The Nature Of Parables
Many of the parables our Lord Jesus used
concern some aspect of the Kingdom of God, such as its nature,
its coming, its value, its growth, and even the suffering
entailed in entry.
Parables are set in the storytelling style
of allegories, proverbs and comparisons. The word parable means
“putting things side by side.” Jesus taught in
parables to enlighten Kingdom-hearted
listeners with illustrations from
which they could draw out insights concerning His King-dom. For
those who had “ears to
hear”, parables made it
easier for them to understand the spiritual truth He was
conveying (see 1 Corinthians 2:13,14).
Parables helped the listener remember the
point He was making. Our Lord was verbally conveying a Kingdom
that would rule in the unseen
spirit of a person. Therefore
His audience had to take the illustration in each parable and
digest the essence of thought and principle in order to
discover how it applied to them.
Jesus was well aware that for over two
hundred years before His coming the Hebraic Stream of rabbis
had taught that people must experience spiritual rebirth in their
relationship with God. It is His Spirit Who beckons the spirit of those who have “ears to hear”. So parables functioned like the
voice of a Shepherd calling for His flock.
A specific sequence appears through
Scripture to convey God’s truth: that which is in the
natural realm precedes spiritual truth, as Paul sums up: “the spiritual is not first, but the
natural, and afterward the spiritual” (1Corinthians 15:46).
As we’ve shared in previous
writings, 89% of what you learn about the natural world is
through your eyesight. Our Creator employed a “pictorial
pattern” through His parables of the Kingdom He came to
establish. To convey spiritual truths to those who would
understand, He often used nature as an illustration, as in the
parable of the sower (Mark 4:1-9); the mustard seed (Mark 4:
26-29); the tares (Matthew 13:24-30).
Other parables depicted commonplace items:
the parable of leaven (Matthew 13:33); the lamp set on a stand
(Mark 4:21); the lost sheep and the lost coin (Luke 15:3-10);
the ten virgins (Matthew 25:1-13).
Jesus Taught In Parables
To Divide His Listeners
Like most people who read the parables of
our Lord Jesus, you probably enjoy their picturesque
representation of truth. Parables were the
“DVD’s” of their day, visual to the
mind’s eye and seemingly easy to understand. But there
was a deeper meaning to His use of this teaching technique
which may expand your appreciation of them.
Parables compare familiar facts with
spiritual truths and were a common way of transmitting values
in the Middle Eastern culture of Jesus’ day. The
familiarity of the situations were readily identifiable and
helped the hearer retain a mental image of the story being
told.
However, the parables of our Lord Jesus
were intended to do more than entertain or transmit
information! His parables were aimed at distinguishing those who
were His from those who weren’t. Only those who had “ears to hear” could perceive the spiritual truth behind the
familiar life situation that was being presented.
Everything that Jesus taught was founded
upon truths and life principles that were grounded in
God’s Word, the Hebrew Bible. And His parables were
spiritually powerful for those who realized they were commands
to be obeyed!
For the word of God is living and powerful, and
sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division
of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a
discerner of the thoughts and
intents of the heart (Hebrews 4:12).
Our Lord knew that His coming would be a
point of division rather than universal unity. Man’s natural
tendency toward disunity is so strong that He had to pray to
His Father that even His own would be unified in heart and
spirit! The division which would inevitably arise over His
Person would separate and distinguish specific categories of
people:
1. Those who related to His Father by
obeying His commands because they loved
and trusted Him;
2. Those who practiced religion without relating
to Him, seeking to justify their own righteousness;
3. Those who denied Him in both heart and action.
In our Father’s sight, these last
two groups are the same. Why? Because both are anti-Christ! Those who do not
walk with Lord Jesus and in Him are against Him (see Luke 11:
23).
Matthew chapter 25 is replete with vivid
illustrations that warn of a poig-nant separation of those who
are for Jesus and those who are against. This series of
parables is a rapid-fire delivery of the separation between
those who obediently serve their King and find eternal life,
and those who disobediently serve themselves and reap eternal
destruction.
Chapter 25 recounts three different
parable scenarios to emphasize the essential message Lord Jesus
is sharing: there WILL be a final separation personally
delivered by the King.
The closed door separates the 5 prepared
virgins from the 5 who were unprepared. The outer darkness is
the well-deserved fate for the mean-spirited, un-profitable
servant, while the obedient and faithful servants enter the joy
of their master.
