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Jesus: The Parables

Jesus: The Parables. A heavenly truth clothed in earthly language Parable Greek Parabolis – a symbol, type, figure or illustration Webster’s – a comparison; specifically a usually short story that illustrates a moral or a religious principle.

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Jesus: The Parables

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  1. Jesus: The Parables

  2. A heavenly truth clothed in earthly language Parable Greek Parabolis – a symbol, type, figure or illustration Webster’s – a comparison; specifically a usually short story that illustrates a moral or a religious principle

  3. Parables, a characteristic feature of the teaching of Jesus, are simple images or comparisons which confront the hearer or reader with a radical choice about his invitation to enter the Kingdom of God People in his day were familiar with the illustrations “With many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it; he did not speak to them without a parable, but privately to his own disciples he explained everything.” (Mark 4:33 – 34)

  4. Through his parables>> He invites people to the feast of the kingdom (Mt 22:1-15; Lk 14:15-24) <<He also asks for a radical choice: To gain the kingdom, one must give everything. Words are not enough; deeds are required. Illustration of the Parable of the Pearl of Great Price (Mt 13:45-46), by John Everett Millais, from Parables of our lord (1864)

  5. The parables are like mirrors for man: Will he be hard soil or good earth for the word? (Lk 8:4-15; Mk 4:1-20; Mt 13:1023)) What use has he made of the talents he has received? (Mt 25:14-29)

  6. Jesus and the presence of the kingdom in this world are secretly at the heart of the parables. The kingdom which grows from the work of one man, Jesus, to become shelter for all who possess faith in Him (Mt 13:31-32; Mk 4:30-32)

  7. One must enter the kingdom, that is, become a disciple of Christ, in order to "know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven.” For those who stay "outside,” everything remains enigmatic. (Mathew 25:1-13; Lk 14:7-11)

  8. The kingdom which Jesus inaugurates is the Kingdom of God. Jesus himself reveals who this God is, the One whom he addresses by the intimate term Abba, Father (cf. Mk 14:36). God, as revealed above all in the parables, is sensitive to the needs and sufferings of every human being: he is a Father filled with love and compassion, who grants forgiveness and freely bestows the favors asked of him. (cf. Lk 15:11 - 32)

  9. Prayer in the events of each day and each moment is one of the secrets of the kingdom revealed to "little children," to the servants of Christ, to the poor of the Beatitudes. It is right and good to pray so that the coming of the kingdom of justice and peace may influence the march of history, but it is just as important to bring the help of prayer into humble, everyday situations; all forms of prayer can be the leaven to which the Lord compares the kingdom. (Mt 13:33)

  10. Jesus teaches us how to pray His prayer to his Father is the theological path (the path of faith, hope, and charity) of our prayer to God. But the Gospel also gives us Jesus' explicit teaching on prayer. • Like a wise teacher he takes hold of us where we are and leads us progressively toward the Father. • Addressing the crowds following him, Jesus builds on what they already know of prayer from the Old Covenant and opens to them the newness of the coming Kingdom. • Then he reveals this newness to them in parables. • Finally, he will speak openly of the Father and the Holy Spirit to his disciples who will be the teachers of prayer in his Church. Three principal parables on prayer are transmitted to us by St. Luke:

  11. The first, "the persistent friend,” invites us to urgent prayer: "Knock, and it will be opened to you." To the one who prays like this, the heavenly Father will "give whatever he needs," and above all the Holy Spirit who contains all gifts. (Luke 11:5-13)

  12. The second, "the persistent widow," is centered on one of the qualities of prayer: it is necessary to pray always without ceasing and with the patience of faith. "And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” (Luke 18:1-8)

  13. The third parable, "the Pharisee and the tax collector," concerns the humility of the heart that prays. "God, be merciful to me a sinner!" The Church continues to make this prayer its own: Kyrie eleison! (Luke 18:9-14) Thus, mercy becomes an indispensable element for shaping mutual relationships between people, in a spirit of deepest respect for what is human, and in a spirit of mutual brotherhood.

