The Stories Jesus Told: And What They Are Saying To The Church Today

The parables of Jesus have been the favorite subject of theologians and Sunday school teachers alike. There is something about a story that connects with the heart of its hearer in a way that didactic teaching doesn't. They are memorable and relatable. It is easy to take the metaphors and allegories of the parables and adapt them to our own culture and circumstances today. However, in doing this we may miss Jesus' meaning and why he told stories as he did. This book explores the context of eschatological crisis in which Jesus delivered his parables and how a Jewish-Christian audience in particular would relate to this context; the implication being that how the parables are interpreted and applied must be reconsidered. Jesus uses parables to confront Jewish eschatology, including the belief in an imminent restoration of Israel as a nation, and instead declares imminent judgment on Israel for their rejection of him. This would have created a sense of crisis in Jesus' listeners as their long-held beliefs were challenged; specifically regarding questions Jesus raised about who are included and excluded from the Kingdom and how Jesus' coming was connected with the Kingdom and Israel's judgment. Jesus' parables encourage his audience to put their hope not in a kingdom with national borders but in the inaugurated Kingdom of God. The essence of the question Jesus poses to his Jewish contemporaries is the same throughout the parables, "How will you respond? Will you believe me and receive my word or reject me and condemn yourself?" Jesus' audience lived at time where a drastic change was being made in man's relationship to God. A final judgment was soon coming on the old way of relating to God, culminating in the destruction of the temple so that they would never again be able to offer the sacrifices once prescribed by God and so central to their faith. Rather than the kingdom of Israel being returned to its former glory, God was establishing his Kingdom in and through the hearts of those who would receive the redemptive work of his Son. Those of us reading 2,000 years later often underestimate the crisis of this transition and miss how much this tension is felt in the Gospels. A proper understanding of the eschatological crisis of immanent judgment will change the reader's awareness of the upheaval that Jesus' coming Kingdom brought to the Jewish nation and the way his parables are interpreted.

• | Author: Shawna M. Diehl
• | Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
• | Publication Date: Jun 13, 2018
• | Number of Pages: 119 pages
• | Language: English
• | Binding: Paperback
• | ISBN-10: 1516957652
• | ISBN-13: 9781516957651