We’ve all experienced the crush of
feeling left out. Even in childhood, we might have been excluded from a party.
In our teen years, perhaps we don’t make the team. In young adulthood, we might
then face the sting of rejection or the feeling of looking in from the outside.
All of our friends have married, but the right one hasn’t come along for us. Or
we sent our application to our favorite school, but we didn’t make the cut. The
economists may argue about the optimal unemployment rate, but we sign our name
to form after form, yet we hunch by a silent phone, wishing a job would come
our way.
Only some of us have experienced
being thrown out, however. We may have watched someone who caused a scene — after
one too many drinks, perhaps — be tossed out of a bar or party. Tossed out may
feel worse than left out. Tossed out happens in front of everyone. We have no
place to hide. Our dignity hits the door before we do. We may have the benefit
of solitude when being left out, but being tossed out means public humiliation:
hands pulling you in the wrong direction, a struggle, tempers flaring. Left out
feels sad; tossed out feels degrading.
The parable of exclusion
Because being thrown out feels
terrible and humiliating, we might be surprised that one of Jesus’ parables
ends with someone thrown out. We prefer Jesus’ parables that end in abundant
harvest, such as the parable of the sower,1 or with joy, such as the
parable of the treasure in the field.2 Those parables end with
grace, with God’s triumph. We might expect a parable of Jesus to contain a
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