He used the parable of the Sower, which is slightly different from the other parables, to show us how different types of people would react to God’s message. He used the seeds that the Sower was using to represent God’s message and different types of ground to represent the different types of people and their reaction to God’s message.
Although there were others before Jesus who used parables he is the only well known teacher who used them. Jesus used parables like a modern teacher would use an illustration. Those who didn’t listen properly would not understand the full and deeper meaning of the parables but only the surface meaning of the parables.
Part A (ii)
How did Jesus present his teachings through parables?
One of his main uses for parables was to get a certain point across to the people he was teaching some examples of this are:
Jesus taught the parable of the Good Samaritan to show people how they should behave towards one another.
The parable of the Good Samaritan is about a man traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho. While on his way he was mugged and stripped off his clothes, he was also very badly beaten. Because he wasn’t wearing any clothes it would have been impossible to identify his race or class but as the listeners were Jewish they likely would assume the man was a Jew. A priest walked by and saw the man, but continued along the other side of the road, as he didn’t want to risk defiling himself if the man wasn’t a Jew or was dead. A Levite man did exactly the same thing. A Samaritan came upon the man and helped him after cleaning his wounds and bandaging him he put him onto his donkey. He took him to an Inn and paid the innkeeper two silver coins, he said he would return in a few days and pay off any other debt incurred.
Jesus taught the Jewish people an important message through this parable, as they normally would not have had any dealing with Samaritans. He used the Samaritan to show us how we should treat others as we would want them to treat us. The parable showed his listeners that we should all show kindness to everyone no matter who they are and treat them like a neighbour.
He also used the parable of the Lost Son and the Lost Sheep to show how God will forgive anyone even sinners. Jesus was accused by the Jewish religious leaders of eating with outcasts and sinners and he used the parable of the Lost Son to teach them a lesson about love and forgiveness.
The parable of the Lost Son is about a son who asks for his inheritance early, he goes off and spends it all. A great famine occurred after he had spent all his money so he went to work for a man feeding his pigs. He became so hungry he wanted to eat the pig’s food. At this point he decided he would return to his father’s house and ask if he could become a slave. When his father saw him approaching he ran down the road to greet him, he hugged and kissed him. He gave him the best robe, good sandals and an expensive ring. He ordered the prized fattened calf to be killed in order for a feast to be held to celebrate the return of his son. But the man’s other son was not happy about all the attention his younger brother was receiving. The father loved both of his sons but simply wanted to rejoice that one had been lost and was now found.
Through this parable Jesus uses the Father to show us that God will forgive everyone who repents even outcasts and sinners. “God’s great love extends to all sinners, the honest as well as they hypocritical. It endures humiliation. It exults joyously when there is true repentance.”3 Jesus also used the elder brother to represent the Jewish religious leaders who disliked the idea of God forgiving outcasts and sinners.
- Another parable used by Jesus was the Rich Man and Lazarus. This parable was used to show people how they should live their lives ie help those in need.
This story was about a rich man and a poor man called Lazarus. The rich man lived in luxury whereas Lazarus was so poor he lived outside the man’s house hoping to find some food. Lazarus was not a healthy man and he had lots of sores which even the street dogs licked. In the end both men died, Lazarus went to Heaven and the Rich Man went to Hell.
Through this parable Jesus showed that you cannot take your riches with you when you die as they will be of no benefit and you can be punished because you have failed to actively help or show kindness to those in need. The rich man’s sin was that he didn’t care. His character was used to represent people who refused to listen to the teachings of the scriptures and to show what would happen to them.
(Part B)
The meaning and relevance of parables to the belief and life of Christians today
The Good Samaritan
Through the parable of the Good Samaritan Jesus was showing us how we should treat others. This is very important for Christians today as we see many people of different races and religions dislike one another simply because they are from a particular country or have different religious beliefs.
Jesus showed us how the Samaritan showed great kindness to the injured man even though others had passed him by. He used the parable to teach us to show kindness to others regardless of their race or religion.
In this part of the world the two main religions are Roman Catholic and Protestant and people on both sides of the community often have a deep hatred for each other. However, if they practised true Christianity they should have love for each other.
This parable clearly shows us how important it is to show kindness to others and how relevant it is today. We can do this in many ways, for example many Christians work in voluntary organisations like The Samaritans, Oxfam Shop etc. In this way they are showing kindness by giving of their time to help others regardless of their religion as they would often have no idea of the religious background of a customer in a shop or a person on the telephone asking for help or advice.
This parable is very relevant for Christians today as we should show kindness to each other regardless of race or religion. If we see someone hurt we should not think about where they are from or try to identify their religion by what they are wearing, we should simply help them in whatever way we can.
