Jesus was a master storyteller. He communicated clearly by using many stories, analogies, and metaphors. Parables have been used since ancient times to convey truth in a memorable way. While Jesus didn\u2019t invent the parabolic method of teaching, He perfected it. Herbert Lockyer wrote, \u201cIn the entire realm of literature there is no book so rich in its parabolic and allegoric material as the Bible.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The words \u201cparable\u201d and \u201cparables\u201d\ncombined appear 47 times in the Gospels. They come from a Greek word parabole<\/em>\n(par-ab-ol-ay’) meaning, \u201ca similitude, a symbolic, fictitious narrative of\ncommon life conveying a moral, an adage, or a proverb.\u201d So, a parable is:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Parables illustrate the invisible (spiritual) world by using analogies from the visible (natural) world. Scholars differ on the exact number of parables Jesus told. We do know He used over 100 metaphors and told at least 36 actual parables\u201415 are found in Matthew, 6 occur in Mark (4 are repeats), 35 appear in Luke (16 are repeats, 19 are unique), and John recorded many metaphors but no parables. Why Jesus preached in parables:<\/p>\n\n\n\n 1. To fulfill prophecy: <\/strong>\u201cAll these things Jesus spoke to the multitude in parables; and without a parable He did not speak to them, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying: \u2018I will open My mouth in parables; I will utter things kept secret from the foundation of the world\u2019\u201d<\/em> (Mt. 13:34-35, NKJV). <\/em>1,000 years before Jesus came, the Psalmist Asaph predicted He would preach in parables (Ps. 78:2-3). Jesus fulfilled every prophecy about His life, ministry, death, burial, and resurrection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 2. To reveal truth: <\/strong>\u201cAnd the disciples came and said to Him, \u2018Why do You speak\nto them in parables?\u2019 He answered and said to them, \u2018Because it has been given\nto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not\nbeen given\u2019\u201d<\/em> (Mt. 13:10-11). The mysteries of the kingdom are contained in the parables\nof the kingdom. Eleven parables in Matthew open with the phrase \u201cthe kingdom of\nheaven is like\u201d or \u201clike unto.\u201d Jesus\u2019 parables contain profound truths\n(secrets hidden from the foundation of the world). Parables open our eyes to deeper\ninsights into Christ and His kingdom and give us a greater glimpse into the\nspiritual realm. <\/p>\n\n\n\n 3. To conceal truth: <\/strong>This sounds contradictory to the previous point but it\u2019s\nnot. Jesus explained, \u201cTherefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing\nthey do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. And in\nthem the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says: \u2018Hearing you will hear\nand shall not understand, and seeing you will see and not perceive\u2019\u201d<\/em> (Mt.\n13:13-14). Not everyone was intended to understand Christ\u2019s message. He\nskillfully used parables to throw curve balls and confuse those who were not\nopen to His message. Like the four types of soil in the Parable of the Sower\n(wayside, stony, thorny, good ground) some people\u2019s hearts were not receptive\nto the seed of His words. Parables have a unique way of withdrawing the light\nfrom those who love darkness. They have an element of mystery, forcing the listener\nto meditate on them to fully fathom their meaning. The casual listener is left baffled,\nhearing the superficial story but failing to grasp the underlying truths\nconveyed. Carnal minds can\u2019t comprehend spiritual things (1 Cor. 2:14).<\/p>\n\n\n\n 4.<\/strong> To illustrate truth:<\/strong> Parables provide examples of how truth applies to everyday life. When a lawyer asked Jesus, \u201cWho is my neighbor?\u201d He responded with the Parable of the Good Samaritan (Lk. 10:29-36). In it, Jesus redefined the term \u201cneighbor\u201d as any person of any race who is in need, not just a person who lives nearby, and He showed how true neighbors treat others. To illustrate the need for persistence in prayer, Jesus shared the Parable of the Unjust Judge (Lk. 18:1-8). His point? If persistence pays with a crooked judge who has no interest in your case, how much more so with the just Judge (God) who has a supreme interest in your case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 5. To make truth relevant and practical: <\/strong>Around 25% of the Bible is comprised of precepts, laws, and raw truths. The other 75% consists of stories of real people that demonstrate how truth applies to real-life, every-day situations. The stories in the Bible have been preserved for our instruction and inspiration (1 Cor. 10:11). The reason \u201cthe common people heard <\/em>[Jesus] gladly\u201d<\/em> (Mk. 12:37) was He brought complex, spiritual truth down to their level by using terms they could easily relate to. He spoke their lingo when he compared God\u2019s kingdom to farming, fishing, cooking, shepherding, and agriculture. <\/p>\n\n\n\n 6. To captivate people\u2019s attention: <\/strong>Jesus avoided dry, dull sermons on the\nnuances of the law. Instead, He told interesting stories that captured people\u2019s\nattention and stirred their imagination. People were \u201castonished\nat His teaching, for He taught them as one having authority, and not as the\nscribes\u201d<\/em> (Mk. 1:22). When the Pharisees sent soldiers to arrest Him, they\nreturned emptyhanded and said, \u201cNo man ever spoke like this Man!\u201d<\/em> (Jn.\n7:46). Jesus conveyed His message in a way that fascinated His followers and confounded\nHis critics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 7. To enable His audience to retain His message: <\/strong>It\u2019s much easier to remember a story than\nfacts, data, and boring information. Statistics show that people only remember\nabout 10-20% of what they hear, but about 30-40% of what they hear and see. Parables\ncreate mental pictures that help us retain their message. Jesus\u2019 parables are\nstill with us 2,000 years later because people were able to recall and record them\nin detail for our benefit. Great sermons are not the ones with the most\ninformation, but the ones people can remember months or years later. Abraham\nLincoln\u2019s Gettysburg Address was so short (2-3 minutes) the photographer didn\u2019t\nhave time to set his camera up to take a picture, but millions have memorized\nhis speech. A famous orator, Edward Everett, spoke that day for two hours but\nfew know anything he said. It\u2019s not how long you talk; it\u2019s how much you say! Jesus\nspoke volumes with few words.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 8.<\/strong>\u00a0To expose His enemies\u2019 wrong motives: <\/strong>In the Parable of the Prodigal Son (Lu. 15:1-3, 25-32), Jesus included the \u201colder brother\u201d as a direct rebuke to the Pharisee\u2019s for their holier-than-thou attitude toward sinners. He used the Parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man (Lu. 16:14-15, 19-31) to expose their greed and apathy for the poor. Jesus told the Parable of the Pharisee and the Publican (Lu. 18:9-14) to confront the self-righteous and to prove a repentant heart is better than a religious show. In the Parable of the Wicked Husbandman (Mk. 12:1-12), Jesus expressed how the religious elite rejected God\u2019s messengers and even God\u2019s own Son. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Everyone loves a good story, right? So,\nre-read Christ\u2019s stories and discover their hidden treasures. Kingdom mysteries\nare buried in the King\u2019s parables and He wants to reveal them to YOU! Grab a Bible\nand start digging.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Jesus was a master storyteller. He communicated clearly by using many stories, analogies, and metaphors. Parables have been used since ancient times to convey truth in a memorable way. While Jesus didn\u2019t invent the parabolic method of teaching, He perfected it. Herbert Lockyer wrote, \u201cIn the entire realm of literature there is no book so […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":216,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodspringsfgc.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodspringsfgc.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodspringsfgc.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodspringsfgc.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodspringsfgc.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=212"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodspringsfgc.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":222,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodspringsfgc.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212\/revisions\/222"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodspringsfgc.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodspringsfgc.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodspringsfgc.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodspringsfgc.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}