Parables

Please consider this writing about parables.

The thing is that to consider Jesus’s parables, we must first consider who Jesus, the human being was and where He came from. 

Please consider the two worlds, Earth and Eternity.  The thing is Jesus, the human being, knew two worlds:  Eternity where He lived before He became man, and the Earth, where He lived as every human being lived and still lives as from the time of Adam and Eve. 

Please consider:  “The Jews then said, ‘You are not fifty yet, and you have seen Abraham!’  Jesus replied:

                        ‘I tell you most solemnly,

                        before Abraham ever was,
                        I Am’.”  John 8:57-58*

Please consider the word “parable.”  According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, Copyright 2019 Merriam-Webster Incorporated, a parable is “a usually short fictitious story that illustrates a moral attitude or a religious principle”, for example, “the Biblical parable of the Good Samaritan.” 

Please consider the following passage where Matthew explains why Jesus spoke in parables. 

“In all this Jesus spoke to the crowds in parables; indeed, he would never speak to them except in parables.  •This was to fulfill the prophecy:

            ‘I will speak to you in parables

            and expound things hidden since the foundation of the world.^{[Footnote: Ps 78:2]}’”  Matthew 13:34-35*

Please also consider Matthew 13:10-17*, Isaiah 6:9* and Psalm 78:2*.

The thing is when Jesus, the Messiah, Son of God, became man, one of the things He did as man was to fulfill every prophecy in Scripture regarding the Messiah.

For example, please consider the following passage from the Bible:

“God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, ‘Be fruitful, multiply and fill the earth.  •Be the terror and the dread of all the wild beasts and all the birds of heaven, of everything that crawls on the ground and all the fish of the sea; they are handed over to you.  •Every living and crawling thing shall provide food for you, no less than the foliage of plants.  I give you everything, •with this exception:  you must not eat flesh with life, that is to say blood, in it.  •I will demand an account of your life-blood.  I will demand an account from every beast and from man.  I will demand an account of every man’s life from his fellow men.

            ‘He who sheds man’s blood,

            shall have his blood shed by man,
            for in the image of God
            man was made.’”  (Genesis 9:1-6)*

Please consider the following passage from Matthew regarding the taking of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane:

            “’. . .Now the hour has come when the Son of Man is to be betrayed into the hands of sinners.  •Get up!  Let us go!  My betrayer is already close at hand.’

            “’He was still speaking when Judas, one of the Twelve, appeared, and with him a large number of men armed with swords and clubs, sent by the chief priests and elders of the people.  •Now the traitor had arranged a sign with them.  ‘The one I kiss,’ he had said ‘he is the man.  Take him in charge.’  •So he went straight up to Jesus and said, ‘Greetings, Rabbi’, and kissed him.  •Jesus said to him, ‘My friend, do what you are here for’.  Then they came forward, seized Jesus and took him in charge.  •At that, one of the followers of Jesus grasped his sword and drew it; he struck out at the high priest’s servant, and cut off his ear.  •Jesus then said, ‘Put your sword back, for all who draw the sword will die by the sword.  •Or do you think that I cannot appear to my Father who would promptly send more than twelve legions of angels in my defence?  •But then, how would the scriptures be fulfilled that say this is the way it must be?’”  (Matthew 26:45-54)*

Please consider the following paragraph taken from the book, The Life of Jesus Christ and Biblical Revelations, Volume IV, From the Visions of the Venerable Anne Catherine Emmerich, page 272:

“Jesus’ moans were purely cries of pain.  Mingled with them were uninterrupted prayers, passages from the Psalms and Prophecies, whose predictions He was now fulfilling.  During the whole time of His bitter Passion and until the moment of death, He was engaged in this kind of prayer, and in the uninterrupted fulfillment of the Prophecies. . . .”**

The thing is, because God rules Eternity and His rules are followed there, and because Jesus’ home was in Eternity, Jesus spoke knowing that everyone on the Earth would eventually return home to Eternity (via their soul) and be subject to God, the Father’s rules.  The thing is that life in Eternity is different from life on the Earth.  The thing is the words Jesus used in His parables do not always make obvious sense to our Earth-bound minds.  And it can sometimes be difficult to “bridge” the two worlds – Earth and Eternity – using the parables.

Please also consider the story of the Prodigal Son from the Gospel of St. Luke:

“…’A man had two sons.  The younger said to his father, “Father, let me have the share of the estate that would come to me”.  So the father divided the property between them.  A few days later, the younger son got together everything he had and left for a distant country where he squandered his money on a life of debauchery.

 “When he had spent it all, that country experienced a severe famine, and now he began to feel the pinch, so he hired himself out to one of the local inhabitants who put him on his farm to feed the pigs.  And he would willingly have filled his belly with the husks the pigs were eating but no one offered him anything.  Then he came to his senses and said, “How many of my father’s paid servants have more food than they want, and here am I dying of hunger!  I will leave this place and go to my father and say:  Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you; I no longer deserve to be called your son; treat me as one of your paid servants.”  So he left the place and went back to his father.

‘While he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was moved with pity.  He ran to the boy, clasped him in his arms and kissed him tenderly.  Then his son said, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.  I no longer deserve to be called your son.”  But the father said to his servants, “Quick!  Bring out the best robe and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet.  Bring the calf we have been fattening, and kill it; we are going to have a feast, a celebration, because this son of mine was dead and has come back to life; he was lost and is found.”  And they began to celebrate. . . .”  Luke 15:11-32*

The thing is what human being would have a father who would give his son his inheritance, have him squander it on wine, women, and song, and then welcome his son home with open arms and a great feast?  Most fathers would not be tolerant and most sons would probably not be welcomed back.

The thing is if you replace a human being father welcoming his son home with God, the Father welcoming his child, his creation, his greatest treasure home, then you know the true love of the Father who will be waiting for you when your human being body dies and your soul returns home to His Heaven.

The thing is we may recall when Jesus was a child of twelve years, He “. . .stayed behind in Jerusalem without his parents knowing it.  •They assumed he was with the caravan, and it was only after a day’s journey that they went to look for him among their relations and acquaintances.  •When they failed to find him they went back to Jerusalem looking for him everywhere.

“Three days later, they found him in the Temple, sitting among the doctors, listening to them, and asking questions; •and all those who heard him were astounded at his intelligence and his replies.  •They were overcome when they saw him, and his mother said to him, ‘My child, why have you done this to us?  See how worried your father and I have been, looking for you.’  •’Why were you looking for me?’ he replied ‘Did you not know that I must be busy with my Father’s affairs?’. . .”  Luke 3:43-49

Copyright Bernardette Grant, 2019 All Rights Reserved