Describe from Luke's gospel how Jesus presented his teachings through parables.

GCSE Religious Studies (Philosophy & Ethics)

Marianne Huet

9 Beatrice

Contents page

Introduction

Ai) What is meant by the term parable?

Aii) Describe from Luke’s gospel how Jesus presented his teachings through parables.

B) Discuss the meaning and relevance of parables to the belief and life of Christians today.

C) “The parables are no longer relevant for life today”

Do you agree?

Bibliography

Introduction

The coursework is about the parables that Jesus taught to his disciples and to anyone else who wanted to learn about the kingdom of God. It is also about the kingdom of God, topics about this include how to get in to the Kingdom of God, what it is, and what it means to a Christian.

Parables covered in this coursework include:

The good Samaritan
The lost coin
The lost son
The narrow door
The parable about the coming of the Kingdom of God

Each of these can be found in Luke’s gospel and they each have a particular meaning that means a great deal in Christians lives today.

When you read this piece of coursework you will learn what a parable is and how they differ from allegories. Also why Jesus taught in parables and how this technique helped the people that he taught to understand the topics that he covered at a deeper lever than they would have done if he had just told them the meanings of the stories. Also how parables affect peoples lives today, even though they were made up over two thousand years ago.

Ai) What is meant by the term parable?

What is a parable?

A parable is a story that conveys a teaching. The parables in the gospel are a unique development of literary form whose roots come from the Old Testament. The word “parable” originates from a Greek work, “parabole”, meaning simplitude or comparison. The definition from the Collins English Dictionary of a parable is “a story that illustrates a religious meaning.” A parable has been described as “an earthly story with a heavenly meaning”

Why did Jesus teach in parables?

In Jesus’ teachings, He uses parables to teach his people how to live their lives. He does this by comparing life on earth to the kingdom of God. To help people understand, He used examples of people in everyday life to base his stories on, so that the people to whom he was teaching could relate to what he was saying and use the meanings of the parables in their everyday lives. He mainly told them stories because many people at this time were illiterate. Jesus helped them to understand by making His stories short, simple and easy to comprehend, however He didn’t make His parables too easy.

Even though parables are straightforward, you would have to think about their meaning. Jesus encourages people to think for themselves in his parables; he does this by ending the parable with a question. This proved to be useful to Jesus, because by doing this he provoked a response from the listeners and therefore they were more likely to remember his teachings.

“He would not speak to them without using a parable”. This quote from Matthew 13:34 proves to us that Jesus taught his people in parables. Over a third of Jesus’ teachings were parables as people understood them and were able to use their meanings in everyday life.

What is the difference between a parable and an allegory?

Quite often, people mix up the definitions of parables and allegories, even though their meanings are completely different it is easy to see why some people make this mistake. The definition of an allegory, from the Collins English dictionary is ”a story with an underlying meaning as well as a literal one”.

An allegory is very similar to a riddle, unlike a parable it has a hidden meaning. With an allegory, the story had to be decoded in order to understand the meaning. This technique isn’t necessary when you try to find the teachings in parables, as they have meanings that are more obvious than those in allegories.

Aii) Describe from Luke’s gospel how Jesus presented his teachings through parables.

The main theme in the parables is the same as the central theme of the Gospels are, the kingdom of God. The kingdom is only available to ...

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Aii) Describe from Luke’s gospel how Jesus presented his teachings through parables.

The main theme in the parables is the same as the central theme of the Gospels are, the kingdom of God. The kingdom is only available to those who love God and live according to His rule. The Kingdom of God is for a chosen few, those who are willing to accept God’s rules and are willing to live their live in the way that Our Lord and Jesus Christ taught us to.

Jews used the phrase, kingdom of God, to refer to the power and authority that God has. They never used it to mean an earthly kingdom, in the sense of a land area that was ruled by God, as we do today.

When is the kingdom of God going to be relevant to us?

The kingdom of God isn’t something extraordinary to come one day in the future, it is here and now. If you died today and had lived your live the way God had taught us Christians to and love Our lord with all your heart and soul, strength and might, then you would go to the Kingdom of God. It is also present in the sense that God’s teaching were taught over 2,000 years ago and Christians today still learn about God’s teachings and adapt their meanings in their everyday lives. Therefore, God is guiding his people at all times as His teachings are influencing people to do good deeds and help each other everyday. However, it is in the future also, in the sense that God will be accepted by the whole world and his rule will be established all over the world.

