What’s in a Parable?

Storytelling has existed since the beginning of time. People have used stories to pass on ancestry, traditions, and significant historical events. Story’s have been used to communicate thoughts, ideas, and moral and social codes. In ancient times stories were carved, scratched, painted, printed, or inked onto wood or bamboo, ivory, bones, pottery, clay tablets, skins (parchment), bark cloth; basically any material available. Stories have been written on paper, illustrated on canvass, and in modern times recorded on audio and video medium, and stored electronically in digital form.

Jesus often used a type of story called a parable. The word "parable" comes from the Greek word parabolē, which describes a fictive illustration in the form of a brief narrative, by which spiritual and moral matters might be conveyed.

The Parable of the Sower is a great example. Jesus used the parable to paint a word picture in our mind of a man sowing seeds in his field, throwing them all around. The seeds fall into different areas, land on different soil, and each soil type produces a different result for the planted seeds. In telling this parable, Jesus communicates a powerful message about God, about His word, about our lives, and about our ministry to others.

Join us Sunday as we look at begin our study of several parables Jesus used to communicate the principles of God’s Kingdom to us!