Jesus Reflection Paper

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

Jesus used the parable to revel how people respond to the message of the Kingdom of God. The parable shows that there are people who reject or not keeping the word and they are unfruitful. Only people who respond to the message and persevere it until they bear fruit in the kingdom of God.

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 parable was about seeds that were scattered in a field. Some fell along the path, some fell on rocky ground, some fell among thorn bushes and some fell in the good soil and were able to bore grain.

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.

Today, as I attend school with the major heading as “Missions,” I hear a lot of talk about different methods in creating disciples. However, “Paul’s modus operandi for training was time on task” (pp. 59). In other words, disciples were made through time spent rather than strictly content. It sounds like relationship was a key aspect. Paul also focused on transferring these converts into true believers. It seems a lot in churches today, individuals are more focused on content rather than time. Therefore, they spend more time in the church “learning” than spending time with those that need “discipled.” With that, people in the church tend to “convert” others or brag about increased attendance, but have no plan to turn these individuals into true believers.

The Parable of the Sower (Mark 4:1-12, NRSV) is written with the intent to teach a lesson to the reader. Jesus shares a parable with a large group of people and later explores this with his disciples. This passage gives the reader the chance to hear the parable and also its intended meaning. Whilst this story is popular in catholic teaching, it is not exclusive to Mark. The Parable of the Sower can also be found in Matthew 13:1-23, Mark 4:10-12 and Luke 8:9-10; 10:23-24 with various differences and parallels between each.

Jesus would use parables to deliver His point to the people of the land. "He taught them many things by parables..." (Mark 4:2 NIV) The definition of parable is: a simple story used to illustrate a moral or spiritual lesson. Jesus would use these simple teachings to show others the way to live without calling someone specific out on their actions. Jesus talks about how the common people will get everything they need from a parable, but He gives the disciples more, so that they can have a better understanding, and have the ability to be closer with Him. "With many similar parables Jesus spoke the word to them, as much as they could understand. He did not say anything to them without using a parable. But when He was alone with His own disciples, He explained everything." (Mark 4:33-34

I am displeased with myself when I say the categories of Jesus’ parable teachings were difficult to understand during lecture. However, by the end of lecture I felt I understood the definitions of each category. A parable was fairly straight forward, a narrative

Parables are interesting and enlightening pieces of Scripture that call us to action. Fee and Stuart (2014) in their chapter The Parables: Do you get the Point? give sound guidelines for understanding and interpreting these pieces of Scripture. Knowing this we can understand the parables better, why Jesus used them and how it increases our understanding.

When the word of the Lord is proclaimed, I know that it is important that I listen and follow the instructions told in it. Although, I am human, so that's not always the case. In reference to the Parable of the Sower, I can be each of the types of soil at times. Sometimes I am like hard, rocky, or thorny soil. Other times I am like fertile soil, and listen and take in the Word of God as I should. All of these are because I am human, an am not perfect.

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.

‘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.