Introduction.
Now we are going to look at a special type of story that we call parables, and I will try to explain them in an easy-to-understand way. But first, we need to find out what parables are and why Jesus used parables when He spoke to the people.
A parable is a short story that illustrates a universal truth and is a simple narrative. It outlines a setting, describes an action, and shows the results. A parable can sometimes be distinguished from similar narrative types, such as allegories and morality tales. A parable often involves a character who faces a moral dilemma or someone who makes a bad decision and then suffers the unintended consequences. Although the meaning of a parable is often not explicitly stated, it is not intended to be a mystery or secret, but it can be difficult to understand, especially for the uninitiated.
Jesus often used parables when He spoke to the people, and as already mentioned, it was not always easy for the people to understand what He meant. Not even Jesus’ disciples understood these parables every time. This is clearly evident in Matthew 15:15 where Peter asks Jesus to explain the parable He had just told. Also in Matthew 13:36 the disciples ask Jesus to explain a parable.
Once the disciples asked Jesus why He spoke to the people in parables, (Matthew 13:10). This is the answer Jesus gave them: … … Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries* of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given. For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath. Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand, Matthew 13:11-13.
* The Greek word here translated as secrets is mystê’rion, and in addition to being translated as secret, it can be translated as both mystery and hidden meaning. It is not really a secret that Jesus tells in these verses, but He ‘hides’ the meaning from the uninitiated by using a parable, as He did sometimes when He rebuked the Pharisees and the scribes.
As usual, I will insert the Bible text. Some of the parables are relatively long, so I will choose the essential parts without losing the understanding of the parable. It is not that some parts are not important, but it is the verses that contain the key words that I will use. Sometimes when the parables are short, I will attach the whole. We will gradually look at several of Jesus’ parables in random order.
Ever since man fell into sin, God has been searching for lost people to make them turn to Him. God wants everyone to be saved, but if people do not want to turn to God, God does not force anyone. It is a personal decision that each person must make, which we will see later.
In the Bible we find 32 different parables that deal with different aspects of Christian life, and they address different aspects of the kingdom of God, such as God seeking the lost, God’s justice, the kingdom of heaven, who will go to heaven, the judgment, Jesus’ return and perseverance. In addition, there are a couple of parables that do not fit into any of the aforementioned groups. Some parables are found in both Matthew, Mark and Luke, some are found in Matthew and Luke, and some are found only in Matthew, Mark or Luke. In several of the parables, Jesus addresses the same problem but uses different background stories.
All Bible texts are from the King James Version 1611/1769, unless otherwise stated.
Let’s just jump into the deep end and look at perhaps the most difficult parable first, the parable that has caused the most headaches and given rise to several imaginative explanations that are not based on the Bible.
The parable of the rich man and Lazarus, Luke 16:19-31.
This is probably the most misunderstood and misused parable. Those who claim that humans live on after death in some form or another use this parable to prove their claim. But no matter how many times they claim this, it will never become true. The Bible is clear that when people die, they are in an unconscious state, similar to a sleep, where there is neither thought nor life in any way.
Verse 19: There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day:
It is not told who this rich man is, but this chapter gives us a clue as to who it may be. If we go back to verses 14 and 15, it is told that the Pharisees are present among the audience and Jesus addresses them by saying … … Ye are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God, (verse 15).
We can therefore take it for granted that the rich man represents the Pharisees. The Pharisees were splendidly dressed and lacked nothing. They had enough of everything they needed and did not seem to care about the poor. The only thing they were concerned with was keeping the commandments and the law in the sight of other people to show how pious and magnificent they were.
Verse 20: And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate, full of sores,
Verse 21: And desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table: moreover the dogs came and licked his sores.
We see here that Lazarus did not receive any help from the rich man despite lying at the rich man’s gate. The self-absorbed and complacent rich man did not spare a single thought for Lazarus, he was just a nuisance lying at the rich man’s gate begging for a living. In this parable we see that the rich man has the same approach to the poor man, God’s helper, as the Pharisees did. They had the poor around them both outside the temple and inside the temple area. They were just troublesome little things to them and the Pharisees did not lift a finger to help them in their need.
Usually Jesus does not use names for any of the people in his parables, for example, He says a certain woman, or a certain rich man and similar expressions. Here in this parable He names one of the main characters, Lazarus. There are at least two good reasons for this. Firstly, the meaning of the name could be one reason, Lazarus means God’s helper, and secondly, it could have something to do with Mary and Martha’s brother Lazarus who died and whom Jesus raised from the dead.
