The Stories of Jesus

Day one hundred and nine

It was a rough night last night, my husband got called into work, my youngest son was up with a stomachache, my oldest son woke up with a stomachache, and to top it all off there is a critter under the house that was scratching and making noise until this morning!  This is going to be a long day.  The amazing part about last night is that no one got angry or upset, we all just tried to work together to get through the night, even though we really just wanted to go to sleep.  I am so grateful for the positive attitudes that helped us get through the night!  That is what I prayed about, a family that can pull together and stay positive even when things aren't going so well.  We have come a long way!

The Last Week of Christ's Life

I can remember as a child being read stories that had morals intertwined in them; they made an impact on me.  I still remember them today and I taught them to my own children hoping that the stories, and the morals they taught, would stick with them too.  What makes this type of story effective?

I'm not sure what it is about storytelling that makes such an impact on someone, maybe it's the fact that we can relate to those that are involved in the story and thus it becomes personal.  Whatever the reasons, it is a teaching technique that the Savior loved to use.  He was the master teacher when it came to parables or stories with a lesson.  I love this quote:

"Jesus of Nazareth could have chosen to simply express himself in moral precepts; but like a great poet he chose the form of the parable, wonderful short stories that entertained and clothed the moral precept in an eternal form.  It is not sufficient to catch man's mind, you must also catch the imaginative faculties of his mind." ~Dudley Nichols

And so it makes sense that during the last week of His life He would teach through parables, not only to His followers, but His enemies also.

The Parables and The Lesson

The Two Sons (Matt 21:28-32)  Hypocrisy
The Wicked Husbandmen (Matt 21:33-46) Rejection of Christ
The Wedding of the King's Son (Matt 22:1-4) Peoples Response to the Gospel
The Olivet Discourse (Matt 24:1-51) Destruction of Jerusalem and the temple, destruction of the world at the Second Coming
The Fig Tree Leaves (Matt 24:32-33)  Look for the signs of the Second Coming
The Faithful and the Evil Servant (Matt 24:42-51) Spiritually prepare for the Second Coming
The Ten Virgins (Matt 25:1-13) Prepare for the Second Coming
The Entrusted Talents (Matt 25:14-30) Develop the gifts we receive from God
The Sheep and the Goats (Matt 25:31-46)  Separation of the righteous from the wicked; Be willing to serve one another


I think sometimes the parables are hard to understand, the message is not always clear to us, and so we read through them hoping to learn something and then move on.  It took some research for me to figure out what the parables were teaching those of Christ's time and how they apply to me in this time. But these are the last lessons that Jesus Christ would publicly teach before the crucifixion.  These are the topics that He thought were so important that He taught them the last week of His life. It seemed to me that they deserved more attention than a quick reading with the hopes of some inspiration to help me understand. I found this quote that inspired me to keep digging until I found what I was looking for:

"Every happening, great and small, is a parable whereby God speaks to us, and the art of life is to get the message." ~ Malcolm Muggeridge

Along with the messages that the parables were teaching I also recognized how important teaching was to the Savior.  If you knew that you only had one week to live what would you choose to do?  Would you spend it teaching others? Helping others to understand the Gospel was important to Christ, so important that He used the precious moments of His last week to teach and prepare those around him. What a great show of love this is to me.  I hope that I can be as passionate a teacher as He is!