Jews believed that God controlled the forces of nature, Israelites as his chosen people and also the destiny of all other nations. Some Jews looked forward to the future when God would send an anointed one, a messiah, someone to be an ideal representative of God for people to look up to and learn things from. They also looked forward to a day when God’s power and authority would be recognized, and respected all over the world, and His rule would be all over earth. Jesus questioned this theory and said that such a moment had arrived, actually talking about Himself as the representative of God as He was God’s son. In Luke 4:17-19, Jesus quoted the scriptures, the prophet Isaiah, as He often did, saying that the messiah would bring:

“Good news to the poor………….proclaim release for prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind..…to proclaim a year of the Lord’s favour.....”

Another way of interpreting this would be “ proclaim the kingdom of God”. In this quote Jesus, as He did most times, used a quote from the scriptures to teach people to spread the word and kingdom of God so that everyone on Earth knows about it, and so therefore so that more people would be saved from sin.

The meaning of the Kingdom of God for us today and what relevance it has to us.

The idea of the kingdom of God is still relevant for Christians today even though this specific term is not widely used. They still believe that the kingdom of God is present in men and women’s individual lives everyday.

Some people say and believe that to be a part of a church community, automatically means that you are a part of the Kingdom of God. Others claim that this isn’t exactly the truth. These men and women believe that the kingdom of God goes way beyond simply belonging to any specific church. They people believe that that the kingdom of God is to do with the whole person as some people can go to church and worship to God, but as soon as they leave they could turn to crime and breaking God’s rules sent down to earth in the form of the ten commandments. It doesn’t matter when the parables of the kingdom of God were intended for; whether they are set in everyday live of over two thousand years ago, they are still important for people’s lives today as the teachings behind the parables remain the same.

Some teachings conveyed in parables are:

The teachings about love
Forgiveness
To love your neighbour
To have faith in God and to love God
And how to get in to the kingdom of God and what the kingdom of God is.

Some of these teachings are portrayed in parables such as, the coming of the kingdom of God and the parable of the narrow door.

The parable of the coming of the Kingdom of God

The parable of the coming of the kingdom of God is in Luke 17:20 – 35, in this Jesus talks about the kingdom in the present and future sense, however Jesus puts more emphasis on the future when teaching this parable to the disciples. He says that the kingdom will come in the future and also that the kingdom of God is already here, within God’s people on Earth. He uses examples such as Noah and the ark, and Sodom and Gommorrah to relate the meaning of this parable in to something in which people can relate to and understand.

When using the future tense in this story, he tells his disciples that one day the son of Man will come, it will be a day when people will be completely unaware of what or who he is. By doing this he is advising them to live every moment on Earth to its full potential and to treat everyone, as they themselves would like to be treated. Therefore when the future day comes, they will be ready to be received by the Son of God.

The parable of the narrow door

This parable can be found in Luke 13: 22-30. This parable, like others, is in response to a question asked to Jesus. As on other occasions also, Jesus answers the question indirectly, by asking the disciples what they think, this as we have learnt provoked a response and therefore making them think about and evaluate His teachings in greater detail, and so helping them to remember it more clearly and more concisely.

In this parable Jesus tells them not to take entry into the Kingdom lightly, as many people will be excluded. They have to make an effort to make it through the “narrow door” as there will be a day when that door will be shut and entry into he Kingdom of God will be denied. This story helped many people to realize not to assume that they were going into the kingdom of God easily and to take their eternal future seriously and not to be presumptuous and ignorant to the fact that they may not get in.

B) Discuss the meaning and relevance of parables to the belief and life of Christians today.

Even though the parables were made up over 2,000 years ago, they are still relevant in people’s lives today as they teach us some very valuable lessons. Parables such as the Good Samaritan, the lost son and the parable of the lost coin teach us some important lessons, all of which should be used in a Christian’s everyday life. The parable of the Good Samaritan teaches us to love our neighbour, the parable of the lost son teaches us to always forgive and the parable of the lost coin teaches us not to be selfish.

The parable of the Good Samaritan

In this parable, a teacher of the law questions Jesus. The teacher asks Jesus how he could get in to heaven, Jesus replies by loving your God and your neighbour. The teacher continues and asks him who his neighbour is and Jesus tells him a story of a Jew who was beaten up, robbed and left for dead on the side of the road, and when he asked for help by a priest and a Levite, hey both refused to help. However when he asked the Samaritan for help, he cleaned his wounds, and took him to an inn and paid for him to stay the night, ensuring that the Jew was safe and in good care. At the time, the Jews and the Samaritans were sworn enemies and yet the Samaritan took pity on him and helped him when he was in need. Jesus then explained to the teacher that his neighbour was anyone around him, his brother, his friend, and even his enemy.

