The Stories Jesus Told

July 18, 2024

By Peter Amsterdam

Jesus was an incredible teacher. His words, backed up by His actions, changed countless lives during His ministry on earth and for the past two millennia. His teachings and the influence of His life have had an unparalleled impact on humanity. Billions of people have fashioned their lives and beliefs on the words He spoke over 2,000 years ago. Those words and teachings, recorded in the Gospels, have radically changed humankind’s understanding of God and our relationship to Him. They spoke to the people of Jesus’ day and still speak to the hearts of seekers and believers today.

One of the most frequent methods Jesus used to convey His message was through telling parables. In fact, one-third of the recorded sayings of Jesus in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke are in parables. Parables were an effective means of conveying His message because they were stories that engaged the listeners and drew them in. These stories sometimes challenged the cultural and religious norms of the day, and the listeners were often surprised when the story lines went in unforeseen directions and had unexpected outcomes.

It was through these stories that Jesus taught about the kingdom of God, showed God’s character, revealed what God was like, and expressed the expectations that God has for people. While the parables Jesus told speak to us today, some of their original meaning and surprise factor has been lost because we, as today’s listeners, aren’t living in first-century Palestine.

Jesus was a first-century Jew speaking to other first-century Jews, and He spoke the common language of the day, using words, phrases, and idioms that His Jewish contemporaries understood well. When Jesus spoke of a Samaritan, He knew that His Jewish listeners despised Samaritans. When He spoke of wheat and tares, of leaven, of stewards and masters, everyone He was speaking to understood what He was talking about because those things were part of everyday first-century Jewish life and language.

People living in first-century Palestine understood the terminology Jesus used in a more complete and well-rounded way than we, living over 2,000 years later, can. So when you’re reading the parables of Jesus, it helps to know more of the context in which He was speaking and what the original listeners would have understood.

This is especially beneficial when we consider how much information the parables don’t give. Parables are short. They use no more words than necessary, and they generally include no unessential details. When descriptions of people are given, almost nothing is said about their appearance, relations, or personal history; we are only told the basics. With the exceptions of Lazarus and Abraham in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19–31), no names are given, so individuals are anonymous. Actions are omitted or compressed, and elements of the story are left for the reader to fill in.

Parables are inherently simple. There are never more than two persons or groups together in the same scene. While the father in Luke 15 has two sons, he does not interact with both of them at the same time, but with one or the other (Luke 15:11–32). When there is mention of a large number of people, such as the parable of the feast where many people are invited to the banquet, the story only focuses on three of those who were invited (Luke 14:16–24).

Jesus’ parables reflect the lives of everyday people—farmers, shepherds, women, fathers and sons, masters and servants. They are true-to-life fictional accounts of everyday life in the time of Christ. However, they don’t necessarily portray events precisely. Some stories give realistic portrayals, and some don’t.

One example of an unrealistic portrayal is the man who owed 10,000 talents, which is the equivalent of more than 200 metric tons of gold or silver. This parable uses a deliberate exaggeration, or what is often referred to as hyperbole, defined as an intended overstatement to make a point. Hyperbole used in this context helps to express the abundance of God’s forgiveness (Matthew 18:23–35). The use of exaggeration to make a point was common in Jewish writings and sayings.

Why did Jesus speak in parables? What is the value of a parable? Well, everybody loves a story. Jesus told stories to draw the listeners in, to cause them to reflect on the issues the parable addressed. The scenarios that Jesus painted with His words often required the listeners to pass moral judgment on the behavior of the characters in the story, and then to make a similar judgment about matters in their own life and in their faith.

Some parables start with a question, such as “Who of you …?” or “What do you think about …?” Other parables pose questions at the end. The questions are designed to provoke thought, to bring change in the listener’s heart and life. Sometimes the parable doesn’t have a conclusion or a final outcome—the story is left open-ended.

Parables often present the reverse of what the listener would expect. The hated tax collector is seen as being righteous instead of the Pharisee (Luke 18:9–14); the Samaritan is the true neighbor rather than the Jewish priest or the Levite (Luke 10:29–37). These conclusions were reversals of the norm. They cause the listeners to see things in a different light, to reflect, and to question the way they think. They issue a challenge to change.

The main point usually comes at the end of the parable, similar to how the punch line of a joke is delivered at the end. The story piques your interest, draws you in, and then at the end, it makes the point.

While those hearing the parables in the first century understood the language, the culture and customs, and the idioms and expressions, that didn’t mean they always understood the point of the parables. Sometimes even Jesus’ disciples had to ask Him what a parable meant. The spiritual points contained in the parables weren’t always obvious and caused people to ponder the meaning.

Jesus wasn’t the first or only teacher to use parables. In the Old Testament and in Jewish writings before the first century, there are some parables and parable-like writings, but few that are similar to Jesus’ narrative parables.¹ So while Jesus wasn’t the inventor of parables, no one throughout history is known to have used them as ingeniously and effectively as He did.

The parables of Jesus are a worthy study. Through them, Jesus conveyed His message about God, our interaction with Him and others, and life and how it should be lived. Reading the parables with more understanding of the first-century context helps bring further clarity to His message. It gives insight to why He had so much opposition and why His religious enemies wanted Him dead. It also helps to show why many loved and followed Him.

The messages that Jesus conveyed through His parables offended His religious enemies and even threatened their standing. At the same time, the message embedded in His stories drew in those who were lost and seeking. The parables show the love and mercy of God, His call to the heart of every man, woman, and child, and His willingness to pay the price of costly love to bring humankind to redemption. These wonderful truths caused people to love Jesus, to become His followers and disciples, to even die for His name. And His words evoke the same response today.

Jesus’ parables aren’t just stories to enjoy; they are the very voice of Jesus speaking His message. These short stories have deep intent, and that intent is to move each of us toward God and toward living our lives in accordance with His truth. When we carefully listen to what Jesus is saying in His parables, we will face answering the same questions as His original listeners. A light will shine on our lives as we confront the realization that we may be like the older brother, or the rich fool hoarding his wealth, or the priest and Levite rather than the Good Samaritan.

The parables also beautifully show the different ways that Jesus conveyed how deeply God loves humankind and to what lengths He is willing to go to show us that love, as well as the joy He has when one person enters into relationship with Him. Jesus used parables to describe the Father, and those descriptions brought a new understanding of what God is like.

As in any study of God’s Word, as we read and study the parables, it’s beneficial to take time to think deeply about the points they make, to allow these spiritual truths to speak to us. They are meant to cause change in our hearts, lives, attitudes, outlooks, and behavior.

May the study of the parables fortify your faith and encourage you to invite others to learn about and come to personally know Jesus—our wonderful Savior and our blessed Redeemer.

Originally published May 2013. Adapted and republished July 2024. Read by Jon Marc.

Copyright © 2024 The Family International