How can we serve you? Do you have a need? Can we pray for you? Click HERE to let us know. All needs will be kept confidential. If anything, they were the opposite. They are an expression in the service of his announcement of the kingdom of God. Parables were the means Jesus used most frequently to explain the kingdom of God, to show the character of God, and to illustrate the expectations that God has for humans.
In other words, what Jesus was saying and doing prompted questions, and many of the parables are his response to those questions. Why does this man eat with sinners and tax collectors? Why does he heal on the Sabbath? Why does he spend so much time with undesirable people? The parables are necessary explainers, but they invite us to investigate more. They do that as much as they make anything clear. Nevertheless, some parables are clear as bells, and, while we may discuss backgrounds in length, they do not need explanation so much as implementation.
Despite the numerous studies of this parable, the story at its core compels us to stop resisting and to live its message. Still today, the parables need to be allowed to speak, and they need to be heard. How did Jesus seek to change attitudes and behaviors with this parable? How will it change our own? Ultimately, the parables of Jesus are stories with intent. And the intent of the tellerβJesus himselfβwith all the power and creativity of his teaching is the goal of our understanding.
Lesson 1. Lesson 2. Lesson 3. Lesson 4. Lesson 5. Lesson 6. Lesson 7. Lesson 8. Lesson 9. Lesson And God enriches these conversations through the questions that God asks us. Have you ever wondered why God would want to ask us questions? To begin with, God wants to enter into a conversational relationship with each of us.
One way in which God shows this deep desire is by asking questions. They are the same questions that God asked the people of God throughout the Bible. When we start hearing them as addressed to us, we receive a glimpse into those things that God wants to talk about with us. Our answers draw us into a relationship of deeper sharing and intimacy with Godβ¦. Second, God gives greater dignity to us by allowing us to wrestle with the questions rather than simply giving us the answersβ¦.
