Jesus was a master communicator, and one of his favorite tools of the trade was the parable. Approximately one-third of Jesus’s teaching can be found in parables. Even people who are unfamiliar with the Bible have usually heard of the parable of the prodigal son or the parable of the good Samaritan. A parable (the term means “to throw alongside”) is a short story with two levels of meaning in which certain details in the story represent something else. In the parable of the prodigal son, for example, the father represents God. In the story of the good Samaritan the priest and the Levite represent religious leaders who use their religious status as an excuse not to love others. Sometimes it is difficult to know how many details in these stories should stand for other things.
Jesus’s parables typically make more than one point but should not be understood in a wildly allegorical fashion. A good rule of thumb is that there is one main point for each main character or set of characters.1 All the other details are meant to enhance the story. The parable of the prodigal son in Luke 15:11–32 makes the following main points:
Below Jesus’s parables are divided up into one-point, two-point, and three-point parables.
One-Point Parables
Three-Point Parables
Through his parables, Jesus explains the true nature of the kingdom of God. Often, he begins a story with the words, “The kingdom of God is like . . .” (e.g., Matt. 13:44–45, 47; Mark 4:26; Luke 13:18). The kingdom of God is the central theme of Jesus’s parables. Through these powerful stories we learn about who God is, what it means to live as a member of his kingdom community, and what happens if you choose to reject the King.
Jesus’s parables provide some of the most fascinating and engaging reading in the entire Bible. He uses the stuff of ordinary life—family relationships, business practices, weddings, feasts, agriculture, politics—to teach us about God and his kingdom and how life should work in that kingdom. These stories are not incidental to the real teachings of Jesus. In many ways, the parables represent the very core of his teachings. As Jesus himself said, whoever has ears to hear had better listen.
1. For this interpretive guideline, see the landmark work on Jesus’s parables by Craig L. Blomberg, Interpreting the Parables (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 1990).