And finally, the faithful and loving
sheep—the King-dom-hearted—are rewarded with His praise and welcome
while the goats who looked out only for their own interests are
cursed with everlasting fire. As we’ll momentarily
discuss, many of these practiced religious
perversion.
The King’s judgment is final. He Who
examines the heart knows those who are faithful and are
motivated by their love for Him and for people who could never
pay them back for their kindness. In essence, those who will be
welcomed into heaven lived on earth as if Jesus were living through them. These
are the Kingdom-hearted; they understand the parables of Jesus
and respond in obedient trust.
However, we don’t need to wait for
the end of time to discover if our hearts are willingly
following the Lord of life and living according to His Word!
The Gospels reveal that our Lord has set into motion already
the division that separates those who have ears to hear and
obey from those who either ignore His truth or entertain it as
another random teaching. Note His zealous desire that sin be
consumed and His sacrificial love be established in those who
respond to Him:
I came to send
fire on the earth, and how I wish
it were already kindled! But I have a baptism to be baptized
with, and how distressed I am till
it is accomplished! Do you suppose
that I came to give peace on earth? I tell you, not at all, but rather division (Luke
12:49-51).
The division Lord Jesus brings comes
because some have ears to hear and others refuse
to hear. Don’t be surprised
when that division penetrates even your own family! Then as
now, children whose lives are turned upside down by the Spirit
when they enter the Kingdom will be confronted angrily by
parents who don’t know what’s happened to their
kids but don’t like it at all! And the same response
might take place to separate newly-believing parents from their
clueless adult sons and daughters (see Luke 12:52,53).
Our Lord prophesied division among those
who heard Him, and this prophecy applies to all people for all
times.
The Kingdom parables were shared during a
period in which opposition to His teaching was growing. And
through this teaching device, the receptive who intended to receive and apply its truth
were separated out from the unreceptive, who intended to maintain the religious status
quo.
The receptive, who responded favorably to
His parables, were of the Hebraic Stream. They sought through
their obedient trust to lovingly relate to their God.
In contrast were those who were imprisoned
by the religious system with its intermediaries before God and
its fences around the Law. While they were bombarded as we are
today with religious teachings and interpretations, they were
unable to hear the truth or to perceive the God behind it (see
Matthew 23:15).
Therefore, with calloused hearts which
were closed to the transformational purposes Lord Jesus
intended for His parables, many refused to repent — to turn
away from their sinful unbelief so that they might see, hear
and understand in a way that would bring about spiritual
reconciliation and healing.
Jesus applied a prophecy that was
well-known among all Jews of His day, leaving no doubt that
their refusal to hear from
God’s perspective targeted
them:
In them is
fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah:
‘You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you
will be ever seeing but never
perceiving. For this people’s heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes.
Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears,
understand with their hearts and
turn, and I would heal them’ (Matthew 13:14,15; apperceived from Isaiah
6:9,10).
Just a note:
[Mike] When we were finishing our time of research in Israel,
we traveled to a small, rustic retreat center near Latrun, just
outside Jerusalem. About 4 AM on our final morning there I
climbed up to the rock-hewn chapel to gripe to God about why He
had chosen me to share the Hebraic foundations.
I poured my heart out to my Lord Jesus as
the darkness was swallowed by the dawn, reminding Him of how
much I had failed Him. “Why don’t you use my two
brothers?” I lamented. “They’re really
reliable, while I’ve been like a yoyo to you.”
Sud-denly, the Spirit of Jesus diverted me to a little
devotional on a nearby stool. I opened the booklet to the
lesson for that day:
‘Woe to me!’ I cried. ‘I
am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a
people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the
LORD Almighty.’ Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a
live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the
altar.
With it he touched my mouth and said,
‘See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken
away and your sin atoned for.’ Then I heard the voice of
the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall
I send? And who will go for Us?’ And I said, ‘Here am I. Send
me!’ (Isaiah 6:5-8).
Only the grace of our King can open blind
eyes that are focused on inner guilt and widen them to see His
forgiving love and purpose for His selection. Sobbing
uncontrollably, I whispered, “You do this to everyone you
recruit!”
