“He began to teach them many things in parables.” (Mark 4:2)
Stories have always been a way to relate and share to one another. Jesus used simple word-pictures, called parables, to help people understand who God is and offer guidelines for living God’s word. According to Don Schwager, “This was Jesus most common way of teaching. His stories appealed to the young and old, poor and rich, and to the learned and unlearned as well. Over a third of the Gospels by Matthew, Mark, and Luke contain parables told by Jesus. Jesus loved to use illustrations to reach the heart of his listeners through their imagination. These word-pictures challenged the mind to discover anew what God is like and moved the heart to make a response to God’s love and truth. Like a skillful artist, Jesus painted evocative pictures with short and simple words. A good picture can speak more loudly and clearly than many words. Jesus used the ordinary everyday to point to another order of reality — hidden, yet visible to those who had “eyes to see” and “ears to hear”. His parables are like buried treasure waiting to be discovered (Matt. 13:44)”
In the two Faith Matters Parable Studies, we work through eight Parables of Jesus (four in each study) to explore the meaning and understand the message these treasure hold for us today.
Parable Study I, 13 pages
$4.95 sku:5689217
Parable Study II, 10 pages
$4.95 sku:5780164