In Matthew 25:14-30 is one of Jesus “the kingdom of heaven is like” parables. Here He tells the story of a wealthy householder with several servants; calling them, he put them in charge of his affairs while he himself went to a distant country, possibly to conduct some sort of business. They were not all […]
In Luke 12:13-21 Jesus responding to one that wanted Him to settle a family feud over an inheritance, uses a parable showing the futility of covetousness for earthly treasure. The story is about a business man (in this case a farmer) whose business was prospering and his desire was to get bigger and bigger, to […]
In Luke 15:11-32 Jesus tells a story of a father with two sons. Since we do not have space in this meditation to talk about both sons we are focusing on the younger, who approached the father asking to receive his inheritance early. According to Jewish law at the father’s death the younger son would […]
Our next stop in the parables of Jesus brings us to that of the lost sheep recorded both in Matthew 18:10-14 and Luke 15:1-7; I am using Luke’s account today. In Bible symbolism sheep often represent people, for example “The Lord is my shepherd” Psalm 23:1; “All we like sheep have gone astray” Isaiah 53:1; […]
Another parable Jesus used likens the kingdom of heaven to a mustard seed in Matthew 13:31-32. The mustard seed referred to here is apparently not the annual plant we likely think of immediately today, but a much larger specimen, whose seed was very small but grew very large. The combination of these provide an appropriate […]
God has so arranged it that the natural and spiritual work parallel to each other. With the people of Israel being very familiar with the process of agriculture and livestock, Jesus often used parables from these to teach the spiritual truths of the kingdom of God. In Mark 4:26-29 He speaks of one scattering or […]
Another parable of Jesus is recorded in Luke 14:16-24 where He tells the story of a host that was giving a great banquet; the custom was that the invitations would be sent out in advance and when the feast was ready a notice would be sent out. His friends had received the invitation, apparently accepted […]
Samaritan’s were a mixed race; they also had a corrupted form of religion. They and the Jews usually did not have good relationships with each other, and there was often a spirit of hatred and hostility manifested between them, leading the woman in John 4:9 to say “Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.” But Jesus […]
As He often did Jesus uses an agricultural setting to teach about the kingdom of God; in Luke 13:6-9 He tells the story of a man that had a vineyard and planted a fig tree in it, expecting it to produce fruit; however after returning to it season after season and finding no fruit he […]
