Why did Jesus speak in Parables? The answer might surprise you.

The video link is here:

Mark 4… Parables and a Storm

The audio links are to the right i.e. Spotify and iTunes.

Here is the transcript used for this podcast:

Mark 4 – Parables and a Storm

Parables aren’t a cute literary vehicle to make a point. According to Dr.Ferguson of Ligonier Ministries below, they are a test of your spiritual condition.

Parable comes from the Latin word parabola, from Greek parabolḗ, meaning “comparison.”

a usually short fictitious story that illustrates a moral attitude or a religious principle

Merriam-Webster. (n.d.). Parable. In Merriam-Webster.com dictionary. Retrieved October 3, 2024, from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/parable

In a podcast from Ligonier Ministries, Dr. Ferguson answered the question of “Why did Jesus teach in Parables?”

DR. SINCLAIR FERGUSON: 

Let me begin with a negative. He didn’t speak in parables because He liked using illustrations. You know, people often say to their teachers, “You should use more illustrations, like Jesus.” Jesus spoke in parables because He found it the best way to expose the true spiritual condition of those to whom He was preaching.

…The disciples came and said to Him, “Why did you speak to them in parables?”

People need illustrations; that’s an important point. However, it’s not the point Jesus makes. He answered them: In Matthews Gospel He said:

”To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. For to the one who has, more will be given, and he will have an abundance, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. This is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.”

So, if I can use an analogy: You tell a joke. The punchline in a joke is usually at the end, and sometimes you’re with people who just don’t get it. They just do not get the point. The parables are not jokes, but in a parallel way, the punchline in most parables comes at the end. And what Jesus is doing is assessing whether people get it or not.

So actually even for us today, maybe especially for us today, the parables actually disclose our true spiritual condition. So parables are not merely illustrations. In a sense, they are tests of where we are spiritually, and that’s why it’s so important that when we read them we really need to be surprised by them and to ask the question, What is it that’s so surprising about the grace of God here?

Ferguson, S. (2020, July 6). Why Did Jesus Teach in Parables (July 2020). https://www.ligonier.org/podcasts/ask-ligonier/why-did-jesus-speak-in-parables#:~:text=You%20know%2C%20people%20often%20say,Matthew%2013%20and%20verse%2010..

Parables serve two purposes: they reveal the truth of the mystery of the kingdom, and, in doing so, they reveal the hearts of the hearers, resulting in life for some and judgment for others.

NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible

Copyright © 2019 by Zondervan

The Parable of the Sower

4 Again Jesus began to teach by the lake. The crowd that gathered around him was so large that he got into a boat and sat in it out on the lake, while all the people were along the shore at the water’s edge. 2 He taught them many things by parables, and in his teaching said: 3 “Listen! A farmer went out to sow his seed. 4 As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. 5 Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. 6 But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. 7 Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants, so that they did not bear grain. 8 Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up, grew and produced a crop, some multiplying thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times.”

9 Then Jesus said, “Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.”

Or… if you know… you’ll know.

10 When he was alone, the Twelve and the others around him asked him about the parables. 11 He told them, “The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you. But to those on the outside everything is said in parables 12 so that,

“‘they may be ever seeing but never perceiving,
    and ever hearing but never understanding;
otherwise they might turn and be forgiven!’ ” Isa 6:9,10

secret. Or “mystery.” In Jewish tradition it refers to something, often unexpected and hidden in time past, that God now reveals but only on his terms (e.g., Matt 11:25–27; Rom 1:17; 16:25; 1 Cor 2:1; 15:21). For those who—through misunderstanding (e.g., Jesus’ family), outright rejection (e.g., the Jerusalem teachers of the law), or indecision (e.g., the crowds)—remain “on the outside,” the secret comes only in unexplained parables.

Jesus’ parables function like Isaiah’s preaching. In the Scriptures, those who reject the living God— for lifeless idols will become like the idols they worship, neither seeing nor hearing (Pss 115:4–8; 135:15–18). Because Israel refused God’s salvation, Isaiah’s teaching confirmed that the nation was like the blind and deaf idols it worshiped (Isa 6:9–10). Isaiah gained a few disciples (Isa 8:16), but the majority, including Jerusalem’s leadership, pursued their own hypocritical worship (Isa 29:9–16; see 7:6–7), ensuring their destruction (Isa 6:11–13). Because Jesus is faced with an equally stubborn rejection of God’s salvation (2:1—3:6, 22, 28–30), his parables function in the same way as Isaiah’s teaching did. Although at this point it is primarily the hypocritical Jerusalem leaders (3:5; 7:6–7; 11:27–33) who will come under God’s hardening judgment (12:1–12; ch. 13), the same warning extends to all who fail to respond. However, if people submit to Jesus’ teaching (cf. 3:34–35; 12:32–34), then the secret of the kingdom is theirs.

NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible     Copyright © 2019 by Zondervan

Explanation of the Parable of the Sower and the Seed

13 Then Jesus said to them, “Don’t you understand this parable? How then will you understand any parable? 14 The farmer sows the word. 15 Some people are like seed along the path, where the word is sown. As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them. 16 Others, like seed sown on rocky places, hear the word and at once receive it with joy. 17 But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. 

Shallowness represents a lack of commitment.

18 Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word; 19 but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful. 

The inclination to evil entangles people.

20 Others, like seed sown on good soil, hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop—some thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times what was sown.”

This final group, over the long haul of the harvest season, eventually bring forth a harvest. At the end of the harvest season, these seeds and the fruit they produced are all that’s left. In the beginning it is hard to tell the true plant from the invading weeds, but over time, it becomes evident which is which, and at the end the true plant brings forth its fruit. It takes time to expose the true from the false, which I believe is a point of this parable.

Parable of the Lamp

21 He said to them, “Do you bring in a lamp to put it under a bowl or a bed? Instead, don’t you put it on its stand? 22 For whatever is hidden is meant to be disclosed, and whatever is concealed is meant to be brought out into the open. 23 If anyone has ears to hear, let them hear.”

The purpose of the lamp is to shed light on the room it occupies. So you can see the contents of the room. What is hidden? The spiritual condition of the listener. The parables of Jesus serve a purpose in exposing those who feign spirituality. Parables teach a lesson – yes. But they also expose the fakers. The light (in this context the parables are the light, I think, showing the truth of their surroundings) exposes the truth of the room – or the hearts of those around us.

24 “Consider carefully what you hear,” he continued. “With the measure you use, it will be measured to you—and even more. 25 Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them.”

Again – with the idea that parables are there to expose those who claim to know God but don’t, Jesus might be saying here that those who “have” i.e. a true relationship with the Christ will continue to receive revelation knowledge from God as they walk through life. Those who “do not have” i.e. those who appear to be religious but indeed are not will eventually be separated from the true believers because they will not have the true “insider” information provided by God’s Holy Spirit. In Jesus’ day, He used parables to expose the Pharisees, the teachers of the Law, the priests etc – those who claimed to know God, and SHOULD have by virtue of the position they held in Judaism.

The Parable of the Growing Seed

26 He also said, “This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. 27 Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. 28 All by itself the soil produces grain—first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head. 29 As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come.”

The Parable of the Mustard Seed

30 Again he said, “What shall we say the kingdom of God is like, or what parable shall we use to describe it? 31 It is like a mustard seed, which is the smallest of all seeds on earth. 32 Yet when planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all garden plants, with such big branches that the birds can perch in its shade.”

There is a mystery to much of this. I don’t truly understand the mechanics of it all, but if I take the position that I am the soil in these parables, and the Word of God is the seed sown into my life, application can be made.  From these last two parables, it becomes clear that as a follower of Christ, I WILL be fruitful. Even if to the world I am viewed as insignificant and without much value, eventually I will be mighty and of GREAT value to God’s kingdom, providing shade and comfort to those in my periphery in my old age.

33 With many similar parables Jesus spoke the word to them, as much as they could understand. 34 He did not say anything to them without using a parable. But when he was alone with his own disciples, he explained everything.

Jesus Calms the Storm

35 That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, “Let us go over to the other side.” 36 Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him. 37 A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. 38 Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?”

39 He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.

40 He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?”

41 They were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!”

I can’t fault these disciples for their reaction in this instance. They were panicking and close to death. Storms in that body of water can be vicious, and the waves powerful and erratic as they hammered their small boat. But this experience was necessary in order for them to see another aspect of this Messiah they were committing themselves to. He is not JUST a brilliant teacher – He is also Lord of creation, with even storms, wind, and wave under His control. There is a supernatural aspect to following Jesus that must NEVER be discounted.

 

Be Blessed!

Paige