  14. Furthermore, merciful love means the cordial tenderness and sensitivity so eloquently spoken of in the parable of the prodigal son, and also in the parables of the lost sheep and the lost coin (Lk 15:1-7; Lk 15:8-10). Consequently, merciful love is supremely indispensable between those who are closest to one another: between husbands and wives, between parents and children, between friends; and it is indispensable in education and in pastoral work.

  15. When he celebrates the sacrament of Penance, the priest is fulfilling the ministry • of the Good Shepherd who seeks the lost sheep (Lk 15:1-7), • of the Good Samaritan who binds up wounds (Lk 10:25-37), • of the Father who awaits the prodigal son and welcomes him on his return (Lk 15:11-32) • of the just and impartial judge whose judgment is both just and merciful (Lk 18:1-8). The priest is the sign and the instrument of God's merciful love for the sinner. The confessor is not the master of God's forgiveness, but its servant.

  16. At the end of the parable of the lost sheep Jesus recalled that God's love excludes no one: "So it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish." He affirms that he came "to give his life as a ransom for many"; this last term is not restrictive, but contrasts the whole of humanity with the unique person of the redeemer who hands himself over to save us. The Church, following the apostles, teaches that Christ died for all men without exception: "There is not, never has been, and never will be a single human being for whom Christ did not suffer."

  17. Thus the Lord's words on forgiveness, the love that loves to the end, become a living reality. The parable of the merciless servant, which crowns the Lord's teaching on ecclesial communion, ends with these words: "So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart." (Mt 18:21-35)

  18. It is there, in fact, "in the depths of the heart," that everything is bound and loosed. It is not in our power not to feel or to forget an offense; but the heart that offers itself to the Holy Spirit turns injury into compassion and purifies the memory in transforming the hurt into intercession. (Lk 7:41-50)

  19. With bold confidence, we began praying to our Father. • In begging him that his name be hallowed, we were in fact asking him that we ourselves might be always made more holy. • But though we are clothed with the baptismal garment, we do not cease to sin, to turn away from God. Now, in this new petition, we return to him like the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32) and, like the tax collector, recognize that we are sinners before him. • Our petition begins with a "confession ” of our wretchedness and his mercy. • Our hope is firm because, in his Son, "we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins." • We find the efficacious and undoubted sign of his forgiveness in the sacraments of his Church.

  20. In the Lord’s Prayer The presence of those who hunger because they lack bread opens up profound meaning. The drama of hunger in the world calls Christians who pray sincerely to exercise responsibility toward their brethren, both in their personal behavior and in their solidarity with the human family. This petition of the Lord's Prayer cannot be isolated from the parables of the poor man Lazarus (Lk 16:14-21) and of the barren fig tree (Lk 13:6-9)

  21. The resurrection of all the dead, "of both the just and the unjust," will precede the Last Judgment. This will be "the hour when all who are in the tombs will hear [the Son of man's] voice and come forth, those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment." Then Christ will come "in his glory, and all the angels with him. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate them one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he will place the sheep at his right hand, but the goats at the left. And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.“ (Mt 25)

  22. Everyone is called to enter the kingdom. First announced to the children of Israel, this messianic kingdom is intended to accept men of all nations. To enter it, one must first accept Jesus’ word: The word of the Lord is compared to a seed which is sown in a field; those who hear it with faith and are numbered among the little flock of Christ have truly received the kingdom. Then, by its own power, the seed sprouts and grows until the harvest. (Mk 4:26-29)

  23. The kingdom belongs to the poor and lowly, which means those who have accepted it with humble hearts not those who foolishly store the riches of the world away into barns. (Lk 12:16-21) Jesus is sent to "preach good news to the poor"; he declares them blessed, for "theirs is the kingdom of heaven."

  24. To them • the "little ones" – the Father is pleased to reveal what remains hidden from the wise and the learned (Mt 13:44, 45-46). Jesus shares the life of the poor, from the cradle to the cross; he experiences hunger, thirst, and privation. Jesus identifies himself with the poor of every kind and makes active love toward them the condition for entering his kingdom.

