Though I have been speaking figuratively, a time is coming when I will no longer use this kind of language but will tell you plainly about my Father. – John 16:25
Have you ever tried to tell someone what a parable is exactly? We know it is an entertaining story but is there something more to it?
Parables are more than stories or Jesus wouldn’t have used them. He wanted people to learn from them and not just be entertained by them. There was point to every story He told.
Stories have been used for centuries to teach lessons. Long before people could read or write, they told stories. Many stories were long, and some were short. These short stories were usually fictitious and had some moral or purpose to them like Aesop’s Fables. Parables were different to fables because they used real-life situations to explain things to those who were listening.
By using everyday examples, Jesus was able to make people understand what they should or shouldn’t be doing. For those who still didn’t understand what the story was about, Jesus also gave an explanation. He didn’t want anybody to miss out on the meaning or the lesson the parable was teaching.
Why was it important to teach parables? Since most people didn’t go to school or travel too far from the place where they born, they only knew what was in their world. They needed to hear stories about people who were just like them to help them to understand was Jesus was trying to tell them. Instead of giving them stories that would have gone over the top of their heads, Jesus went down to their level of understanding. By going down to their level, he was on purpose lifting them up to His.
Today, even though we are more educated and know more than the people in Jesus’ time, there are still valuable lessons to be learnt from the parables He told. Parables are in the Bible for a reason. They are not there to just to fill a book with nice stories but they are there to teach us how to relate to each other.
Jesus knew that each parable He told held a valuable life lesson not just for those who lived in the past but for today and for the future. Parables were and still are timely means of telling others about God. It is much easier to explain things figuratively as it gets the attention of those you trying to reach. They are a gentle way of teaching (or admonishing) those without directly telling them so.
If you ever need to explain to someone what a parable is, remember that is an indirect method Jesus used for teaching and helping people to understand how they should live. Sometimes using a tool like parables is the best way to reach people and give them new insights to faith in God.
Originally published November 2019