Christ's Parables

This week’s blog post is on Jesus’ parables. First a parable is a simple story used to illustrate a moral or spiritual lesson, as told by Jesus in the Gospels. Frank F. Judd in the Ensign said, “the mater teacher’s parables show both the justice and mercy of God at work among those who hear them.” Just like each person interprets the scriptures in a different way, Parables taught by Christ can be interpreted in different ways, however, they are taught with a specific message in mind.

In Luke chapters 16-18, Christ teaches a number of parables to help those listening understand certain principles.

The first parable we read about is about the unjust steward. A rich man had a steward over him, and a Master over the rich man. The Rich Man was not doing well in his businesses and because the steward over this rich man did not want to make his master mad, he forgave some of the debt of the rich man to make it seem that he was doing his good job.

Although the reason for the stewards forgiveness us unjust, Christ commended the steward.

The principle of this parable is to 1. Teach the care with which the saints of God should approach the task of preparing for their eternal future and 2. Teach about how to handle financial affairs here on earth.

To much is given much is required. If we are given money and land to work with, we must take on the responsibility to take care of that land and spend the money wisely. If we live with responsibility here on earth, we will be blessed with responsibility in Heaven.

To learn more about parables like this one visit: www.lds.org or www.mormon.org.