If there’s any part of the Bible, besides Psalms, that people love to read, it’s the Gospels. We love to read the words Jesus spoke, the miracles that He performed and the other acts that He did. Most people know at least some of those stories by heart, even if they hardly ever read the Bible. Who doesn’t know about Jesus being born of a virgin and laid to rest in a manger; or how about His famous Parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32)? People whose shadow has never darkened the doorway of a church or who have never held a Bible in their hands know these stories, as well as many others.
Jesus was by no means the only one to ever use parables in His teachings. Not only do we see many preachers today using stories as examples in their preaching, often stories from their own lives; but we also see the prophets of Old Testament times using them. Hosea, Nathan (the prophet in King David’s court), Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, Zacharia, and especially Ezekiel all used prophets as a means of getting a message across.
That didn’t stop when the Old Testament did though. During the time of Jesus, Jewish Rabbis commonly used parables as a teaching too. In that sense, Jesus was being one more Rabbi, using the methods of the day to teach his students. The big difference was that many of His teachings, including His parables, were recorded for us in the Gospels, where they have taught people for over 2,000 years.
There are 1,927 total verses in the Gospels which record the words of Jesus. In those Gospels, Jesus taught a total of 43 parables, some of which are recorded in more than one Gospel. The two books which contain the most of His parables are Matthew, where 26 percent of what Jesus said was in parables and Luke, where a whopping 32 percent of Jesus’ spoken words were part of a parable.
What Makes it a Parable?
It can be easy to mistake any story for being a parable, but not all stories are. Many of the stories that pastors use in their messages aren’t so much parables, as mere illustrations. Not even all the stories in the Gospels that talk about what Jesus did are parables. To be a parable, the story must illustrate one or more principles or provide one or more instructive lessons. Some parables, especially the parables of Jesus, can be seen to have multiple lessons, especially when applied in different subject areas; but all they need is that minimum of one lesson to qualify as a parable.
Parables aren’t limited to the Bible or even to biblical teaching. Some would call Aesop’s Fables parables, while others say they are not. Technically, the difference between fables and parables is that fables use non-human characters, such as animals, while parables use human ones. But there are parables in the Old Testament which use non-humans as the characters, but are still considered to be parables. Based on that standard, Aesop’s Fables are parables.
Jesus, like many other teachers, throughout history, used a variety of methods to teach His students, which include us today. Parables were merely one of many tools in His toolbox, one which He used very successfully.
So, Why Did Jesus Use Parables?
If you ask most pastors or bible teachers why Jesus used parables, they’ll tell you it was so that He could make His teaching more understandable to the masses (which includes us today). I hate to burst these people’s collective bubbles; but they are wrong. Jesus Himself told His disciples His reason for teaching with parables and it was the exact opposite.
And the disciples came, and said to Him, “Why do You speak to them in parables?” 11 He answered and said to them, “Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. 12 For whoever has, to him more will be given, and he will have abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him. 13 Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. – Matthew 13:10-13
Here we see something that is actually quite surprising. Rather than using parables as a means to make His teachings more widely understood, it appears that Jesus used them to hide the true meaning of what He was saying. He had no problem with His disciples understanding what He was teaching, as it “has been given to you to know…” But when it comes to everyone else, Jesus said, “to them it has not been given.” Why this difference?
This is not Jesus saying that some can be saved and others not, as some might suppose. Rather, Jesus selected them to understand the things He was teaching through the parables because of their commitment to Him. But that didn’t apply to the crowd, because they were not committed. They were only there to receive something from Him, whether that be healing or food.
When the people therefore saw that Jesus was not there, nor His disciples, they also got into boats and came to Capernaum, seeking Jesus. 25 And when they found Him on the other side of the sea, they said to Him, “Rabbi, when did You come here?” 26 Jesus answered them and said, “Most assuredly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled. 27 Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal on Him.” – John 6:24-27
Jesus did not come to earth to put on a show, but to make disciples, before dying on the cross for our sins. He was not interested in wasting His time putting on that show, regardless of how big a crowd “bought tickets” to see Him. He had His group of disciples and His work was pouring His life into them.
Should there be others who were willing to pay the price to become part of that group, I believe He would have allowed it. There were many people who He took the time to talk to, giving them specific answers to their needs. Nevertheless, that’s not the same as putting on a show. Those were people who came to Him, seeking a resolution to their need, whether that be healing or knowledge. That’s not the same as people who are sitting in the crowd, saying, “show us another miracle.”
Jesus had His three closest disciples, Peter, James and John. After that, there were the others who were part of His inner group of 12 disciples, who later became the first 12 apostles of the church. At one point in time, Jesus sent out 72 “other disciples” to go before Him to all the cities that He intended to visit. The 12 weren’t included in this group and they weren’t as close to Him as the 12 were; but even so, they were close enough to Him and followed His teaching closely enough, that He sent them out, preparing hearts to receive the message He Himself would bring (Luke 10:1).
There was a song that Neil Diamond recorded in 1969, entitled “Brother Love’s Traveling Salvation Show.” It told the story of an old-time evangelist, who came to town, back in the days of tent crusades. As the song says, back in that time everyone would come out to hear the evangelist, not because they particularly believed; but for the show. They wanted to be entertained and an evangelist coming to town qualified as entertainment. As it was said, “even the town atheist came out to see.”
There was no point in sharing the truth of the mysteries of the kingdom of God with those who were not invested in that kingdom. While that may seem grossly unfair on God’s part, the truth is that history has been filled with people who have tried to use such knowledge for personal profit, rather than to serve God.