The Lost Son
In the parable of the Lost Son Jesus clearly shows how we should show forgiveness. This is also important for Christians today as we see many people hold grudges and refuse to forgive. Christians however need to exercise this quality of forgiveness.
We see that God is very forgiving to all mankind and Christians can show this same quality by not holding grudges against others and freely forgiving one another. They could do this by showing courtesy on the roads, for example allowing a car to turn in front of them without getting angry or aggressive. Parents could likewise show forgiveness to their children if they do something wrong, for example, instead of shouting at them for coming home late they could try to remember that they did similar things when they were young.
This parable is relevant today as Jesus taught us that we should show forgiveness to one another. We see from this how the man ran to meet his son showing love and forgiveness for anything his son had done in the past. Jesus used this to teach us to show love and forgiveness to each other and also to show that God will likewise forgive us.
The Rich Man and Lazarus
Through the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus Jesus helped us to see how we should actively help those in need. From this we see that even though the Rich Man was very wealthy these riches were of no use to him when he died as his sin was that he didn’t care about others. People today should use their time and money to help others by donating to charity or giving of their time, for example, in voluntary work.
This parable shows how the Rich Man was punished because he ignored Lazarus and didn’t do anything to help him. Through this parable Jesus showed us how important it is to be enthusiastic in helping our neighbours.
We should be proactive about helping others and not just think it is okay to ignore pleas for help from those in need. If it is in our power to help either financially or by giving of our time and energy then we should do so willingly thus showing how relevant this parable is today.
What do these parables tell us about God?
From these parables we see that God shows kindness to people from every nation in the world and he does not discriminate against anyone. We see that he shows love and forgiveness to anyone who asks for it. He doesn’t show favour to those who have riches on earth.
It shows how God treats all people fairly and doesn’t show favouritism to those who are wealthy. Likewise we should treat people fairly and not look down on someone simply because they are poor.
(Part C)
These parables are still relevant today? Yes or no
I think that parables are relevant today because they show Christians how they should live their lives. They also teach us how to act towards one another, for example, the Rich Man and Lazarus teaches us to help others who are in need. They can also help us to make very important decisions in everyday life, for example, if someone had just been beaten up and was lying in the middle of the street, you would automatically think to yourself what should I do, so you could just think about the parable of the Good Samaritan and do what he did, help the person no matter who they are, the moral of this parable could also be applied to more trivial situations. Even though the bible was written a long time ago the message contained in it is very relevant today. The parable of the Good Samaritan was relevant to people during the time Jesus was alive as they could relate to the story, because Jews and Samaritans disliked each other, however even today we can apply this story in our time, for example Protestants/Roman Catholics thus showing that the meaning is still relevant today.
A lot of people feel that parables are not relevant today and think that they only applied to people living at the time they were written. Many people are not Christian and therefore do not believe anything that is taught from the scriptures. Others think that parables are very old fashioned and out of date. Many others just don’t go to church or believe in God and so are not really interested in anything to do with the bible. Some others are from a different religious background and so do not have the same views on religion and might feel that the parables are not relevant.
Conclusion
I really think that parables are still relevant today even though many people do not agree. This can be seen from the previous discussion of some parables as we have seen how they can help us in many aspects of everyday life, how to treat our neighbour, show forgiveness and actively help one another. If you examine other religions, for example Buddhist, Muslim, Hindu, Shinto etc; they all use illustrative stories to make certain points and get across some of their teachings and beliefs, which shows that parables are a good way to teach.
This type of teaching method (ie illustrations) is also used in business and industry to assist people understand how to use equipment, or perform tasks that may be alien to them. For example a person may be used operating an electric sewing machine by means of a foot pedal this could be used as an illustration to help the person understand the use of an accelerator in a car. This further emphasises the relevance of parables as they are still being used today as an effective method of teaching showing that Jesus was and is a great teacher.
Another way that people are taught right and wrong particularly from a very young age is by means of fables which although they are seen as stories and not based on the bible or its teachings still have many similarities to the parables used by Jesus. Similarly Jesus used parables to teach people right and wrong, for example, the Rich Man and Lazarus was used to show people they should care for others and not store up riches on earth.
In conclusion no one today would argue against the benefits from teaching such things as children’s fables nor would they argue that the use of illustrations in the modern work place is out of date, so why discard parables because they are from the scriptures. Therefore the parables of the bible are as relevant today as they were 2000 years ago because it is the essence of the message which is important not the minute detail which obviously has more relevance to ancient people.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
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JB Sykes - The Concise Oxford Dictionary – Oxford University Press – Seventh Edition – 1982
- Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc
David Burns
February 2004
