Jesus Used Parables to Tell the Truth Abou the Kingdom of God

Chapter four examines the methods Jesus used to teach and spread his messages about the Kingdom of God. Jesus’s primary audience was the common people of first-century Galilee, so he had to adopt creative techniques to teach uneducated people about an unknown “fantastic” topic, the Kingdom of God. His strategy was successful; amassing a great amount of followers and started the foundation of modern Christianity. The methods he utilized, includes teaching through parables, debates and including examples with miracles and enacted parables.

“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

The Gospels indicate the disciples asking Jesus why he spoke in parables; “Why do you speak to the people in parables?” Jesus replies, “The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them”. He continues, “This is why I speak to them in parables:

Using the methodology of both Snodgrass (2008) and Capon (2002) to interpret the parables of Jesus can offer us a well-rounded approach to understand the meaning of Jesus teachings so that people can examine their own spirituality as well as apply these understandings in ones lives. While seemingly on opposites sides of the interpretive divide, both support our ability to make meaning from Jesus parables. By studying this method one might miss that the real meaning of the message is to be seen in the time it was taught. While the methods by which Snodgrass (2008) and Capon (2003) interpret Jesus parables may be vastly different, their goal remains the same to provide a way for us to understand the teachings of Jesus in his parables. Snodgrass (2008) included

In President Monson talk he talks about how to communicate. This made me think on why he would be giving a talk about this. As I was able to read thru his talk I was able to get my answer in so many ways. He talks about how Jesus when he would talk to people that he would do it in parables. His disciples asked him why, and this was his answer saying “because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.” This made me think. He goes on and speaks and explains even more why Jesus used parables and this is what he said he used parables, to “conveyed to the hearer religious truth exactly in proportion to the hearer’s faith and intelligence.” Then he say that “the parable is suited alike

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;

There are three parables in Luke 15 and they are all talked about “lost”. The first parable is about a lost sheep, the second parable is about losing a dollar, and the third parable is about losing a son. When I was reading this chapter of Luke, I feel marveled with these three; because I think one parable is enough and wonder why Luke provided three parables? We need to understand the purposes of these three parables are not about the loss of people, but are focusing on how Jesus treats with these people. If Luke only wanted to talk about the loss, then one parable is enough. However, the main focus is how Jesus treats with these people, so three parables are indispensable.

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.

“Jesus spoke all these things in parables to the crowds; he did not speak to them without a parable.” Matthew 13:34 In the preceding scripture of Matthew falls within the genre of the Gospels. Accordingly, Mark, Luke, and John fall in the same category. Looking at this genre, there are sub-genres that Jesus spoke the truth about, which are called the Parables.

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.

Parables are good because anybody from any religion, ethnic, background, country or upbringing would benefit from listening to them and would find them useful. They are the solution to most world moral issues, however, not everyone wants to listen

Another reason for Jesus teaching in parables is identified as Jesus knowing the best way to capture his audience, make them think deeply about what he has just said and then remember his teaching.

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.