As a result of this I’ve made an
important discovery in my walk with my Lord Jesus: My own
unworthiness has stirred in me a greater determination to
encourage others to be prepared and
available for God’s use of
them! A repentant
heart makes all the difference to
our Lord.
The above passage from Isaiah directly
precedes the verses apperceived by Jesus in Matthew 13:14,15.
As our Lord so often summed up at the end of His parables, “if you have ears
to hear, then hear!” This repeated phrase is an imperative, a
command, a non-optional directive that means to listen
intently, then take action according to the will of our Father!
So many believe that because they've read
or heard something, that's all the "action" they need
to take. Not so! Our Lord never spoke unless it was for a
purpose: that His words be applied in the lives of those who heard.
We were warned by our Lord while we were
at Latrun that what we’d be sharing would not be readily
embraced by those who were satisfied with religious systems and
practices. In fact, only a few would have ears to hear about
the Hebraic foundations until the “Dark Days of
Chastisement” come on the United States. There’s
little doubt that these days are soon coming, and may even be
commencing as we write!
The apostle John apperceives
Isaiah’s admonition against blind eyes and hardened
hearts to explain the disbelief of so many regarding Jesus “although He had done so many signs before
them” (John 12:37). His many
miracles couldn’t overcome the hardness of heart of the
religious leaders and their adherents because the inner core of
their being refused to understand and repent. They still cried
out, “Crucify Him!”
Signs and wonders and miracles don’t change people. It’s something deeper in the spirit of a person
that His parables are aimed for. So ask yourself, Are you one who understands the parables of
Jesus with your heart?
Please realize that the Lordship of Jesus
and His parables about the Kingdom of God are inseparable. To
fail to understand our Lord Jesus as King of a Kingdom is to
fail to comprehend His parables. No matter how many parables
they may hear, those who remain dull to His Lordship and the
mysteries of the Kingdom will remain perplexed.
Let’s simplify the role between the
loving King of the Kingdom and His faithful, beloved servant.
What is your responsibility to your glorious Savior, King and
Lord?
Our Lord will not save a man
He does not command.
In other words, being a
“Savior”
is what our Lord came to do.
But to be a King is Who He is.
We gratefully love Him
for what He did,
yet we honor and obey our Lord
for Who He is — King of kings.
We evidence our honor in
our loving actions to carry out
the commands of His Kingdom.
Do you understand the honor you owe our
Lord and King? Ask yourself:
• Do you regard Jesus from your vantage point
in what He does for you?
• Or, do you see yourself from His perspective, as
King of the glorious Kingdom in which you are one of His beloved to command?
Let’s expand on this point:
A child is commanded to honor his or her
parents (Ephesians 6:1-3) for the position God gives a father and mother, not for what the
parent does for the child. If a child honors them only for
the good things they do, then a child evaluates his parents in
light of the benefit the child receives from them —a
self-centered, self-gratifying motivation that causes a child
to go through life always seeking personal benefit and
fulfillment.
On the other hand, a child who honors his
or her parents regardless of any benefits received, perceives
his parents from a heart of humility. From such motive, a
parent is truly honored by his child. Out of this heart a child
gladly obeys his parents, and as a result will go through life
seeking to serve others.
This same distinction applies to how
people see our Lord Jesus and His role in their life. So many
have boxed Him into a limited position as “Savior” apart from any
consideration of His Lordship. They confess their belief in His
sacrifice on their behalf but live as “lord” of
their own life, indistinguishable from those whose heart has
been captured by the world.
They want only the benefit they believe
they’ll receive from His death and resurrection, but
aside from participation in organized religious events, their
regard for Him as Lord and King is minimal. Tragically, most of
these who focus only on what they think is their “fire
insurance” will fall away under persecution and trial
(see Mark 4:17). [We’ll discuss this more in our next
Lifebyte.]
People who gratefully know Jesus as their
beloved and awesome Lord and King relate to Him out of devotion
for Who He is rather than for what He does. These will bear fruit
for the King (see Mark 4:20) with humble heart, readily
embracing an accurate Kingdom view of themselves: “We are unprofitable servants. We have
done what was our duty to do” (Luke 17:10).
It’s important for you to recognize
that the parables of Jesus test the type of “soil”
of your heart. The first three types noted in Mark 4:1-20 were
fruitless. But the seed sown on good soil hears, accepts and
bears fruit, “some
thirtyfold, some sixty, and some a hundred.”
