And He spoke many things to them in parables
Insights: I want you to see the four reasons Jesus
spoke in parables. The first reason was
parables make truth concrete. In other
words, most people think in pictures and they take abstract concepts and make
pictures out of them. So, when I hear a
story and visualize it I am able to make it more real, especially when there is
a spiritual truth being attached to it.
The second reason was parables make truth portable. In other words, if you remember the story and
you carry the story in your mind, you can always recover its spiritual meaning
because all of the elements are there in the story. So, when I hear a story I am able to remember
it longer than just some facts. The
third reason was parables make truth interesting. In other words, they reduce the truth from a
rather dull sort of ethereal or theological concept down to life situations
that carry interest and grab our attention.
So, when I hear a story it puts me in the action and holds my
attention. We have all seen and
experienced this third reason lived out in school. Hopefully, all of us have had a teacher (and
hopefully more than one) who had the gift of teaching us in story form in such
a way that the information they wanted us to learn stuck. At the same time we have also had teachers
that taught us by rote memorization and had us just learn the facts. We learned those principles for the test and
once we passed the exam, we dumped the information. Thankfully, stories stay with us longer. The final reason Jesus spoke in parables was
parables make truth personally discoverable.
In other words, as the story goes, you begin to internalize that
spiritual truth yourself. So, you are making the principle your own and not
just someone else’s beliefs. They begin
to impact you directly and at the pace in which you are able to assimilate the
material. Tomorrow we are going to look
at the purpose for which Jesus spoke in parables and Friday the promise that is
implicitly offered to us all.
Questions:
- Are you taking the truths of Jesus’ teachings around
with you?
- Do you find the teachings of Jesus to be interesting and personally applicable?
Prayer: Father, thank You
that You have allowed the Holy Spirit to interpret the parables to my
heart. Let me have the boldness to take
them with me wherever I go and live those principles out before the world. Amen.
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