What has this parable got to do with Christians today?

The Ten Commandments can be summed up in two rules, love your neighbour and love your God. Christians see in this parable to love every individual as a neighbour, irrespective of race, sex, class or religion and to have respect towards everyone and to treat people how they themselves would like to be treated. There can be no room for prejudice in dealing with people through the eyes of a Christian. All forms of prejudice and discrimination are not welcomed in the Christian faith. The claims of the Kingdom of God state that all people must be treated the same and held in the same esteem. This parable is the basis of Christians working for justice and to relieve pain from anyone and everyone.

The parable of the lost son

In this story there is a man who had two sons. One day the sons asked for their inheritance money from him and he gave it to them. With his money, the younger of the sons left home and decided to spend his money recklessly and soon had no money left, suddenly finding himself poor, he was forced to get a job working with pigs, while doing this he realizes that even his fathers servants had a better quality of life and earned more money. From this, he decided to go back home and tried to get a job as one of his fathers servants, he didn’t want his father to think of him as a son anymore because he had been so selfish and irresponsible with his money, he just wanted him to forgive him and give him a job. He had reached a point of repentance (in Greek this word is “motanoia” which means change of heart).

Whilst on his way home, his father spotted him and got things ready for his welcome home. Once he arrived, the youngest son apologized for being so careless with his money and begged for a job in the house.

Without hesitation, the father forgives him for being so foolish with his money, and makes his son take his clothes off and replaces them with a fine new robe and shoes, he placed a ring on his finger and he killed his prize calf and feasted on it with him and his other son that night.

How is this story relevant to people today?

This story is relevant to people today because when we see how quickly the father forgives his son, we can learn how to do this also and we can do it in our everyday lives. In this story Jesus is saying that God forgives the sinner absolutely and there are never any strings attached. We Christians sometimes get in the position that the younger son was in when we are totally lost and not knowing what to do, but we know that there is always someone there that can help us, in this story the saviour was the father, but for us it can be our parents or God or any one that we can trust such as our friends of family.

God will only forgive someone when they know that they are wrong and asks for forgiveness.

The parable of the lost coin

This teaching about the lost coin is about a woman who is poor and only has ten coins. When she loses one of them she searches everywhere for it until she acquires it once again. And when she does, she rejoices with her friends as she has found something that means so much to her and is so valuable to her.

What is its relevance to Christians today and the Kingdom of God?

In this story the coin that the woman finds is a metaphor for god finding us once again after we has sinned then repented. God does this because he loves everyone of us and we are each very “valuable” to him. In this story, the woman rejoices when she find it once again, this has great relevance to the kingdom of God because there is rejoicing in heaven when a lost person is found (when a sinner repents).

Without learning the meanings of these parables, and acting upon them, we cannot enter into the Kingdom of God.

C) “The parables are no longer relevant for life today”

Do you agree?

This argument can sway either way. In some respects this statement is true and in others it is not.

How can it be false?

It can be false when you consider the fact that Jesus sacrificed his life for us and therefore why would he waste his whole life if there were no point in his teachings? He died to save everyone on earth, not just those who were alive at the same time as he was. Also generally people haven’t changed much and peoples attitudes towards things have mainly stayed the same and therefore if the parables were intended for people who lived over two thousand years ago, people today should still be able to relate to them if they alter the story so that it has more in common with their lives now. The meaning behind the story remains the same and can still be used in people’s lives today.

How it can be true?

It can also be true because many people live their lives according to the moral guidelines set by the bible. For example many people respect and obey the Ten Commandments. Even though people don’t always consciously choose to follow these rules they do it instinctively without realising.

There are people who feel that the parables are outdated as they were created over two thousand years ago and since then society has changed dramatically. Even though the meanings and teachings behind the parables can still remain to be true, such as “love your neighbour”, people usually do this anyway as they develop feelings and emotions towards someone, this remains the same no matter who it is whether it is a friend, relative or someone such as a boyfriend or girlfriend. The only part of this particular teaching that normally doesn’t get used in everyday live is to love your enemy, if someone is mean and horrible to you, most people are mean and horrible back, just to show that that person can’t get to you. There are also exceptions to this, as it has to be within proportion. If someone trips you up deliberately and the next day you see them dying on the floor, you would still help them, because what they had inflicted on you is minor compared to what they are going through.

However there are always exceptions to the rule and people follow these guidelines and teachings as they consider themselves different and choose to live by their own moral codes.

Bibliography