Biblical Text Discussion: Matthew 24:43-25:13

The parables were short simple stories/analogies that illustrated spiritual and moral lessons. They connected to the listeners’ lives, showed Jesus’ “voice” incorporated glimpses of the Kingdom of God, since it was easier for people to understand concepts that they can relate to. For example, he used topics of everyday life like the mustard seed appealing to farmers; yeast

     The story of Jesus' life is meant not only as a biography but also as an example to us as how to live our lives. Through Jesus' example of even everyday activities we can draw from that how to apply his message to our daily lives as well.

In today’s Gospel, we read about Matthew 20:1-16. A man hired laborers for his vineyard. The men started at 9 o’clock, and agreed to usual daily wage. Around 5 o’clock, the man met more people standing around. He asked them, “Why do you stand here and idle all day?” The men replied, “Because no one has hired us.” He then told them to work in his vineyard. Later, the man told his foreman, “Summon the laborers and give them their pay, beginning with the last and ending with the first.” When the men who started at 5 o’clock came, they received the usual daily wage. When the the man who started at 9 o’clock came, he received the same wage. The man who worked earlier started to complain about how he worked more, but received the same wage.

Let’s talk about the world about 2,000 years ago. It was a world where the mass of people were illiterate, taxes were extremely high, and the leaders would cheat and kill to feed their ever growing need for power. We all can relate to having a good storyteller in our lives, most were read to at night by their parents or are parents themselves that read to their children. What is the purpose of storytelling? It’s simple, comfort. A good story can ease your psychological unrest as well as offer a moral purpose. Sometimes you can even relate a story to your own life and offer an explanation to something you may be experiencing. This is exactly what the four gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John were. They told their stories of Jesus to offer comfort to their people in a time when people could not pick up a story and read it themselves. It is part of human nature to have the desire for a good story. This paper will describe several events that were written by great storytellers in the bible.

Further on in the book we are also able to see, how even the natural world itself yearns for the return of Christ. “For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. 20 For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21 that[h] the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.” We should model our lives in this way also. Hoping for the day when Christ comes and we will be brought into glory with our Lord and Savior.

Jesus’ use of parables was to fulfill Old Testament prophecy; Psalm 78:2, “I will open my mouth in parables, I will utter hidden things, things from of old-” (NIV). Additionally, Jesus used parables to teach the truth, basic moral, and spiritual principles using simple down to earth stories to reveal the message of the kingdom of heaven. The kingdom of heaven was the heartbeat of Jesus teachings; often his parables began with: the kingdom of God is like…. Jesus used parables to teach not of an earthly kingdom of God but of a spiritual kingdom, and those who chose to accept God’s kingdom would inherit eternal life. It is important to remember, that Jesus used parables not to replace to doctrine but to illustrate and confirm doctrine teachings.

N.T Wright writes Simply Jesus to help us understand Jesus through the cultural lens of that time. He divides his explanation into three sections: identifying what questions pertaining to Jesus are important to understanding Him, Going over what Jesus’ mission on Earth was, and giving examples and explanations of why all this matters.

In all his teaching to the crowds Jesus spoke in parables; in fact he never spoke to them without a parable. This was to fulfill the prophecy of Isaiah: I will open my mouth in parables;

The various symbols Jesus employs in his preaching reflect the common lives of most of his hearers. The agrarian and pastoral themes were especially popular, because many Israelites were farmers and shepherds. Most of Jesus’ parables and

Jesus said to his disciples that many would ‘hear, but not understand' the parables with its messages with the Kingdom of God, which highlights the importance to ‘see' or interpret a deeper understanding. However, the miracles played an important part in ‘seeing' from when one were to witness a miracle than ‘proof' would help others to see the true power of God. There were many difficulties for readers of Mark's Gospel, as to understanding the ‘son of God' and his mysterious yet glorified ways, due to the harshness of the society during the time of Jesus and Mark's community. People were not allowed to think with such freedom and to ‘blasphemy' as it appeared then. However many of Jesus' followers did not allow their strong faith and belief in him to disappear as the Kingdom of God has come near (1:15). There are many reasons that show the difficulties for Jesus' community to understanding and ‘seeing' that Jesus is the Messiah such as the conflicts evident between Jesus and the Jewish hierarchy because of his interpretation of the law. This may have caused people to be afraid of power. The parables and stories told by Jesus were difficult to understand and interpret its metaphoric symbolism, as well as the skepticism associated with miracles performed by Jesus. The miracles of Jesus curing physical health, also show the power God has over evil, and the power to cure incurable diseases, which aid others to ‘see' that

A parable is a “simple story used to illustrate a moral or spiritual lesson, as told by Jesus in the Gospels.” Parables are a form of teaching in Judaism, this is where Jesus made it a point in his ministry to gather common things that could be familiar to everyone and anyone who was wiling to hear him speak, for example bread and sheep. He made sure that the meaning of what was said was very clear in the context of His teachings. Parables in other words are an “earthly form of stories with heavenly meaning”. In Matthew (13: 13) Jesus says “Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.” This quote can be seen as Jesus’ way of communicating with his disciples, because many of them could not fully comprehend his teachings and what was being spoken. Another reason why He spoke in parables was so that “…unbelievers would be without comprehension”. Only those who were willing to follow Him and allow Him into their hearts, trusting in Him would understand His ways. His main deal was to be able to teach people, and hopefully in teaching them they would learn an d pass down what was taught to others. Just like in our society now and when it comes to books, magazines, etc Jesus used such things as words, pictures, and stories to help everyone learn and understand things in a certain way, because everyone learns differently he took that into consideration.

Then it goes on to tell His complete life without the sin, articulates the discontent of the vicious demise and the celebrated reappearance that many know of through the Scripture. The chapters of the book also highlight the stories and events of Jesus’ time on Earth. It can be seen as a retelling of the Bible in a sense, but it tells the stories in an inviting way for someone who may not be familiar or who may not be able to interpret the Scripture by just reading it word for word. The wording is creative and inviting which makes it helpful when reading for the first time or for a

The direct teachings of Jesus give instructions of how to live as Christians and the Parables were used in the Gospel to immediately confront us with a truth and evoke a change. (Fee & Stuart,2003, p. 152). The five major discourses of Matthew’s Gospel are centred around five lengthy Sermons using parables to make a point and call the people to make a change.

‘It is meant to make people think – even think furiously – and to issue in decision and action’ (Hunter 1976, 13) ‘And sometimes such vivid analogies so catch the public mind that they pass into public parlance’ (Etchells 1998, 1) It is no wonder that the reason people still like to use stories to illustrate teaching today is because of these facts. Etchells in particular brings out a very interesting point in that Jesus would surely have wanted his teaching to reach more than just the people directly listening. Stories are easy for people to both remember and remember accurately, making it more likely for his teaching to spread even before it became codified. We can learn greatly from this. If we really want our listeners to engage with the Gospel we need to preach it to them in a way that will help them engage. Telling those parables that force them to think for themselves and remember what they have been taught will help to carry the message of the teacher back into the listeners’ daily lives, rather than just hearing the message and

During Jesus’ life he was teaching in many different ways one of them was telling the parables. Parable is an earthly story with the heavenly meaning. That means that Jesus was making up a story in which there would be a real people, working of doing something that was common at that times. Sometimes he used the values whether material or spiritual, that were valuable in old times. So he was making everything to make the story look more realistic. But under the close of the poor man or woman and under the animal or a subject there was always something mach more complicated, something about his father, himself, and the people that were following the God or not.