Finding Jesus in the Bible…So We Can Follow Him in Life
Bible Reading Plans
- Plan One: New Testament Only
- Plan Two: New Testament + Psalms
- Plan Three: New Testament + History
- Plan Four: The Entire Bible – Year 1 of 3, Year 2 of 3, Year 3 of 3
Don’t know which plan? Go to A Christ-Centered Bible Reading Plan: Quick Start.
Extras
Verse of the Day, Audio Capsule, and Video Minute
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(Today’s Reading)
The Biblical Case for the Second Coming as Accomplished Fact
(Book Installment 42)
Part Three – The Nature of the Second Coming
Chapter 7 – How the Bible Describes Truth (continued)
Why Parables?
Why does the Lord use parables in the first place? Fortunately, the disciples had the same curiosity, for they asked Him this very question. We have His direct answer in Matthew 13 where Jesus answered that question by saying:
…because while seeing they do not see, and while hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. Matthew 13:13
Jesus was explaining that while His disciples could understand Him, those who refused to be His disciples could not. A parable, therefore, was a means of conveying truth to both groups.
The disciples could understand the parables, Jesus said, because
“For whoever has, to him more shall be given…” Matthew 13:12
In other words, the more you understand, the more you are able to understand. The disciples had understood His call to repentance and responded to it. This resulted in a humble attitude which enabled them to learn more about God This did not mean that they would automatically
understand all the parables right away, however. In fact, we see them on occasion asking Him for an explanation. And He, in His graciousness, was prompt to give it.
The parables, however, were a flexible enough tool to allow Jesus to pass truth to those who hearts were not yet truly yielded to it. For a parable is a catchy little story. And stories are far easier to remember than abstract prose. Whoever “tried to memorize” the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears? Most of us have long since forgotten things we stayed up half the night
memorizing to recite in school, yet we can still remember stories we were casually told as a child. A parable then works like a “timed-release” medicine for the unrepentant. Once they become repentant, the parable, having been previously stored in their memory bank, is ready to release meaning to them as they need it. This is why Jesus closes the parables in Matthew 13 by
saying,
“Therefore every scribe who has become a disciple of the kingdom of heaven is like a head of a household, who brings out of his treasure things new and old.” Matthew 13:52
Once having encountered opposition to His teaching, therefore, Jesus starts using parables so that the truth might not be wasted (He didn’t want any of the leftover fish and bread lost; how much more then, food for the soul!). Both the disciples and the unrepentant could hang on to these “truth packages” and be taught by them all their lives. The key that opens the
package is a teachable spirit – that is, becoming a disciple, one who learns. We should also admire Jesus at this point for His intense love even for those who criticized Him. His every word to them, however harsh they might seem to our ears, dripped with the fullness of His love and desire for their deliverance from lies and confusion.
Parables, therefore, lent themselves quite well to teaching about the Second Coming, and for several reasons. First of all, parables are a means of teaching about spiritual things – things you can’t see. And that’s what the Second Coming was – something spiritual that could only be seen spiritually. Second, parables are pictures that act as a “truth packages” for the hearers. The disciples were better served by Jesus’ parables than if they’d had a dozen steno pads and a tape recorder. What they heard about the Second Coming of Jesus on that hillside east of Jerusalem would have to carry them through some of the most difficult times men have ever faced. They needed, in the worst way, to be able to retain what they heard. The fact that the whole world can today read what those disciples heard, after all the tribulation that ensued, is testimony to the effectiveness of Jesus’ teaching method (which involved, of course, the Holy Spirit). And third, parables were useful to teaching about the Second Coming because not all who came to hear the
disciples in the churches were true disciples – anymore than all those who came to hear Jesus in His earthly ministry were true disciples. The unrepentant, too, needed a way to hang on to the truth so that they might come back later and absorb what they’d missed the first time. Though
the unrepentant were spiritually blind, there was always the hope they would eventually repent and return to the God who can heal such blindness.
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