Importance of Parables in Jesus Teachings

¶ … centrality of the parables in Jesus teaching

The historical life of Jesus is significantly discussed in the Gospels of the New Testament which, though from different perspectives, give the facts around Jesus as basically the same. He was portrayed as a person whose birth was foretold by the prophets and came through the Virgin Mary, wife of Joseph. He is seen to grow up as a very intelligent boy whose level of intelligence was divine since he challenged the teachers of the law and other religious leaders in the temple with his questions. Further, Jesus comes out as a great leader who would attract large followings, with the selected 12 disciples being those beside him everywhere he went, helping him to spread the gospel of salvation. Jesus performs many miracles, and unlike the sorcerers, each miracle he performed, planned or random came with a lesson that the rest of the people around would learn from and apply in life. Against the expectations of the Jews, Jesus, who was Lord showed that his kingdom was not of the physical world hence did not free the Jews and dominate over the Roman Empire. However, he strived to bring reconciliation and peace between the Jews and the gentiles. However, his great influence on the people and following resulted in him being disliked by the Roman rule and other gentiles hence his ultimate arrest, mistrial and death on the cross. Jesus later overcame death and resurrected to ascend to heaven. His death formed the hallmark of the salvation of Christians and foundation of Christianity.

The current writings and documentation of Jesus Christ slightly differ from the Gospels especially in the way they breakdown the image of Jesus Christ to the contemporary Christian. Different from the gospels that presented Jesus as sacrosanct and inaccessible by the many who followed him, the contemporary time documentation and discussions bring Jesus as accessible and easy to talk to. He is not feared as the King who would be received by laying down of palm tree branches but a friend who listens to our daily problems. The contemporary biographies present Jesus as more human than there before where He was portrayed as more divine than the present times. This could be to help make his life and miracles more applicable to us in the current times, otherwise the current society would be distanced from Jesus (Gerard Hall, 2015). William A.Y., (2013) points out in his book while looking at world's religions that the contemporary 21st Century Christianity tends to use religion to handle or answer contemporary questions and challenges. This approach to society, he says, is due to fear of leaving voids in the life of the Christians that would occasion recessing to other orthodox sources for answers. These changes became more pronounced from the 1970s onwards as more critical approaches to Christianity started developing. The contemporary documentations and discussion of the life of Jesus Christ simply strives to contextualize the life and works of Jesus without making Him lose the savior figure.

The significance of the parables of Jesus