Jesus Parables

stories he's been passed down as a child, from his family. Also, these parables can be

In today’s world people make a common mistake by making comparisons with the Bible and Aesop’s Fables. In the Bible it is important to which is emphasized more, law or grace. It is just as important to do the same in Aesop’s Fables. Very often a mistake is easily made in reading Jesus’s Parables. Understanding the emphasis of law and grace in both the Bible and Aesop’s Fables and realizing mistakes we make with reading Jesus’s parables can help with reading the parables

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 Prodigal Son”, “The Boy who Cried Wolf”, or “The Mouse and the Lion” are all stories that are commonly well-known, however few people recognize them as parables. The parable is a figure of speech characterized by a short narrative, in prose or verse, full of symbols, allegory, and analogy to convey a moral or religious message. The word ‘parable’ comes from the Greek language and means ‘comparison, illustration, analogy’. The two thousand years old Buddhist story “The Elephant in the Village of the Blind’ portraying simple story, demonstrating universal moral, and using symbols and analogy is the evident representative of the parable.

Parables are stories written in the Bible for truth and life guidance. We have to understand that parables are implied by God to encourage his written word and carry his truths. God’s words can touch a heart of faith despite their external circumstance. The history of parables started with Jesus writing “the sower and the seed” in the book of Matthew. The sower and the seed was the seed is “the word.” The hard ground represents the person who is hardened by sin. Parables date back as far as

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.

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;

Parables are modems of communication that Jesus used to get responses from his hearers, to call them into action. They come in many different forms. The first form is a true parable it is a parable like the Prodigal Son or the rich man and Lazarus although I would say the rich man and Lazarus was a very real story. Their form is a story with a story line, a beginning, and end. Another type of parable is a similitude, which are normal pictures of daily life that are used to drive home a bottom line. The third type is a metaphor or simile and sometimes are called “parabolic sayings” (Fee & Stuart, 2014, p. 157). These are in the same genre of a similitude, but with a different purpose for being spoken. It needs to be clarified that parables are not allegories although they may contain some allegorical elements they are not to be understood as being an allegory nor should they be interpreted in an allegorical way (Fee & Stuart, 2014).

of God is like and how people should act if they wanted to be in the

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.

The Gospel of Luke has some very significant parables that are still taught today. One parable is The Parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37). In this parable a man was walking down to Jericho when robbers attacked him. They left him there half dead and beaten up. A priest happened to go down the same road and when he saw the man he didn't even stop he kept walking. Also, a Levite saw him and walked past him on the other side. But when a Samaritan saw him he stopped and had mercifulness for him. He helped him bandaged his wounds, and then he carried the man onto his donkey and led him to an inn where he could take care of him. He told the innkeeper to look after him and when he returns he will pay any of the extra expenses.

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.

I will start this essay with my simple answer, yes. I think that the modern world has grown to be ignorant. People will listen, however they will ignore. Perhaps, parables have some effect in the modern world with Christians who want to listen, learn and become a stronger Christian. Many people in the modern world have grown to think the world revolves around them. They also think parables are to old and outdated they think that they are out of touch of the modern society and were only relevant back in Jesus’ time and in ancient Jewish life. The reason for this is mainly because computer games and TV’s have been invented and this has caused people to be able to see everything going right for someone in a movie; or being able to control

The Gospels of the New Testament contain 39 different parables told by Jesus (Phillips 2004, 18-19) and no doubt he spoke many more during his ministry. Jesus’ choice to use parables to teach his people is one that has intrigued many people throughout history. The aim of this essay is to get to discover why he chose to use those parables, and also what we can learn from this teaching method when evangelising today.

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.