The Parables of Your Life
“Have you understood all the parables I have told you?” Jesus asked. “Yes,” they
replied. Matthew 13:15
Article by Dr. Les Hollon, Pastor, Trinity Baptist Church
Parable means “something cast alongside.” Alongside his other teaching & actions, Jesus cast images in story form … which is the only way some of life can be understood.
How is our life best understood as a parable? … Jesus’ major message was the Kingdom of Heaven/God. The Kingdom is perfectly established in heaven and is at work on earth wherever and whenever the will of God is applied.
Where is God’s Kingdom for you? … We are soulful as God’s will is released in our life. We have Jesus telling 8 parables about the Kingdom in the book of Matthew, chapter 13. They are:
Soulful Seeding (13:1-9, 18-23)
Soulful Joy (13:44)
Soulful Troubles (13:24-30, 34-43)
Soulful Business (13:45-46)
Soulful Growth (13: 31-32)
Soulful Discernment (13:47-50)
Soulful Stimulation (13:33)
Soulful Knowing (13:51-52)
Which is your parable for this stage in your life?
The listener must pay close attention or the parable’s meaning cannot be grasped. Then as now, when reading the Sower & the Soils parable, we each must think about the personal application in our own life or we will miss Jesus’ promise. Our ears need to be hearing so we can understand and our eyes seeing so we can perceive (13:9, 14-15, 51).
Parables begin, as Joachim Jeremias and others have said, as windows through which to see the larger world more clearly, and then become a mirror by which we see ourselves most accurately.
This is clearly experienced as we are taken in by the Sower & Soils parable. Jesus first told the parable (13:3-9) and then explained the parable’s meaning (13:18-23).
Our souls can be understood as the soil of our lives. Soil well cared for will yield much joy. Soil stressed out and not cared for will produce little sustained joy. The Saviour redeems and renews the soil of our soul. We then are responsible to let Christ “be more and more at home in our hearts as we trust in Him. May our roots go down deep into the soil of God’s marvelous love.” (adapted from NLT, Ephesians 3:17)
God’s best, known as God’s will, is equally sown for each of us. We have four important responsibilities …
1) The importance of understanding – by not allowing life events to harden our lives which then enables the Evil One to walk all over us like a beaten path;
2) The importance of letting our roots grow deeply & broadly - by allowing God’s goodness to be our sustainable source for joy in life;
3) The importance of connecting into God’s wealth for life plan - by trusting God’s presence so we will not be deceived by false wealth which only turns our lives into thorny worries;
4) The importance of good soil - becoming our character from which God will produce sustainable and in certain life seasons-amazing harvests of happiness.
God’s best is at work in our midst. Let’s help enrich the soulful soil of others by not walking on them, not throwing rocks on their joy, and not casting worries on their concerns.
Instead, “through the soil of God’s marvelous love” let’s help soften their lives, lift their burdens, remove the anxious roots of their thorns and produce heavenly harvests from our shared earthly lives.
Pastor Les Hollon
Jesus told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared. “The owner’s servants came to him and said, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?’ ” ‘An enemy did this,’ he replied. “The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’
“ ‘No,’ he answered, ‘because while you are pulling the weeds, you may root up the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.’ ”
The Parables of the Mustard Seed and the Yeast
He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. Though it is the smallest of all your seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and perch in its branches.”
He told them still another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into a large amount of flour until it worked all through the dough.” Jesus spoke all these things to the crowd in parables; he did not say anything to them without using a parable. So was fulfilled what was spoken through the prophet: “I will open my mouth in parables, I will utter things hidden since the creation of the world.”
The Parable of the Weeds Explained
Then he left the crowd and went into the house. His disciples came to him and said, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field.” He answered, “The one who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world, and the good seed stands for the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one, and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels.
“As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.
This article was written by Les Hollon, Pastor of Trinity Baptist Church. For more information about God and your place in His world, contact Dr. Hollon, click over to Trinity Baptist Church.
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