GOSPEL MEDITATION
The Parables of Jesus: An Introduction
Matthew 13:10-17 & Luke 8:9-15
- Find a quiet place, alone and apart from distractions.
- Be comfortably alert, still and at peace.
- Say the Lord’s Prayer. Sing or cant the Jesus Prayer
- Pray for family, friends, neighbors, and yourself.
- Slowly and carefully read the passages of Scripture.
- Reread them. From memory, determine the central points.
- A parable is the use of common language that usually has one primary point. Jesus used this means to teach His disciples while others would not be able to grasp the meaning of them.
- Also, parables would lend themselves to memorization
more easily.
- Parables are found in the Hebrew Bible as well, for
example in Ezekiel 17:1-10,19:10-14, and 37:1-14.
- There are no obvious parables in John’s Gospel, some
are peculiar to Matthew, Mark, and Luke while others
appear in two or even three of the Gospels.
- At first, Jesus tells large crowds various parables;
however, He takes His disciples aside and interprets
two of them, that of the Sower and Weeds, for them
privately.
- Jesus knows that unless the Holy Spirit interprets the truths
of the Word of God to people, it is impossible for them to
grasp such truths.
- Here we encounter the mystery of election, only those
chose my God, those whose eyes and ears are opened,
will have any real understanding of all that belongs to
God.
- The disciples, those who hear and know the mysteries
of God, are indeed blessed and can take no credit for
this understanding.