Jesus' Presentation of His Teachings Through Parables Essay

Although the Bible’s description of Jesus and his crucifixion has not been changed, the perception of the people about Jesus has been changing throughout the ages. The poem “The Dream of the Rood” is good example of a unique view of Jesus and his crucifixion. The poem is referred as “one of the first and most successful treatments of the crucifixion” in Old English poetry (Burrow 123).

Reflecting on this week assignment, “The Art of Preaching Old Testament Narrative,” Haddon W. Robinson enlightened me on the importance of going back to re-read also study the Old Testament. However, through further study, I glean there is a hermeneutical side also a homiletical side that will help me improve my sermons bristle with accuracy, clarity, interest, also relevance. Preaching an Old Testament narrative is challenging due to the fact of misreading them (Scriptures), read them poorly, or read them to prove a point outside the purpose of the biblical storyteller. This is called abuse of the Bible considering, it leads to what God says is bearing false witness.

It is possible to write on the life of Jesus from the information gathered from the bible. I will be dividing my essay into three parts. In the first part of the paper, I will talk about the nature of the gospels, John’s views vs. the Synoptic, discuss if the authors of the gospels are eyewitnesses and how they used written sources. Also I will talk about the Q source. Then I will elaborate on the topic of how Matthew and Luke were similar. Then I will continue on by discussing how the Old Testament uses Moses, Samuel and Elijah to interpret Jesus, and finally whether or not the Sermon on the Mount happened. In the second part of my paper, I will talk about Jesus’s birth and childhood, his miracles, his resurrection, and what Jesus did to cure people, spirits and how they are interpreted to the prophet, magician and the mad man compared to Saul and Elijah. The final part of the paper I will talk about what Jesus talked about as regards to the Kingdom of God vs. the Kingdom of the Romans and what he intended by speaking of the end of the world. I will also speak of the reasons behind the Romans executing him. My sources for this paper will be the New Jerusalem Bible Readers edition as my primary source and lecture notes from Professor Trumbach.

The Gospels are narratives about the life and time of Jesus. They describe not only Jesus' life but also what was taking place at that time. This helps to give us a better perception of why some things happened the way they did and what it was possibly like for Jesus. We are able to better understand some of the social and political aspects of life during Jesus' time period, which can help us to overall understand the meaning behind the Gospels better. (Bible Dictionary)

One critique to the Jesus Seminar was the motives behind their work. The media often portrayed the group to be comprised mostly of former Christians, attacking hardest on the group’s leader Robert Funk and cochair John Crossan. Critics went as far to describe their meetings as having “the air of a village atheists’ convention” (Powell, 110). Such an allegation gave rise to the popular belief that the motives of the scholars were to get revenge on institutionalized religion for not being accepting to them. I believe the media was too quick to judge the motives of the scholars by attacking their backgrounds. Just because their work was controversial doesn’t mean it was subjective with underlying personal vendettas. It seems unlikely that a group

voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice’. Jesus used this figure of speech, but they did not understand what he was telling them.”

Situational leadership focuses on adapting your leadership style or approach based on the situation and the amount of direction and support that is needed by followers. As Jesus trained and equipped his disciples from simple fishermen to fishers of men, who carried on his ministry after he ascended to heaven, he integrated different styles and theories of leadership that best served and supported his followers (Blanchard & Hodges, 2003). Depending on the level of competency and commitment of their people, leaders will adjust their style to provide the necessary support and direction. The core competencies of situational leaders are the ability to identify the performance, competence and commitment of others, and to be flexible (Paterson, 2013). From being highly directive, telling their people exactly what to do and how, to delegating, clearly stating the objective and allowing them to complete the task with little direction and support, situational leaders adapt their approach to the needs of their people and the particular situation.

The image of Jesus nailed to a wooden cross by the palms of his hands and with a crown of thorns wrapped around his head is one that has transcended all time barriers. It has inclusive been replicated into figure form that is utilized in various ways but whose primary function is to serve as a constant reminder of the physical suffering endured by Jesus. In The Dream of the Rood however, the perception of Jesus Christ as not only the son of God and savior of mankind but also as a human with the capacity to feel pain, is subverted when through the perspective of a personified cross he is conveyed as a warrior in the midst of combat. The portrayal of Jesus in this way immediately evokes the image of an ideal stereotypical hero who is strong,

The parable of the Lost Sheep indicates the shepherd left ninety-nine sheep to find the one lost sheep. Why would Jesus teach to leave ninety-nine sheep for only one lost sheep? Was there another shepherd in-training to look after the ninety-nine or how long was the shepherd gone? Questions our mere mortal minds of 2017 try to answer using current culture ideals. Too often, this generation of believers get bogged down in the details and not the message of the parables. Jesus taught using parables to draw the listener to His message about the kingdom of heaven and can best be understood looking through a scriptural lens and not beyond what the Word provides.

Two thousand years ago, the birth of Jesus, arguably the most influential man the world has ever seen, altered history forever. Christians know him as the Messiah, the son of God who came to save all of mankind, and for others, he may just be a great teacher and person of history. It is the latter that Reza Aslan attempts to shed an unbiased light on by comparing the Jesus that modern Christians believe in to the Jesus that Aslan believes would have fit into first-century Palestine: a violet revolutionary, dedicated to the eradication of the Roman government in Israel and the deposition of the rich priestly class. Aslan paints a portrayal of Jesus using knowledge of the time period, Scripture that has been taken out of context and misinterpreted, and most of all, the author’s imagination and powerful rhetoric to cover up his faulty argumentation. In his book Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth, Reza Aslan recreates an interesting but purely speculative image of the historical Jesus through exploring the political and social history of first-century Palestine, the life and teachings of Jesus, and the development of early Christianity.

The new testament contains four (4) accounts of the story of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection as presented by Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, The 3 accounts are similar, while Johns bible presents Jesus in a unique way. These differences exist because Matthew and Luke got their information from Mark and John got his information from another source, maybe John did not have access to the other gospels or he chose not to use them. No one really knows the source of John’s gospel and we don’t know for sure who wrote the gospels. Scholars refer to the authors as Matthew, Mark, Luke & John, this may not even be their real names. The Gospel were not first hand accounts except for Mark. John did not seem to have known the existence of the other

The meaning of the parable is that like the seed if the Kingdom of God

Now-a-days it seems like religion has become somewhat of a taboo. It has fallen on the back burners, pushed behind things such as famous actors that people look up to or things portrayed in the media. The thing is, the most important figure in history is part of religion and should be revered much more than the idolized actors of today. The human population has become blind to spiritual life and has become engulfed by a social lifestyle. If you look around, people have forgotten what it’s like to know Jesus and any aspect of religion. Religion is the biggest part of any person’s life because it is the building block for everything we have.

Throughout the book of John, Jesus did many signs and miracles. Through these signs, Jesus attempted to show both the multitudes as well as his disciples one small truth about Him—His is God. In this gospel, Jesus goes toe-to-toe with many of the Jewish spiritual leaders (i.e., Pharisees, Sadducees, Scribes, etc.) in order to show the people who He truly is. Scholars disagree with how many Messianic signs Jesus performed, but one thing remains—every single sign pointed back to the fact that Jesus was who He claimed to be. The signs performed by Jesus show both the Israelites of old, as well as the people of today, that He is, indeed, God.

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.