Wisdom Wednesday : Wisdom of the Parables Part 1
Submitted by Debbie’s Dad
With many such parables He was speaking the word to them, so far as they were able to hear it; and He did not speak to them without a parable; but He was explaining everything privately to His own disciples.
– Mark 4:33-34 NASB 95
Jesus was a storyteller. He used stories to explain basic truths and to avoid (in some cases) the explicit accusation against the Scribes and Pharisees who were seeking to trap Him in His words as they plotted to destroy Him. Jesus’ parables were teaching methods that illustrated a spiritual message within an interesting story.
His stories often began with a familiar “once upon a time…” to set the context for the story. Consider these well-known examples:
- “The Sower went out to sow his seed…”
- “The kingdom of heaven is like….”
- “There was a man who had two sons.”
- “ …he may be compared to a wise man who built a house on the rock”
- “A moneylender had two debtors”
On other occasions, the parable was not a long story, but a simple example to prepare for an analogy: “Now no one after lighting a lamp covers it over with a container, or puts it under a bed; but he puts it on a lampstand, so that those who come in may see the light. (Luke 8:16)
In all cases, Jesus used a common life event to illustrate a spiritual principle. In the classic book by Herbert Locker, All the Parables of the Bible (Zondervan 1963), a summary of the parables is provided in the following table, organized by:
- Precepts (the principle taught in the parable),
- Parable (the topic title given to the parable) and,
- Portions (the Scripture reference).
The table includes over 70 parables. Many have tried to categorize the parables, organizing them by the best estimate of the chronological sequence in which they were told, or by the spiritual topic (Judgment, salvation, righteous behavior, etc.) or by the subjects (servants, kings, travelers, the rich, etc.).
In this series over the next few weeks, we will look at a small sample of the parables of Jesus that can be related to a disability, and we will view them from the perspective of a disabled person.
