His disciples came and asked him, “Why do you use parables when you talk to the people?” Matthew 13:10 NLT
Jesus used every moment of His time on the planet as a human, God in the flesh, to communicate God’s reality to His disciples for the future of all the people God has created. Parables were one of His most powerful tools to communicate truths so transforming they change everyone who hears, understands, receives, and obeys.
Jesus used parables to connect spiritual truth to everyday life. Whereas all religions, pagan priests, and the Jewish religious leaders, each saw god/gods only through ceremonies and rituals, Jesus taught that God can be seen in ordinary things. Farming, fishing, baking bread, finding a coin, hiring workers, and caring for sheep were shown to be extremely significant, carrying present and eternal importance. Jesus demonstrated that God is not confined to what we perceive as religious activities, routines, and rituals. God is not limited to our performance. He speaks His truth and reality through the elements and experiences of the lives we live.
Jesus used parables to help truth stick. We all know how easy it is to forget sermons, lectures, and speeches. But people remember stories. The great speeches in our own history and the parts of sermons we best remember are always wrapped around a story. Jesus’ parable about the Good Samaritan who helped a beaten and robbed man, or the story about the father running to welcome his wayward son have stuck in the hearts and minds of millions for centuries. And it becomes more than a story. The story works in and on the heart for years, even a lifetime.
Jesus used parables to call for a response. Every story Jesus told asked a question because the goal was relational and transformational. “What will you do with this truth? Will you forgive? Will you repent and ask forgiveness?” Will you wisely steward your one and only life? What will you do with your resources?” Everything pointed to valuing relationship with God and living His kingdom priorities more than anything else.
- More than 2,000 years later Jesus’ parables are still powerful and transformational. Perhaps it is because we don’t simply study one of the parables; when we correctly understand it, we discover that we are living in the middle of Jesus’ story right now. The question for discerning followers is not just, “What does this story mean?” It is “What is the reality Jesus is teaching? Where am I in this story and what is God inviting me to do and become?”