Understanding the Parables

Denea (00:01) Hello, hello, it's Denea, your host of the Faith Filled Mom podcast. I hope today, wherever you are, that you just take a deep breath. I had a kickboxing instructor who always used to say, as you were going about what you are doing, don't forget to breathe. And that stuck with me. That has been, that was like back in Tennessee. So it's been a little minute since I've heard that.

But just that, as you are going about whatever you're doing, as you are going about your day, as you are going about laundry, as you are going about working, as you are going about doing pickup and drop off and all of the many things that you do, don't forget to breathe. Deep inhale, slow exhale. Our bodies need that, our spirits need that.

And I think it's good for our mental health too. Don't forget to breathe. Today's episode is going to be about the parables, understanding the parables. We're going to be going through five steps that can help us understand, get some understanding in what they mean. I'm going to pray a sin real quick. Father, thank You for Your word. Thank you that it is alive and active and relevant today, yesterday, and it will be tomorrow. Thank you that Your word will never pass. It is a sure foundation that we can read. It is a sure foundation that we can go back to when we need to be reminded of who we are. It leads us and it helps us understand who you are. We have a desire, God, to understand You and Jesus, and we want to understand Your Word. Holy Spirit, we invite You into this Bible studying session. Point us back to who God and Jesus are and help us with understanding with the text to saying, we love you God in Jesus' name, amen.

Okay, so I believe that it is because I am autistic that I tend to be, I'm very literal. Maybe you are not on the spectrum. Maybe you're just like, you know, I'm, have always just been like a straight talker, like very good to the point. I went in understanding people. You're like, yes, I tend to be a very literal person. Maybe you are on the spectrum and you can relate. Maybe you're a neurodivergent and you can relate. Regardless, I think these five steps can help us all in understanding the parables and really figurative language in the Bible in general.

Understanding the Parables

Now for today, we are going to be talking about specifically, we're going to use an example from the gospel. So it's going to be Jesus using this parable. The first question of the first, I guess the first step is asking ourselves, who is Jesus talking to? Now this is important because Jesus tailored his parables according to his audience. He made them relevant to according to who he was talking to right? He wanted them to understand the parable therefore he  made it make sense to them. He used things that were relevant to them and from their world and I think that is such an amazing. I mean, I think I know that Jesus is Messiah and I know that he's God. But I just wonder, you know, like what it would have been like just to see him like teach and talk. You know, he was such a great communicator that way. And I think that's one of the reasons why understanding who his audience is, because it gives us insight. It can help us lead or go to the meaning of the actual parable.

The First Step in Understanding the Parables

And that first step, I think, is understanding who he's talking to, because the parable is relevant to that person. It's going to be from their world. It was a way for Jesus to connect with his audience.

The Second Step in Understanding the Parables

Second step, we're going to reflect on who or what is being used to make a point in the text. So and don't try to like come to any conclusions or like any connections here. We're just going to observe and we're just going to look. You can write it down if you'd like. So who is he talking to? And then who or what is he making a point within the text in the parable? Is he talking about the particle sun? Is he talking about sheep and a shepherd? Is he talking about oil and lamps? Is he talking about a wedding and a guest? Like what exactly is being used here? just reflecting.

The Third Step in Understanding the Parables

The third step is to get any historical or cultural context, facts about the audience, the main characters or objects. So basically, we're just doing deep dives on the people that we observe in steps one and two. And we talked about on a previous episode, I think it was the one before this actually, about ways, number one, why historical and cultural context is so important and what are some ways that you and I can get them.

It's the episode right before this. Some of the answers were getting that historical survey. You can also use like a Bible dictionary. You can Google, but remember if we Google, we're going to do what we can to make sure that we're looking at a reputable website. What are some ways to see if the website is re