A common technique used by teachers and preachers is the use of illustrations. I don’t mean drawings (though those can be useful!) but rather using something like a story or an object to help listeners understand or apply a concept or a truth. Thus it is not surprising that the greatest teacher who has ever lived – the Lord Jesus – would use illustrations in the midst of his teaching ministry. There are a variety of ways in which Jesus illustrates the truths that he taught, but among the most notable is that of parables.
Because of how often Jesus used parables in the New Testament and the fact that we are studying some of them at Faith Church this summer in our series “The Greatest Stories Ever Told,” it felt helpful to share a few pointers. Not to just understand what parables are, but how to read them and recognize the truths Jesus conveys through them.
What Are Parables?
While a parable serves as a way to illustrate a truth, we need to recognize that not every illustration is a parable. Parables are a particular kind of illustration. There are many different definitions of what constitutes a parable, but I find this definition from a book I helped contribute to many years ago called Big Ideas of the Bible simple and helpful: “A story that features imagery from the everyday life of listeners to move the audience to respond to the message of the kingdom of God.”
This definition highlights what makes a parable different from other common illustrations – it features some sort of story or narrative. It is not simply making a comparison or using a metaphor but rather does so in the course of some sort of story. These stories can vary in complexity, with some being very simple stories while others can involve multiple characters and twists and turns, but stand as a key element of what makes a parable a parable.
Something important to keep in mind about these stories is that they are not allegories as they have at times been viewed this way. Allegories are also stories, but in those stories the various characters, places, and events have some sort of hidden or abstract meaning. While the parables point to deeper truths and various details may serve something of an “allegorical” function, every detail of a parable does not have some sort of abstract or hidden meaning; some are there just as part of the framework of the story. Therefore, one doesn’t need to “decode” every element to understand them, but rather seek to determine what the overarching point(s) are that are made through the narrative as a whole. I’ll discuss more about how to read them, but first I wanted to offer a few thoughts relating to how many you will find and where you will find them.
How Many Are There And Where Do You Find Them?
A few months back, someone asked me how many parables of Jesus we have in the Bible. I realized that this is a tricky question to answer, as I have a number of books on parables on shelves and each of them seems to differ on the number of parables. This is because there can be some debate about how much of a “story” is needed to make an illustration a parable. For example, Jesus speaks about not putting new wine into new wineskins (see Matthew 9:14-17). Is there a story in this, or is this just making a more basic illustration? Jesus speaks about no one lighting a light and then hiding it under a basket (see Luke 8:16). Is that a story about what a person does with a light – and thus parable? Those are ones that I would probably not include in the category of a parable, but others would.
While the exact number of parables may be debated, there definitely seem to be about 35-40 of them in which there is little to no debate. Something to note is that none of these appear in the Gospel of John. Jesus still uses illustrations in John – think about his famous conversation about being “born again” in John 3 and the various “I am” statements in which he declares himself to be the “bread of life” and “light of the world” (and many other things) – but these don’t have the sort of narrative component that you find in other gospels and thus are not parables. There are only a few parables in the Gospel of Mark as well, which is not surprising because Mark is not only the shortest gospel but also the one that features the least amount of teaching of Jesus. Outside of the parable of the Seed Growing Secretly (Mark 4:26-29), the parables found in Mark also appear in Matthew and Luke; once again, this is not surprising when you realize that most of what is in Mark is in one or both of those gospels.
Matthew and Luke feature the largest amount of parables. Some of these are the same (e.g., Leaven in Matthew 13:33 and Luke 13:20-21), but many of them are unique to a particular gospel. Those in Matthew often start with Jesus explicitly noting that “the kingdom of heaven is like this” (see esp. Matthew 13) and call attention to the reality of coming judgment as a motivation to faithfully follow Jesus in the present (e.g., the parable of the Net in Matthew 13:47-50 and the parable of the Unforgiving Servant who is then judged in Matthew 18:21-35). In Luke, most of the parables appear while Jesus is traveling to Jerusalem between Luke 9 and 19 and many of them point to the mercy of God (e.g, the parable of the Prodigal Son in Luke 15:11-30) or the need to care for others (e.g., Luke 14:15-24) and wise use of resources (e.g. Luke 16:1-9). Luke also has some parables on prayer (Luke 11:5-8; 18:1-8).
While a bit more obvious in Luke, a key element in many of Jesus’s parables is that of surprise. These surprises might involve the person who is commended, such as a Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37) or a tax collector (Luke 18:1-8). It can also be in a shocking detail, such as workers receiving the same wage regardless of how long they labored (Matthew 20:1-16) or a master forgiving a staggering debt (Matthew 18:21-35). These “surprises” are something that we should remember and pay attention to in order to understand them.
How Do We Interpret Them?
There are many books out there about understanding the parables of Jesus (my favorite is Interpreting the Parables by Craig Blomberg). Much more could be said regarding how to interpret them than I can provide in a post like this. That said, I wanted to pass along a few tips that might help to understand them.
One tip to reading and understanding parables is what I noted above – there is often a surprise at work in the parable. Jesus uses imagery from the world of his time, so sometimes you might have to do a little research to see what would have been surprising to his original audience. It might be different than what seems surprising to us today – but once you see the surprise, you’ll likely see the point he’s making.
Another idea to remember is that every detail might not have spiritual significance. Rather than trying to determine if there is meaning behind every detail, focus on the people in the parable and contrasts between characters. The authority figures you find in the parables – fathers, kings, masters – point to God, while servants and others would be associated with his people (like you and me). If there is a good and a bad servant, the contrast between these figures is something to focus upon. There are also other common images used that likely have associations – ‘harvest’ would be final judgment while ‘the field’ or ‘the vineyard’ would be God’s people. Therefore, when you see these images used, it is likely trying to teach on that truth.
Finally, there are some parables that tell you what they are about, especially in the gospel of Luke. For example, in Luke 18:1-8, it tells us that the point of the parable is so that people would pray and not give up. Therefore, the point of that parable is…that we should persist in prayer. Other parables will not be as explicit about their purpose but often the concluding statement will give you good direction of the overall point that Jesus makes through it. Therefore, like all good biblical interpretation, context is something very important when reading the parables. Look at the context in which it is told and the cultural context of the time to understand them.
Over the years, I have seen that people often make the parables more complicated to understand than they need to be. More often than not, the challenge is not understanding the point being made but rather responding rightly to the truth. Therefore, let us not only understand what Jesus seeks to tell us in these parables but also to live and act accordingly.
Questions about the Bible or theology? Email them to Pastor Brian at Theology@WeAreFaith.org. You can also email to be added to the list that receives weekly emails with our blog posts.
