The parables that Jesus told were often puzzling, forcing his audience to think deeply about what he was saying to decipher them. So, it comes as a welcome relief when he begins this Parable of the Unjust Judge by telling his listeners exactly what it is all about: the “need to pray always and not to lose heart.” It may…
In a bad world steadily going worse one always wonders whether there ever will be an end to the bloodshed, the violence, the crime, and the corruption, and whether the wicked will ever be punished or go free as they often seem to do in the world. Well, there will be an end, and there will be a reckoning, and…
A young man who worked in his father’s shop caught an employee stealing. He went to his father, told him the story, and asked: “What should we do with the fellow?” “Give him a raise,” his father replied. “A raise?” his son asked in astonishment. “If he was stealing, it means he’s not earning enough,” the father explained. I am…
Imagine, if you will, that you are a priest who walks into church one day to find a strange man standing at the pulpit spouting a philosophy that is antithetical to the things that you believe in, and working some pretty awesome miracles while he is at it. What would you do? Chances are that you will be more outraged…
Several years ago I heard a story told by a pastor of a prostitute he happened to meet. She was so weighed down by life’s challenges she was contemplating suicide. After the pastor heard her out, he encouraged her as best he could before inviting her to come to church that Sunday. “Why would I want to do that?” she…
And then Jesus told yet another parable, the parable of the yeast (or leaven; yeast hadn’t been discovered yet!), which seemed to be targeted at the women in his audience just as the previous parable was targeted at the men. First a quick class on baking bread. There were two types of bread: unleavened and leavened. The former was flat…
No sooner was Jesus done speaking about wheat and weeds, he launched into another parable about a mustard seed, saying that it was the smallest of all seeds, but when it grew it became the greatest of all shrubs. The first thing that people who know such things might think is that the mustard seed is by no means the…
A recent demographic survey conducted by the Pew Research Center shows that Christianity is in decline, and Christians are dwindling in number so rapidly it won’t be long before they are a minority in almost every nation in the world, with perhaps the exception of sub-Saharan Africa. We can see the evidence of this around us as churches are emptying at…
One of the stories we have looked at already is the Parable of the Hidden Treasure. A very short story-—all of one sentence long—it told the tale of a man who accidentally found treasure when digging in a field. Recognizing its immense value, he sold everything he had to possess it. In this Parable of the Pearl of Great Price,…
Many people expected the world to end in 2012. This expectation was based on the belief that cataclysmic events would occur on or around 21 December 2012, which was regarded as the end-date of a 5,126-year-long cycle in the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar. But 2013 rolled in putting an end to yet another prediction of the end of the world…
Our generation is the most self-centered, self-absorbed, and self-focused the world has ever seen. The emphasis is always on “me” and if we are inclined to extend our coverage, we might include our families, but any inclusion, even then, is often based on self-interest. This preoccupation with self also leads to self-glorification to which most New Age movements and humanistic…
At the start of his chapter on parables in his book “Preaching the Literary Forms of the Bible,” author Thomas O. Long declares: “Preaching a parable is a novice preacher’s dream but often an experienced preacher’s nightmare.” It isn’t much easier for the writer, especially with a parable such as The Laborers in the Vineyard where the explanations offered have…
The parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus is quite possibly the darkest and most disturbing of the stories that Jesus told, what with the picture that he paints of hell. It isn’t a pleasant picture and on numerous other occasions Jesus has spoken of it describing it as “everlasting fire”, “eternal condemnation”, and “the fire that shall never be…
Graham Staines was a Christian missionary from Australia who worked with lepers in Orissa, a state in the North of India. Early one morning as he slept in his Jeep with his sons, Phillip (9) and Timothy (6), a group of anti-Christian militants surrounded the vehicle and set it on fire, burning the man and his two children alive. Less…
If we were to see our pastor (or priest or preacher) sitting in a pub with what appears to be a glass of whiskey and sharing a joke with a woman who looks like she might be a prostitute, what is the first thing that would cross our minds? I am certain that a lot of us would think that…
The Parable of the Good Samaritan is one of the better-known parables of Jesus, with hospitals, organizations and even laws named after the hero of this story. The parable has been interpreted in various ways, with a popular one saying the traveler represents man, the robbers represent the devil, the priest and the Levite represent the Law and its sacrifices,…
There is another character in this story—the elder son—who is often given scant attention in the telling of this tale, which is a pity because there are as many lessons to be learned from him as from his younger brother. Jesus was trying to make the Pharisees understand that he was a representation of them, but most of them didn’t…
Undoubtedly one of the most famous stories ever told, this tale of a father’s unconditional and forgiving love has been told a million times in pulpits around the world. It is a story of grace and if one ever needs an understanding of what that word means, they can find it in the parable of two brothers and their amazing…
Picture this: You are at a prayer service and Jesus makes a surprise appearance. He says, “I see that you are interested in finding the kingdom of heaven. Listen: the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which someone found and hid; then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that…
Jesus is generally considered a master storyteller, popular for the many parables that he told which were renowned for their simplicity. Yes, these parables contain tremendous depth of meaning, much of which is concealed, and according to Jesus, deliberately so. When the apostles asked him why he spoke to the people in parables, he answered: “To you it has been…