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S. Michael Houdmann
Supporter
It has been said that a parable is an earthly story with a heavenly meaning. The Lord Jesus frequently used parables as a means of illustrating profound, divine truths. Stories such as these are ea...
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Salem Markus Purba
Supporter
Because the words Jesus has spoken to us in the Bible are Spirit (John 1: 1-5; 6: 63-65), and God is Spirit (Genesis 1: 2); " I AM WHO I AM " (Exodus 3: 14). As God has said: "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the LORD. " As heaven are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts"..... (Isaiah 55: 8-13). Teaching in parables is the signs that Jesus was the Word and the Word was with God, and The Word was God, none of us can come to Him unless God our father in Heaven has enabled us to understand His teaching.
ainsley chalmers
Supporter
Spirituality is a difficult concept for fallen man to grasp. Therefore, Jesus spoke in parables to make spiritual aspects clear to those to whom he was speaking. In order to do this he spoke of physical things like seeds, fishing, soils, harvest, pearls, etc and used them, by analogy, to explain spiritual aspects. His message was therefore easy to comprehend as most people understand those manual tasks. Those who rejected his message therefore had no excuse not to believe in him. Just like today Paul wrote that the visible universe shouts out the glory of our creator God (Rom 1: 20-23) whereas as those who do not believe in God say nothing created it all even though we all know that nothing plus nothing equals nothing.
Derek Blake
Supporter
When I started preaching many years ago, I remember my mentor told me, "People remember two things, what the laugh at and what shocks them." If we look at the Parables of Jesus they contain one of both of these elements. The Good Samaritan for instance would have shocked His listeners by Jesus using a Samaritan as the hero of the story, because the Jews looked down on the Samaritans and despised them. In other parables He used humour in the shape of the 'Tax Collector'; they were regularly the butt of jokes in Jesus' day. There was another reason, however: many of the parables and the teachings that Jesus gave us were phrased in such a way that He could not be arrested for blasphemy under the Jewish law or in a way that the Jewish authorities would not understand. To understand the parable or teaching needed the leading of the Spirit, so those who did not have the Spirit were, if you like, left out in the cold.
Nils Jansma
Supporter
Why did Jesus teach in parables? In my opinion, I do not believe that Jesus spoke in parables to make the gospel message more understandable to everyone. The plain and simple truth is that he did so to prevent the Scribes and Pharisees from believing in him and to fulfill prophecy found at Isaiah 6:8-9. He stated specifically in Mark 4:12 that if he did not speak in parables, the learned among them “might turn and be forgiven.” God knew that the learned teaching class would have quickly accepted Jesus as the Messiah but for the wrong reasons. They would have wanted to make him a king ruling under Jewish Law. Had this been the case, Jesus would have probably never been sacrificed as a criminal but would have been more likely killed in a political war against Rome. For that reason, Jesus praised God that He had hidden the truth from the political leaders. (Matthew 11:25-26; John 12:39-40) In fact God has even veiled the eyes of the entire nation of Israel from accepting the truth even down to this very day. This veiling will continue, for the most part, until the “full number of the Gentiles has come in.” (Romans 11:25) In other words, the Jews will remain steadfastly against Jesus by God’s authority until after the rapture of Christian believers to heaven. (Romans 11:26) Even with such safeguards in place, some of the “party of the Pharisees” who were believers in Christ, vigorously opposed the Apostle Paul in his ministry to the Gentiles. Acts 15:5, says: “Then some of the believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees stood up and said, ‘The Gentiles must be circumcised and required to obey the law of Moses.’” Paul referred to them as being “false brothers.” (Galatians 2:4) These “false brothers” even went as far as almost murdering Paul on his first missionary tour. The text indicates that “Jews from Antioch” came to Lystra and incited the crowd to stone Paul and then they “dragged him outside the city, thinking he was dead.” (Acts 14:19) So, was Jesus right in speaking in parables for the sake of the simple and unlearned whom he called “little children? (Matthew 11:25) Absolutely, if he hadn’t done so, who knows where we Gentile believers would be today.
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