• Describe what you’ve
previously believed to be our Lord’s purpose in using
parables. Has your view changed at all by these insights? How?
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• When you think about Jesus, how do
you perceive Him in your heart? Are you more concerned with
what He does for you, or for Who He is? Describe yourself.
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• When you consider your own life,
are you more interested in the benefits
you derive through relationships,
or in serving other people? Describe your motives.
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Parables: Jesus’ Exposé Of
Religious Perversion
Jesus said, ‘The knowledge of the
secrets of the Kingdom of God
has been given to you,
but to others I speak in parables,
so that, though seeing, they may not see;
though hearing,
they may not understand’ (Luke 8:10).
A vital stipulation of the Covenant our
Father offers you through Jesus is to love Him. Love in the
Spirit produces a dependent and personal relationship with your
Father. Failure to love, however, brings reliance on religious
services and rituals.
The element of a love relationship to move
them to obedience was overlooked by many of the Jewish people
who heard Jesus’ parables, especially the religious
leaders. Instead, numbers trusted in the ever-expanding
religious practices and obligations of their forefathers.
Today, many who call themselves
“Christian” are perishing because they refuse to
compare the religious practices with the teachings found in the
parables of Jesus. To those who are spoonfed ideas from others
about what and how to believe, the Kingdom of God is foreign
— just as it was to the Jews imprisoned within religious
walls that separated them from fellowship with God.
Perhaps you’re unable to see the anti-Christ nature
of your religious rituals, practices and duties. An
illustration may be helpful.
Roman Catholics teach about a post-death
place called “purgatory”. Purgatory is a sort of
short-lived ‘hell’ where people suffer for their
sins but then can go to heaven when they’ve paid the
price. However, this belief nullifies everything Jesus accomplished on the cross
through paying the penalty for our sins! If each person must
pay the penalty for their own sin by suffering in purgatory,
then the Cross has availed nothing. If anything, purgatory is anti-Christ!
If you’re not Roman Catholic, you
may be thinking, “I’m glad I don’t believe in
purgatory!” But wait — your trust in your religious creeds and form can be greater than your trust in the Person of Jesus
Himself. You may be trapped in religious
perversion.
If you’re honest with yourself, you
may admit that you’re more devoted to religious services
and ritual than you are to daily obeying the Lord Jesus in your
spirit. Just as with many Jews of Jesus’ time, our
Lord’s parables may be no more than moral, entertaining
stories for you. If you’re ignorant of how to serve the
King in His Kingdom, your very life is anti-Christ! You may be
inadvertently blaspheming His name through choices that belie
His Word.
Consider this:
If you leave a “church
service” and feel better about being there than you are
about daily obedience to our Lord’s rhema, you’re
trapped in religious perversion. You’ve exchanged an obedience-based relationship with Jesus by which His Kingdom is lovingly expanded
through your daily actions, for self-pleasing
religion which brings Him no
praise. This is anti the Person of Christ!
Religious perversion is at the heart of
many so-called “Christian” faith communities. You
find it wherever people are deceived into trying to gratify themselves through religious participation. The true fruit of this trap?
They fail to fulfill the will of our Lord Jesus on a daily
basis. No one who knows these people sees King-dom purposes being
fulfilled in their lives.
• Have you given in to religious
perversion? Really, do those who know you well consider your
life totally dedicated to serving King Jesus? Or, do you
display religious perversion and live for yourself?
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If you give in to religious perversion,
you hinder any viable relationship with King Jesus. Your
decision demonstrates that His parables are meaningless to you.
You’d rather embrace the teachings of man than serve the
King of Kings in grateful obedience. As long as you do this,
your heart will never be at peace because religious practices
can never satisfy your spirit.
An essential truth to practice:
Repentance—turn
away from your sinful ways and thoughts, and acquire the way of
our Lord by His Spirit. This changes the soil of your heart.
You may have lived thus far a life of religious perversion. You
may have even been a leader in an ungodly anti-Christ system.
Through His grace at work in you, repentance can change everything.
The adulterous murderer King David clearly
understood this all-important truth: “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, You will not despise” (Psalms 51:17). Allow the King to break your willful
heart and cleanse you thoroughly so that you WILL understand
and apply the truths in His parables as your way of life. If
