Parables
By Richard P. Joseph
It was a common practice for Jesus to speak in parables to the general public. It is inherent in parables that one must have spiritual ears to fully understand their meanings. In today’s world we not only have to have spiritual ears, we must also have historical ears. Many of Jesus’ parables were vivid eschatological teachings that those that first heard it understood and those that hated Jesus were threatened by them. Modern Christians today, who are far removed from Middle Eastern culture and from their historical setting, usually completely miss the meaning of those parables. Hopefully this article can create a new mind frame to help you understand these parables.
Luke 13:1-9 is a great example to start with. The chapter starts out with a group of people that informed Jesus about some Galileans who were murdered by Pilot and mingled their blood with Roman sacrifices. Then Jesus coupled that with an accidental catastrophe of 18 innocent people who died from a falling tower. So, whether death is caused by murder or by accident, repentance is necessary. However, Jesus adds something else to this, a warning.
Jesus told them that they would also come to the same end unless they reformed their ways. While that certainly has meaning for us today, it definitely had an acute warning to those that he actually told it to. It is almost as if a tragedy was looming that they did not know about. Jesus did not let us hang in confusion because he straightway told the parable of the barren fig tree. Jesus told of a farmer (God) who had been inspecting his vineyard (Israel) for three years (the length of Jesus’ ministry) and had found no fruit (repentance). The vinedressers convinced the owner to leave it for another year (perhaps the millennium) where they would cultivate it and fertilize it and if it still does not bear fruit they will cut it down. This parable is strictly eschatological and imminent to those that were standing there. Jesus was giving the Jews a strict warning that a judgment was coming and if they would not repent and follow Him, they would all likewise perish and that is exactly what happened. Jesus preached for three and a half years then his disciples preached for another forty years (the millennium) and those that did not repent were wiped out during the civil war and the Roman invasion at the Parousia of Christ. Many of the parables tell of this same story. Those parables were directed at the unfaithful harlot, Jerusalem. The judgment was executed between AD 66-70. This is not a future event for us, it was directed to first century Israel, not to us today. The New Jerusalem has no expiration date. While we are not looking for a physical catastrophe necessarily today, we certainly still need to be born again from above and repent just the same. Those that do will not be judged and those that don’t will perish just the same.
