The Woman Who Annointed Jesus Feet Series

Jesus used 46 parables in the gospels and they make up approximately 35 percent of what He had to say. There are only one or two parables in the Old Testament but they’re used frequently in the books of Matthew, Mark and Luke but listen, they are entirely absent in both the Gospel of John and in the rest of the New Testament.

Parables are a unique kind of story that are given to help us understand something that’s unknown by using something that is known. And many of these parables have a double meaning. First, there is the literal meaning, which can be obvious to everyone but then second, there is the truth that its teaching and this truth is only apparent to the believer. So, some will understand it while others will simply be entertained.

I heard about a small, country church where the pastor called a special meeting of the congregation to approve the purchase of a brand new chandelier. After some discussion pro and con, one member stood up and said, "Buying a new chandelier may seem like a good idea to some of you, but I’m against it for three reasons. First of all, it’s too expensive and we can’t afford it. Second, there isn’t anybody around here who knows how to play one. And third, what this church really needs is a new light fixture."

So, Jesus used parables to not only to amplify and illustrate what He had to say but He also used them to get those who were listening to think. And for some these parables were obvious while for others the meaning went completely over their heads. Some got it while others simply enjoyed the story but missed the point altogether.

It’s amazing to hear non-Christians discussing the things we see so clearly in the Bible because even though many of them are very intelligent in other areas of life; as soon as they turn to the scripture they start babbling like idiots by arguing over Old Testament law or some miniscule portion of scripture that doesn’t make sense to them while completely ignoring the issue of salvation.

And when they’re confronted with the gospel they start to list the failures of the institutional church or they’ll give you a list of all the Christians they’ve known who in their estimation were nothing more than hypocrites. And when they find out you’re a Baptist they’ll talk about all the things they heard that we don’t do. They’ll talk about almost anything but the gospel itself. They don’t want to talk about the holiness of God, the sinfulness of man or God’s provision of salvation. They want to talk about what they don’t like about Christians but they don’t want to talk about Jesus.

And when we tell them how much God loves them they’ll accuse God of being unfair and it won’t be because of His righteous judgment but because they say there’s so many people living in the far-flung corners of the world who’ve never heard the gospel. So, they hear but they don’t understand.

When I run into people like that I like to tell them about my experience in the food business and how I knew some of the major food suppliers of institutional food in Ontario and one of them was a drunk, another was immoral and a third was a crook. And then I ask if knowing about these men will stop them from eating?