Scriptural Symbols
As a child and young adult I never really seemed to appreciate Scriptural symbolism. I didn't much appreciate symbolism of any kind, being mostly interested in the quickest way between two points - i.e. if Melville meant certain objects in Moby-Dick as symbols, why didn't he plainly tell us what he meant? Why did he want me to work for what he could've just said in plain English? No wonder "Plain Speaking" Harry Truman was an early favorite president of mine.
I'm not sure what led me, in my early to mid twenties, to begin to savor symbolism. Maybe just growing up. But I find it delightful in Scripture, where it is as if God has written love letters with some words in invisible ink. And when the ink is revealed it thrills.
For example, Jesus was gone for three days before being found in the Temple - and he was also gone for three days in the tomb. Was he preparing Mary? Was he reminding her that even when He seems to disappear all is not lost? Another example is Mark 9:13, where Scott Hahn writes "As Elijah suffered at the hands of King Ahab and his wife Jezebel, so John the Baptist suffered matrydom by Herod Antipas and his mistress Herodias." Origen wrote, concerning the Transfiguration (Mark 9:2-8), that Christ "led the disciples up the mountain after six days to show that we must rise above our love for created things, which were made by God in six days, to enter on the seventy day into the vision of Christ's glory."
It always helps to read Scripture in context. I'd always thought that the Lord's warning that "those who are ashamed of me and of my words, of them the Son of Man will will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory" referred to those ashamed over doctrines like the Resurrection, the Eucharist, etc...- ie. those things which the Greeks laughed about when Paul preached to them. But the context is chilling. Following on the heels of his instruction about the need that we carry our cross, it's our unwillingness to sacrifice that is counted as "shame" . Jesus says we cannot be like "this generation" where the generation of Christ's time sounds remarkably similar to our own. The Jerome Biblical Commentary says, "Based on texts like Dt 32:5 and Ps 95:10, 'this generation' became an execratory term in the NT for all those who distrust Jesus and seek unmistakable signs of his divine mission." In our society, where choice and options are king, Jesus is is methodical about removing options, telling us that we have no option but to follow Him for He is where our life is: "For what will a man give in exchange for his life?" (Mark 8:37). Indeed.
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