Background of Jesus’ teaching

As we have already learned, the Jews as a nation rejected Jesus’ Messiahship and committed the “unforgivable sin.” In other words, they refused the “kingdom of God” that Jesus offered. From that point, Jesus’ public ministry took a significant turn. He began to focus more on training His disciples with the premise that the time of the Church (the time of the salvation of the Gentiles) is approaching. Jesus shifted His teachings from what was towards the general public to instructing His disciples. He also began incorporating more parables.

The purpose of teaching in parables

A large crowd started to gather around Jesus, but not everyone came with pure motives. Jesus used parables to teach the truth of the kingdom of God to the crowd. (1) Parables both reveal God’s truth and have the nature of concealing it. To those with ears to hear, the truth is clearly communicated, but to those without it, confusion remains. (2) The themes of these parables were often everyday experiences. The four types of soil mentioned in the parable of the sower were the very soils farmers worked on daily during that time. Many of those who have visited the Holy Land might have seen the road, the rocky ground, the soil with thorns, and the good soil, all at the same location. Perhaps, you said to yourself that the Bible is too difficult to understand. The Bible does contain many challenging passages. However, the central message of the Bible can be surprisingly easy to comprehend, if you have the heart to listen. We often hear stories of people understanding the Bible better after becoming Christians. Why does this happen? It’s because their hearts have been opened, and the Holy Spirit guided them to understand. Today, let’s turn to the Bible with an open heart once again.