E
Eucharisted
Guest
There are lots of things you can learn from Jesus’ parables.
The first thing you learn is, Jesus speaks like a rabbi. Rabbis would use parables after they taught something in order to help convoy the message to the people. So, when Jesus taught His Apostles about why He tells parables, He used the parable of the fallen seed to help convoy His message.
The second thing you learn is, Jesus’ knowledge and experience. He travelled a lot through Galilee, and pilgrimaged to and from Jerusalem each year for Passover, so He would have met many people and seen many sights. You learn that He has a well experienced understanding of the diverse lifestyles in Israel, as well as a very good understanding of how various people go about their jobs, and this is both because of His experience among people and places and because of His Divine Knowledge. This is especially seen when He expertly uses the exact imagery people would need to hear in order to understand Him - not only in a simplistic manner but imagery for each person in His audience, so all would understand; to know what each person needed would require either knowing before whom one was speaking with (something Jesus didn’t know, as shown by the scene where a crowd rush to meet Him on the other side of the lake) or Knowledge of God, who knows each and every creature He has created and knows all things.
The third thing you learn is, who Jesus was speaking to. The imagary He uses tells you who His audience is, including the Apostles if He should be talking to them, and this helps us know where He is and what time He is speaking in (and this further proves the historictiy of the gospels). So, when Jesus spoke the parables of the lost coin and the lost sheep, His audience were tax collectors and shepherds.
The fourth thing you learn is, for whom Jesus was speaking. He wasn’t just speaking and working for His immediate audience, but for all people, and, in particuakar, for His Church. Hence, He uses imagery which the early and later listeners and readers of the gospels would both benefit from, and this, again, is because of His Divine Knowledge.
The fifth thing you learn is, the state of the early Church. Many of Jesus’ parables as recorded in the gospels are ones which would be of immediate help to the Christians, who were being torn apart by heretics and schsmatics, persecuted by Romans, and accused of blasmphemy by the Jewish leaders. The parables strengthened faith, gave reassurance, and brought hope.
The sixth thing you learn is, the arguments Christians were in. Gentiles did not believe in resurrections, Jews did not believe in a messiah who didn’t fulfill prophecies, and false prophets were spreading lies about Jesus, some even declaring He never even existed. The parables helped Christians prove the Resurrection is real, prove Jesus is the Messiah hoped for, and prove He is a historical figure and not a mythical or fictional character.
The seventh thing you learn is, Jesus is God. He predicted the manner and timing of His death (the parable of the vineyard, the joyous song Isaiah sang, and the wine at Passover is not a coincidence), the destruction of Jerusalem, and many other things in parables. One could argue He was only a prophet than, but one must remember that a prophet cannot raise himself from the dead - only God can do that!
The first thing you learn is, Jesus speaks like a rabbi. Rabbis would use parables after they taught something in order to help convoy the message to the people. So, when Jesus taught His Apostles about why He tells parables, He used the parable of the fallen seed to help convoy His message.
The second thing you learn is, Jesus’ knowledge and experience. He travelled a lot through Galilee, and pilgrimaged to and from Jerusalem each year for Passover, so He would have met many people and seen many sights. You learn that He has a well experienced understanding of the diverse lifestyles in Israel, as well as a very good understanding of how various people go about their jobs, and this is both because of His experience among people and places and because of His Divine Knowledge. This is especially seen when He expertly uses the exact imagery people would need to hear in order to understand Him - not only in a simplistic manner but imagery for each person in His audience, so all would understand; to know what each person needed would require either knowing before whom one was speaking with (something Jesus didn’t know, as shown by the scene where a crowd rush to meet Him on the other side of the lake) or Knowledge of God, who knows each and every creature He has created and knows all things.
The third thing you learn is, who Jesus was speaking to. The imagary He uses tells you who His audience is, including the Apostles if He should be talking to them, and this helps us know where He is and what time He is speaking in (and this further proves the historictiy of the gospels). So, when Jesus spoke the parables of the lost coin and the lost sheep, His audience were tax collectors and shepherds.
The fourth thing you learn is, for whom Jesus was speaking. He wasn’t just speaking and working for His immediate audience, but for all people, and, in particuakar, for His Church. Hence, He uses imagery which the early and later listeners and readers of the gospels would both benefit from, and this, again, is because of His Divine Knowledge.
The fifth thing you learn is, the state of the early Church. Many of Jesus’ parables as recorded in the gospels are ones which would be of immediate help to the Christians, who were being torn apart by heretics and schsmatics, persecuted by Romans, and accused of blasmphemy by the Jewish leaders. The parables strengthened faith, gave reassurance, and brought hope.
The sixth thing you learn is, the arguments Christians were in. Gentiles did not believe in resurrections, Jews did not believe in a messiah who didn’t fulfill prophecies, and false prophets were spreading lies about Jesus, some even declaring He never even existed. The parables helped Christians prove the Resurrection is real, prove Jesus is the Messiah hoped for, and prove He is a historical figure and not a mythical or fictional character.
The seventh thing you learn is, Jesus is God. He predicted the manner and timing of His death (the parable of the vineyard, the joyous song Isaiah sang, and the wine at Passover is not a coincidence), the destruction of Jerusalem, and many other things in parables. One could argue He was only a prophet than, but one must remember that a prophet cannot raise himself from the dead - only God can do that!