The Mashal and Nimshal of the Parables
In all this, we see the Jewish tradition of rabbinical teaching. The word “rabbi” literally means “teacher” and those who were rabbis were focused on teaching the people. Jesus was called a “rabbi” by some, and it was right to do so, even though He was a totally different sort of rabbi than they had ever experienced before or would experience afterwards.
Still, he did have much in common with those rabbis, especially the teaching methods He employed. One such method was the mashal and nimshal (two words in Hebrew). The mashal was the parable itself, created to intrigue the hearer, contain the lesson to be taught, but at the same time to conceal that lesson, so that only those who should receive the understanding, could receive it. They might be ones who could discern it on their own; but it would be more likely that the rabbi would reveal that to those who were his disciples.
The nimshal was the explanation of the mashal. This could be anything from a simple phrase, which provided the key to understanding the meaning of the parable to a lengthy, detailed explanation. In either case, the disciple needed to hear the nimshal to receive the fullness of the lesson. One of the best examples of a mashal and nimshal in the Bible wasn’t actually one of Jesus’ parables; but rather one given by the prophet Nathan to King David.
Then the Lord sent Nathan to David. And he came to him, and said to him: “There were two men in one city, one rich and the other poor. 2 The rich man had exceedingly many flocks and herds. 3 But the poor man had nothing, except one little ewe lamb which he had bought and nourished; and it grew up together with him and with his children. It ate of his own food and drank from his own cup and lay in his bosom; and it was like a daughter to him. 4 And a traveler came to the rich man, who refused to take from his own flock and from his own herd to prepare one for the wayfaring man who had come to him; but he took the poor man’s lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him.” – 2 Samuel 12:1-4
Jewish rabbis were adept at crafting these lessons, just as preachers of today can put together a sermon that provides a valuable lesson to those in their congregations. In this case, the prophet knew his audience well and crafted his mashal to gain the greatest possible reaction out of the king. David was angered and declared “As the Lord lives, the man who has done this shall surely die! 6 And he shall restore fourfold for the lamb, because he did this thing and because he had no pity” (2 Samuel 12:5-6). Then Nathan lowered the boom, telling him, “You are the man!” (2 Samuel 12:7).
David had slept with another man’s wife, Bathsheba. Not only that, but Bathsheba was the wife of Uriah the Hittite, a friend, listed in 2 Samuel, chapter 23 as one of David’s “30 mighty men.”
In this case, the mashal didn’t have any obvious connection to the situation at hand, without the nimshal. But once the nimshal was applied, it cut David to the heart, causing him to cry out in repentance before the Lord. It may have been a parable crafted for an audience of one, but it accomplished it’s intended task.
It is unknown whether most rabbis created these stories in the moment, but it appears from the way that the Gospel accounts were written, that Jesus did. We don’t really see Jesus providing the nimshal to his mashals very often; however, we do in the Parable of the Sower, which some people refer to as the parable of the soils, as that’s what it really talks about.
Then He spoke many things to them in parables, saying: “Behold, a sower went out to sow. 4 And as he sowed, some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds came and devoured them. 5 Some fell on stony places, where they did not have much earth; and they immediately sprang up because they had no depth of earth. 6 But when the sun was up they were scorched, and because they had no root they withered away. 7 And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up and choked them. 8 But others fell on good ground and yielded a crop: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. – Matthew 13:3-8
There are several interesting things about the way that Jesus taught this particular parable. First, He followed it by saying, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear!” (Matthew 13:9). Jesus knew that not everyone would grasp what He was talking about; but He wanted those who were seeking the truth to understand. Those “with ears,” would be those who were truly seeking knowledge in the ways of God, not those who were just there for the show.
The next interesting thing is that He used an agricultural reference in the parable, as He did with many of His parables. Jesus was preaching to a predominantly agricultural society, in which most of the people made their living by farming, in one way or another. Even those who didn’t farm, such as merchants and craftsmen, would still be knowledgeable about farming, because it was the major industry of their time and place.
Next, we see that this is where Jesus told His disciples why He taught in parables, hiding the meaning from those who weren’t true seekers of God, while at the same time offering the truth to His own disciples.
Finally, He goes on to explain the meaning of the parable to His own disciples, without them asking Him for that meaning. Verses 18 to 23 of the same chapter provides that explanation and the explanation is clear enough as to not be mistaken.
This raises the question of why we don’t see more of these nimshals recorded in the gospels. There are only two possible explanations for that. First, Jesus did provide the nimshal to His disciples, but they didn’t record it, because it was only for those who would be diligent to seek the answer. Secondly, Jesus didn’t provide the nimshal, because His disciples understood the mishal without it. In that case, we should be able to understand it too.
Interestingly enough, most of Jesus’ parables have a very clear, obvious meaning that one can discern without much effort. But that doesn’t mean that they can gain the full meaning of the parable from that obvious interpretation. Rather, finding the full depth of understanding of those parables requires time in meditation and study.
A number of years ago, I did an in-depth study of Jesus’ parables, spending about six months on it. Through that study I not only discovered the obvious application of His parables, but also a number of more hidden meanings and applications, which only came through taking the time to seek out every detail about what Jesus was saying and how it could apply to many different situations. This understanding comes mostly from meditation on the parables, analyzing how a particular parable might apply to a particular situation or subject matter. If there is one thing we know about the Bible, it is that while the message of salvation is simple, the depths of understanding we can obtain from a study of the scriptures is unfathomable. Those who take the time to seek out the nimshal for themselves, are those who will gain the greater riches from the scriptures.