JOHN SHIRK – In the Year of Exploration, today’s Reason to Believe is the parables taught by Jesus.

Jesus fulfilled many prophecies in the Old Testament. One of them comes from Psalm 78:2, which says, “I will open my mouth in parables.” In the New Testament, the Gospel of Matthew tells us that Jesus fulfilled these words when He spoke in parables.

These parables were stories that Jesus told to describe what God’s kingdom is like. To the average person, these were interesting stories. To the person who had understanding, these parables were more than just interesting stories. They reflected important truths about the nature of God’s Kingdom.

In Matthew 13, Jesus told His disciples why he taught the people in parables. He said to them, “The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. Whoever has will be given more, and he will have an abundance.” The parables were structured in such a way that His followers could understand them, because they accepted His words. But to the hearts that were calloused, they heard, but did not understand. Yet, if their hearts were open to His message, they would understand and turn to God for the healing of their souls.

Each parable taught by Jesus is a reason to believe in God’s good news.

John Shirk

john@wjtl.com