisely this. He often speaks of the unique intimacy and mutual understanding between a father and a son. Is not this deep understanding implied when we call God “Our Father”?
When in Rome, do as the Romans do.
— LATE ROMAN
When you visit a frog, don’t ask for a chair: squat.
— HO,WEST AFRICA
When you go to a donkey house, don’t talk about ears.
— AFRICAN AMERICAN
It may seem an outrageous claim that we humans share the mind of God, and yet in some situations most of us spontaneously act on this conviction. For example, when a theologian claims that God predestines some creatures to eternal suffering or excludes from heaven children who died before they were baptized, common sense revolts. We are convinced that this cannot be so. On what could our reaction be based if not on a deep-seated conviction that we can somehow know the mind of God — at least in matters that are vital for us humans?
The finest parables of Jesus evoke strong common-sense attitudes and trigger the insight that God shares these attitudes. “What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion?” (Luke 11:11–12). In Matthew’s gospel, Jesus asks, “Who among you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? If you then… know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him?” (7:9–11). Jesus stretches the notion of commonness so far that common sense allows us to sense even God’s sentiments. The pattern “If you
There is no elbow that bends outwards.
— CHINESE
You cannot coax the morning glory to climb the wrong way round the corn stalk.
— AFRICAN AMERICAN
