The Bible Parables of Jesus Christ

The Bible parables of Jesus Christ have been invoking mystery and protraying truth for centuries. Many people mistakenly say that Jesus taught in parables to help us understand, but Jesus taught parables so that people would not understand. Only those whom the secrets of the Kingdom of God have been given will understand. Jesus explained some of the parables to his disciples which they recorded in the Bible to help us understand. Others are left wide open to the readers interpretation.

By studying, meditation, and praying about the parables the Holy Spirit can reveal to us the truth Jesus wanted us to get out of it. The parables were designed this way so that only those who diligently sought God would get the full meaning. Those who didn't seek God or only sought him half-heartedly would not get the life giving truth found in the parables. This was Jesus's way of not casting his pearls to pigs. He concealed his pearls of truth in the midst of his parables.

Although the Bible parables of Jesus Christ were designed to conceal truth, they were very effective in spreading truth. The modern world today takes literacy and the readily available accesss of information we have for granted. A large portion if not the majority of Christians that have lived on the earth did not have a Bible and if they did, they wouldn't be able to read it. They depended on on the preaching of the Bible and the retelling of it's stories to learn about Jesus and the Kingdom of God. Stories, such as parables, are easy to remember and easy to retell. Those who wanted to seek God would learn the stories and think, meditate and pray about them. The Holy Spirit was able to convey truth to them even though they never read a word in the Bible themselves.

The Bible parables of Jesus Christ were also a way of Jesus revealing future truth to his disciples who weren't ready to hear it yet. Since the full understanding of the parables were hidden, some of them only made sense after Jesus died and rose again. Jesus said to his disciples, I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear.(John 16:20) An example of this is found in the parable of the tennants. The owner of the vineyard sent servants to receive his part of the harvest with no effect and finally sent his son whom the tennants killed. When Jesus spoke this no one knew that he was the son of God, and no one knew that he would be killed. It is only later that the full truth of this parable comes out.

Sometimes when reading the parables we take for granted that we know the end of the story, but when Jesus was speaking them, the full story hadn't been written yet. Another great example is found in the parable of the wedding feast. Jesus is saying that the gentiles will be invited into the Kingdom of God. This doesn't even begin to happen until Acts 10 when God sends Peter to Cornelius, approximately 10 years after Jesus's death and resurrection.

May we study the Bible parables of Jesus Christ and pray diligently about them. Allowing the Holy Spirit to speak to our hearts the truth that is filled within them.