Parables, by their very nature, are not easy to understand… at least, not at first.
A parable is a unique type of story designed to promote observation, meditation, and action. A parable that does not invite this sort of deep thinking and eventual active response to the meaning contained within the story is not a parable after all.
I was listening to a podcast on Jesus’s parables and, as the host introduced the episode by giving a quick rundown of what was going to be discussed—as all good hosts do—he said something that caught my ear. While setting up the importance of Jesus’s parables he referenced a place in Mark’s gospel where the evangelist writes about Jesus’s teaching style and this host said, “It even says specifically that when Jesus taught the masses…he taught exclusively in parables.”
If the beginning of the end wasn’t when Jesus rode into Jerusalem as a king, it most assuredly was when Judas brought a crowd to arrest him. From that point forward Jesus would no longer walk freely throughout the land with his disciples. From here on out he’d be bound, either by chains or by nails to a cross.
Mark 13 — Jesus foretells the destruction of the temple. Peter, James, John, and Andrew ask Jesus when the things Jesus talked about will be accomplished and Jesus tells them to hold to the truth and be on their guard. He talks to his disciples about the abomination of desolation, the coming of the Son of Man, and what lesson comes from the fig tree. Jesus tells them that no one knows the day or hour.
Mark 14 — The chief priests and the scribes are seeking to arrest Jesus and kill him. A woman with an alabaster flask of ointment of pure nard finds Jesus at the house of Simon the leper and anoints him for burial. Judas goes to the chief priest to betray Jesus. On the first day of Unleavened Bread Jesus eats the Passover with his disciples and tells them that one of them will betray him.
Mark 10 — Jesus leaves and goes to Judea. There the Pharisees about divorce confront him. Some bring to children to Jesus so he could touch them. As Jesus journeys on a rich young man comes up to him and asks him about inheriting eternal life. Jesus and his disciples go up to Jerusalem and he tells them for the third time that he’s going to be killed and rise from the dead. James and John ask Jesus to sit at his right and left in his glory. He and his disciples go to Jericho and he heals a blind man there.
Mark 11 — Jesus and his disciples go to Jerusalem and there Jesus is welcomed by many as he rides into town on a colt. The next day Jesus curses a fig tree. In Jerusalem Jesus drives out those who are perverting the temple.
