Parables of Jesus Christ

What is a parable?
Jesus' parables are short stories that teach a moral or spiritual lesson by analogy or similarity. They are often stories based on the agricultural life that was intimately familiar to His original first century audience. Some aspect of an unfamiliar concept, such as the kingdom of God, was compared to something from everyday life that could easily be understood.

It is the lesson of a parable that is important to us. The story is not important in itself; it may or may not be literally true.

Jesus was the master of teaching in parables. His parables often have an unexpected twist or surprise ending that catches the reader's attention. They are also cleverly designed to draw listeners into new ways of thinking, new attitudes and new ways of acting (Getty-Sullivan, pp. 2-4).

Each of Jesus' parables teaches only one or two important lessons. It is a mistake to look for meaning in every sentence or detail of the story (Lockyer, Parable). If we get bogged down analyzing the details of the parable, we may miss the central point, as in the proverbial saying, "You can't see the forest for the trees."

Why did Jesus teach in parables?
Jesus' explanation seems harsh and out of character. Was He deliberately trying to hide the truth by speaking in parables? Were the mysteries of the kingdom of God to be known only by the disciples? Both experts and lay persons are puzzled, and many different explanations have been proposed.

Jesus quoted from Isaiah 6:9-10. The prophet Isaiah had found that people were so lost in sin that they resented hearing God's Word and deliberately turned away. Jesus experienced the same disappointment and frustration. Thus, the most common interpretation of Jesus' saying is that the people's hardness of heart (pride, arrogance and prejudice) prevented them from understanding and accepting Jesus' teachings. Barclay explains it this way:

When Isaiah spoke he spoke half in irony and half in despair and altogether in love. He was thinking, "God sent me to bring his truth to this people; and for all the good I am doing I might as well have been sent to shut their minds to it. I might as well be speaking to a brick wall. You would think that God had shut their minds to it."

So Jesus spoke his parables; he meant them to flash into men's minds and to illuminate the truth of God. But in so many eyes he saw a dull incomprehension. He saw so many people blinded by prejudice, deafened by wishful thinking, too lazy to think. He turned to his disciples and he said to them: "Do you remember what Isaiah once said? He said that when he came with God's message to God's people Israel in his day they were so dully un-understanding that you would have thought that God had shut instead of opening their minds; I feel like that to-day." When Jesus said this, he did not say it in anger, or irritation, or bitterness, or exasperation. He said it with the wistful longing of frustrated love, the poignant sorrow of a man who had a tremendous gift to give which people were too blind to take.

If we read this, hearing not a tone of bitter exasperation, but a tone of regretful love, it will sound quite different. It will tell us not of a God who deliberately blinded men and hid his truth, but of men who were so dully uncomprehending that it seemed no use even for God to try to penetrate the iron curtain of their lazy incomprehension. God save us from hearing his truth like that! (Barclay, commentary on Mark 4:1-12)

Interpretation
By nature, a parable invites the reader or listener to supply the interpretation, and some of Jesus' parables have been interpreted in more than one way. Jesus, Himself, supplied the interpretation for some of His parables. But in other cases, it is left to us to determine the meaning and lesson.

Some of the parables are difficult to interpret, but the meaning is clear in most cases. Even Jesus' enemies often understood His parables, even though they did not accept the lesson (Matthew 21:45-46). Jesus' original audience in first century Palestine probably knew exactly what He was saying in most cases. Those of us who are far removed from that time and place need some help from historians and Bible scholars to understand the original cultural context and issues involved.

From historical knowledge and Jesus' other teachings, there is a broad consensus within the mainstream of Christian thought about the meaning of most of the parables. Those are the interpretations we give here.

Related verses: Matthew 13:10-17; Luke 8:9-10

'This is the list of the parables that Jesus taught many years ago in Israel. It is divided into 7 categories: (1) The Kingdom of God, (2) God's Love, Mercy and Forgiveness, (3) Christian Love, (4) Persistence in Prayer, (5) Self-Righteousness and Humility, (6) Stewardship, (7) Preparation for the Future.'

This is the list with their own categories:

The Kingdom of God

 * The Parable of the Sower
 * The Parable of the Mustard Seed
 * The Parable of the Hidden Treasure and the Parable of the Pearl of Great Price
 * The Parable of the Wheat and the Weeds

God's Love, Mercy and Forgiveness

 * The Parable of the Lost Sheep
 * The Parable of the Prodigal Son

Christian Love

 * The Parable of the Good Samaritan
 * The Parable of the Unmerciful Servant

Persistence in Prayer

 * The Parable of the Persistent Widow

Self-Righteousness and Humility

 * The Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector

Stewardship

 * The Parable of the Talents

Preparation for the Future

 * The Parable of the Rich Fool
 * The Parable of the Wise and Foolish Bridesmaids
 * The Parable of the Final Judgement

Conclusion
Jesus was the master of teaching in parables. His parables often have an unexpected twist or surprise ending that catches our attention and drives home the parable's lesson. The parables give us a feeling and insight into heavenly and spiritual concepts that cannot be expressed in mere words. They also give us a much richer understanding of the kingdom of God and its values, which are often the opposite of worldly values. Without understanding the parables, it is impossible to fully understand Jesus and His teachings.