WHY PARABLES? TO GIVE HIS ENEMIES NO GROUND
(Message by Tanny Keng)
1. Why Parables?
a) Jesus was a Master of the parable. In his teaching, Jesus used parables often and to great effect. Parables were a good way to teach and Jesus was good at telling them. However there were more reasons than that for Jesus’s use of parables.
2.To Give His Enemies No Ground
a) The enemies of Jesus were always waiting for him to say something they could use against him (Luke 11:53-54). By speaking in parables, Jesus was making it very hard for them. He could hardly be arrested for telling homely stories!
b) The parables were evocative not provocative. By couching his teaching in parables, Jesus made certain points much clearer to true heart people than even plain language could have made them. At the same time, he was speaking indirectly and figuratively so that lawyers had nothing to accuse him of. When it would have been counterproductive to speak plainly in public, Jesus spoke in parables — a prudent strategy.
c) The parable of the ten virgins is a simple story about people’s behavior at a wedding (Matthew 25:1-13). Clearly, as the bridegroom in the story, Jesus is representing himself as God with the power to open and shut the doors of heaven (Revelation 3:7). But nobody could prove he was saying that.
The End ...
1. Why Parables?a) Jesus was a Master of the parable. In his teaching, Jesus used parables often and to great effect. Parables were a good way to teach and Jesus was good at telling them. However there were more reasons than that for Jesus’s use of parables.
2.To Give His Enemies No Ground
a) The enemies of Jesus were always waiting for him to say something they could use against him (Luke 11:53-54). By speaking in parables, Jesus was making it very hard for them. He could hardly be arrested for telling homely stories!
b) The parables were evocative not provocative. By couching his teaching in parables, Jesus made certain points much clearer to true heart people than even plain language could have made them. At the same time, he was speaking indirectly and figuratively so that lawyers had nothing to accuse him of. When it would have been counterproductive to speak plainly in public, Jesus spoke in parables — a prudent strategy.
c) The parable of the ten virgins is a simple story about people’s behavior at a wedding (Matthew 25:1-13). Clearly, as the bridegroom in the story, Jesus is representing himself as God with the power to open and shut the doors of heaven (Revelation 3:7). But nobody could prove he was saying that.
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