Parables of Jesus

Parables of the Kingdom

¹And he began again to teach by the sea side: and there was gathered unto him a great multitude, so that he entered into a ship, and sat in the sea; and the whole multitude was by the sea on the land.

²And he taught them many things by parables, and said unto them in his doctrine, ³Hearken; Behold, there went out a sower to sow: ⁴and it came to pass, as he sowed, some fell by the way side, and the fowls of the air came and devoured it up. ⁵And some fell on stony ground, where it had not much earth; and immediately it sprang up, because it had no depth of earth: ⁶but when the sun was up, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it withered away. ⁷And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up, and choked it, and it yielded no fruit. ⁸And other fell on good ground, and did yield fruit that sprang up and increased; and brought forth, some thirty, and some sixty, and some an hundred. ⁹And he said unto them, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.

¹⁰And when he was alone, they that were about him with the twelve asked of him the parable. ¹¹And he said unto them, Unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God: but unto them that are without, all these things are done in parables: ¹²that seeing they may see, and not perceive; and hearing they may hear, and not understand; lest at any time they should be converted, and their sins should be forgiven them. ¹³And he said unto them, Know ye not this parable? and how then will ye know all parables?

(The Pharisees thought they could earn their way into heaven by merit and lineage, Jesus intentionally hides the direct meaning of his teachings so that those who are not actively seeking him would not pay attention or fool themselves into thinking there is a simple answer.)

Jesus did not tell parables to teach us moral lessons to imitate. He told them so that we might understand the mystery of God’s kingdom (Luke 8:10). That mystery is Jesus himself, specifically, Jesus for us. The gospel is Christ crucified on behalf of sinners.

When anything other than the gospel of Christ crucified for sinners becomes the center of the parables, we exchange the gospel for the law. We trade a message of what God has done for us for a message of what we must do for God. When we remove the gospel of Jesus-for-us from the center of the parables we create a vacuum--and we frequently fill that void with ourselves and our works.

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