Teacher

Jesus taught in parables. “ He did not say anything to them without using a parable. But when he was alone with his own disciples, he explained everything. “ Mark 4:34

 “Parables bring to life the world where Jesus lived. “*

“We read the parables and the poor homes of the little land are before our eyes. We see the baking of bread and the patching of garments; we see even the emergency of a friend borrowing a loaf at the midnight hour for his sudden guests. Rich homes are drawn with a pencil equally shrewd – barns bursting with fatness, laborers not daring to eat until their master has broken his fast, and the unseemly scramble for the chief seats at the feasts of the mighty.  The glaring contrasts of our earth are drawn in dramatic line – “chosen” Jews and despised Samaritans, sumptuous Dives and abject Lazarus, householders and thieves, compassionate parenthood and the rascally steward who feathered and his nest against the well-merited retribution. The whole gamut of human life is sounded – farmers at the plough, fisherman at their nets, a wedding procession moving through the dark with dancing torches, builders rearing towers, kings marking to wars and a widow pleading her cause in the persistence of despair, before a heartless judge. (The Parables of Jesus, By George A. Buttrick; pages xviii-xix)

I am in the middle of a summer Bible Study, the title, Twelve Parables of Jesus, by Maxie Dunnam.*  This devotional helps prepare me for my day.  The parables present timeless truths.