  25. There are as many and varied methods of meditation as there are spiritual masters. Christians owe it to themselves to develop the desire to meditate regularly, lest they come to resemble the three first kinds of soil in the parable of the sower. (Mt 13:1-23; Mk 4:1-20; Lk 8:4-15) But a method is only a guide; the important thing is to advance, with the Holy Spirit, along the one way of prayer: Christ Jesus.

  26. A society is a group of persons bound together organically by a principle of unity that goes beyond each one of them. As an assembly that is at once visible and spiritual, a society endures through time: it gathers up the past and prepares for the future. Jesus likens it to a net cast into the sea (Mt 13:47-50)

  27. By means of society, each man is established as an "heir" and receives certain "talents" that enrich his identity and whose fruits he must develop. He rightly owes loyalty to the communities of which he is part and respect to those in authority who have charge of the common good. These differences belong to God's plan, who wills that each receive what he needs from others, and that those endowed with particular "talents" share the benefits with those who need them. (Lk 19:11-28)

  28. Our talents are our cross to bear for the benefit of all (Lk 14:25-35) Human obligations arise from the diversity of talents present in God’s kingdom. These differences encourage and often oblige persons to practice generosity, kindness, and sharing of goods; they foster the mutual enrichment of cultures: I distribute the virtues quite diversely; I do not give all of them to each person, but some to one, some to others. . . . shall give principally charity to one; justice to another; humility to this one, a living faith to that one. . . .

  29. And so I have given many gifts and graces, both spiritual and temporal, with such diversity that I have not given everything to one single person, so that you may be constrained to practice charity towards one another. . . I have willed that one should need another and that all should be my ministers in distributing the graces and gifts they have received from me. We must foster the attitude of a servant (Lk 17:1-10)

  30. Luke 16:19-31 The way of Christ "leads to life"; a contrary way "leads to destruction." The Gospel parable of the two ways remains ever present in the catechesis of the Church; it shows the importance of moral decisions for our salvation: "There are two ways, the one of life, the other of death; but between the two, there is a great difference."

  31. On Judgment Day at the end of the world, Christ will come in glory to achieve the definitive triumph of good over evil which, like the wheat and the tares, have grown up together in the course of history. Matthew 13:24-30,36-43)

  32. "Christ, 'holy, innocent, and undefiled,' knew nothing of sin, but came only to expiate the sins of the people. He is the Son sent to save us (Mt 21:33-46; Mk 12:1-12; Lk 20:9-19) The Church, however, clasping sinners to her bosom, at once holy and always in need of purification, follows constantly the path of penance and renewal." All members of the Church, including her ministers, must acknowledge that they are sinners. In everyone, the weeds of sin will still be mixed with the good wheat of the Gospel until the end of time.

  33. Hence the Church gathers sinners already caught up in Christ's salvation but still on the way to holiness: The Church is therefore holy, though having sinners in her midst, because she herself has no other life but the life of grace. If they live her life, her members are sanctified; if they move away from her life, they fall into sins and disorders that prevent the radiation of her sanctity. One cannot serve both God and mammon as in the parable of the unjust steward. (Lk 16:1-13). This is why she suffers and does penance for those offenses, of which she has the power to free her children through the blood of Christ and the gift of the Holy Spirit.

  34. Teaching Through His Life as a Whole The majesty of Christ the Teacher and the unique consistency and persuasiveness of His teaching can only be explained by the fact that His words, His parables and His arguments are never separable from His life and His very being. Accordingly, the whole of Christ's life was a continual teaching: His silences, His miracles, His gestures, His prayer, His love for people, His special affection for the little and the poor, His acceptance of the total sacrifice on the cross for the redemption of the world, and His resurrection are the actualization of His word and the fulfillment of revelation. Hence for Christians the crucifix is one of the most sublime and popular images of Christ the Teacher.

  35. These considerations follow in the wake of the great traditions of the Church and they all strengthen our fervor with regard to Christ, • the Teacher who reveals God to man and man to himself, • the Teacher who saves, sanctifies and guides, who lives, who speaks, rouses, moves, redresses, judges, forgives, and goes with us day by day on the path of history, • the Teacher who comes and will come in glory.

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