Fred Craddock started us on this startling path of rethinking Jesus’ use of “illustrations,” and whether they were illustrations at all: “In good preaching what is referred to as illustrations are, in fact, stories or anecdotes which do not illustrate the point; rather they are the point. In other words, a story may carry in its bosom the whole message rather than the illumination of a message which had already been related in another but less clear way.