Let’s think a little about this being God’s helper. Let’s compare this God’s helper with Jesus’ disciples. They were in reality God’s helpers; they were poor and lived from day to day. When they were with Jesus, they often had to sleep outside at night. It is possible that Lazarus represents the poor in society or the disciples and later the Christians, but that is not the point of the parable who Lazarus is. The parable states that the poor Lazarus was laid before the gate of the rich man. The Pharisees therefore had a full overview of what Lazarus needed, but all he got from them were the crumbs that fell from the rich man’s table, and probably a good portion of contempt.
Verse 22: And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom: the rich man also died and was buried.
We are told that both died. The rich man was buried, while Lazarus was “carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom.” It is this point that has given rise to so many erroneous theories about the condition of the dead. Jesus does not mean to say that the dead are somehow alive after death. Ever since the time just after the Flood, this has been a mistaken belief that pagan religions have had as part of their beliefs. This pagan belief had been developed by the Greeks, and through close contact between Jews and Greeks, this paganism had found its way into Judaism. However, the Bible is clear that when a person dies, he is gone until the day of resurrection. But it is to rebuke the Pharisees that Jesus uses this image in his parable.
Verse 23: And in hell he lifts up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.
Verse 24: And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.
Verse 25: But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented.
Verse 26: And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that [would come] from thence.
Verse 27: Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to my father’s house:
Verse 28: For I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment.
From the text we understand that Lazarus and the rich man have ended up in different places after death, and we can say that Lazarus has gone to “heaven” and the rich man to “hell”. Now I must clarify that this is a parable, and a parable must be read and understood as a prophecy, and therefore one cannot interpret this literally. Jesus uses this example to emphasize what the end of the parable is. We can see what the wisest of all men, King Solomon, says about this. In Ecclesiastes 9:10 he says: Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do [it] with thy might; for [there is] no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest. This simply means that the dead cannot speak to one another.
Here in the parable the rich man speaks to Abraham, and now the rich man is subjected to greater torments than the ones Lazarus suffered while they were both alive. Now he prays that Lazarus, whom the rich man did not care to help, may come over to him and moisten his tongue with water. But as the text says, it is impossible to pass from one side, called heaven, to the other side, called hell. When the rich man realizes this, he prays that Lazarus may rise from the dead and visit his brothers so that they may repent and escape the torments the rich man was in.
Now we come to the point of this parable, and the point of Jesus is found in verses 29, 30 and 31, and it is not whether man has a soul that is conscious after death or not, but whether the scribes and Pharisees will ever believe Jesus’ preaching. Jesus had said more than once that He would be killed, and that He would rise again on the third day. The religious leaders also did not want to believe that He was sent from God, and that He was God Himself. The last three verses of this parable are:
Verse 29: Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.
Here Jesus refers to the Old Testament, and says that the religious leaders, the scribes and the Pharisees, can check with Moses and the prophets what is written there about Jesus, which does not go down well.
Verse 30: And he said, Nay, Father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they would repent.
Here the rich man, who is a picture of the religious leaders, responds that they must receive a sign that Jesus is truly the Son of God, something they had otherwise received many proofs of, and therefore Jesus uses the expression if one went unto them from the dead, they would repent.
Verse 31: And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.
Jesus’ final answer is that they will not, for there are about 300 prophecies written in Moses and the prophets about Jesus’ first coming, as the Lamb of God.
History tells us that Jesus knew what He was talking about when the religious leaders would not believe Jesus even after He had risen from the dead. In John 4:48 Jesus says: … … Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe, and Paul says in 1 Corinthians 1:22: For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom.
The point of the parable was to make it clear to the Pharisees that they would in no way believe that Jesus was the expected Messiah, and that they were blind to the prophecies that told of Jesus’ first coming. Jesus’ greatest desire was that the religious leaders would repent, because then the whole nation would have followed them, and the Jews would have fulfilled the obligations they as a nation had been given by God through Abraham.
The parable of the Two Sons, Luke 15:11-32.
This parable shows God’s infinite and boundless love, and it is full of tension and contrast. We will start with the first two verses, and then we will look at the most important verses as we go.
Verse 11: And he said, A certain man had two sons:
Verse 12: And the younger of them said to [his] father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth [to me]. And he divided unto them [his] living.
As usual, Jesus fills his parables with familiar details. In this parable, it is not about an ordinary man and his two sons, but about God and two of God’s children to set up a contrast, and to show us that we should not be judgmental of our fellow human beings. As we see, both sons were at home with their father at first, and everything seemed idyllic, until the youngest son asked for his share of the inheritance.
In Jesus’ time, it was common for children to live with their parents as long as they lived and work for their father, regardless of what profession the father had. Here we see that the youngest son asks for his share of the inheritance. This was a terrible wish, because it was almost like wishing his father dead and buried when the son asked for his share of the inheritance. We must understand this to mean that the youngest son wanted to be independent and that he had distanced himself from God.
The youngest son got his wish fulfilled, and happily he set off to live a life of «freedom«, without thinking about his father and his family. It is clear from the text that he lived a life of leisure, and after a while he had squandered the entire inheritance, he had received. Now regret began to creep in on the youngest son. He had spent all his money and valuables on partying and fun. The «friends» he had made by throwing parties for them would not help him when the famine came over the country. They had taken advantage of him in the crudest way, as people in the world usually do to each other, but now they would not help him, and he had to accept whatever came his way.
Finally he got a job as a pig farmer. We must remember the context of this story. This man was a Jew, and for a Jew it was unthinkable to have anything to do with pigs. Not even raise pigs was okay. But this son not only raised pigs, but he also lived with the pigs, and ate the same food that the pigs ate. He had fallen as low as any Jew could.
First, he wished his father dead, then he ended up at the bottom of the social ladder. Finally he came to himself, and he regretted what he had done, and we read in the next verses this:
Verse 17: When he came to his senses, he said, `How many of my father’s hired men have food to spare, and here I am starving to death!
Verse 18: I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.
Verse 19: I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men, (New International Version 1984).
This parable deals with the relationship between a man who has fallen away from God, his repentance and conversion, and how God responds to a repentant sinner. When the son discovered where he had ended up because of his desire to be independent (being without God), he wanted to return home, even if it was as a slave or servant to his father.
In verse 18 the son says that he will rise, but that does not mean that he will rise physically, but morally. He rose from the lethargy and despair that had darkened his life with an ominous threat of disaster and utter destruction. He had no idea how infinite and boundless his father’s love was, but he had a sense of his father’s justice. This kindled the hope that his father would treat him as he treated his slaves.
In the expression “I have sinned” there is no excuse for the grief he had caused his father, but an admission that he had done everything wrong, and that his confession was genuine and honest. When he says, “I am no longer worthy” he has realized that in himself he has no dignity. Nor could he pretend to be worthy. It was also obvious that he had no claim on his father. The only thing he could now hope for was to work for his father, but not because he had a right to do so, for he renounced that right when he asked for his share of the inheritance and dishonored his father. In the worst case, his father could reject him, so he would ask to be treated as one of his father’s slaves.
Verse 20: And he arose and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him.
This verse gives one of the most beautiful pictures of God’s infinite and boundless love, if not the most beautiful.
Every time I read this verse I am moved, and I almost have tears to my eyes, because it shows how God received me when I repented. I was probably as far down spiritually as the youngest son, and I have a story that is very similar to this parable. I can only thank and praise my heavenly God and Creator for the way He has treated me.
In the time of Jesus, it was not appropriate for an elderly man to run. Such a person should only walk and stroll, anything else was beneath his dignity. When Jesus used this image of the elderly man, the audience must have gasped in horror. But that is exactly how God is, and it is indirectly evident from the text that the father of this son went to look for his lost son – day and night, just as God does with every single person who has not “come home”.
One day he sees that his son is coming, but he was still far away. Instead of slapping the hand of his son who had previously wanted him dead and buried, he runs to meet his son and breaks all kinds of rules and ethics. An elderly man shall not run – it is beneath his dignity! But the father ran to meet his son. The returned son was filthy with dirt and smelled bad after living with pigs for a long time, but his father did not care a thing but threw his arms around his neck and kissed him! That is how God does with everyone who returns home to Him. When a person who has been lost or strayed, like this son, God doesn’t care if that person is full of sin – dirty, full of dirt and smelly. God runs to meet the repentant sinner and leads him home.
Now the father prepared a feast in honor of the prodigal son, and nothing was spared. He was given the best robe, which is a sign of God’s righteousness, a ring which is a sign of authority, and only the best was good enough for the prodigal son who had returned home, and in verse 24 we read what the father says to his servants: For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry. When the father says that the son was dead, it does not mean that he was physically dead but refers to the fact that the son had left him. In our context, it means that the son was away from God’s presence, and in that way, he was both lost and spiritually dead.
When the older son becomes aware of what has happened, it seems as if he becomes jealous of his younger brother, and he criticizes his father for honoring the son who wanted his father dead. It is now that we see God’s righteousness in this parable. Even though we humans may see a difference in the treatment of the two sons, God is just and treats everyone equally no matter how we have lived our lives, and no matter when we accepted Christ as our Savior. Everyone receives the same reward, (see also Matthew 20:1-16). The father says to the older son in verses 31-32 the following: … … you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found, (New International Version 1984).