Hank Smith: 00:04 Hello, welcome to another followHIM Favorites. My name is Hank Smith. I’m here with the incredible John Bytheway. Hello, John Bytheway.

John Bytheway: 00:11 Hi, how are you? I’m feeling incredible.

Hank Smith: 00:14 You are incredible. You know the drill on followHIM Favorites. We’re going to take just a single question from this week’s lesson to analyze. The question this week, John, is, what’s up with Jesus and parables? Why does Jesus like parables so much? It depends on how you define a parable, but I think there’s around a total of about 55 parables in the four gospels. So, Jesus is always talking in parables. He’s always telling stories. Why do you think he did that?

John Bytheway: 00:40 See, one of the best answers for that is given by Jesus himself in Matthew 13. Right after he tells the parable of the sower, the disciples say, “Why are you speaking in parables?”

Hank Smith: 00:50 Yeah, “What are you doing?”

John Bytheway: 00:51 He explains the calling of Isaiah of all things, that some will see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their heart, be converted and be healed. And then he says, after he kind of explains, the Bible Dictionary, I think, says both to reveal and to conceal. But those who come up afterwards and say, “Why are you doing this?” He says, “And hear now the parable of the sower,” and he gives them more. So, I think the key is read it, think about it, ponder about it, and you’ll get even more. I suppose that some heard the first parable and went, “Huh,” and walked away. But those who actually thought about it got more. And I love them because they’re fun, they’re visual, they’re stories. You can picture it in your mind and understand it more than just statements or principles or doctrines. And so, I love the parables. But what do you think, Hank? Why would he do that?

Hank Smith: 01:43 This, to me, is something that is miraculous. These stories that Jesus told 2000 years ago, we still talk about them and get so much out of them. The parable of the prodigal son, the parable of the laborers in the vineyard, the parable of the Good Samaritan, Lazarus and the rich man, the king’s feast. All of these stories that aren’t that long. They’re not page-turners. You’re not like, “Ooh, what happens next? Where does he plant the seeds next?” These stories have lasted through millennia, and they’re going to keep going. So, in the Bible dictionary, it says, “The parable reveals to the hearer gospel truths exactly in proportion to their faith and intelligence.” So, you hear a parable or read a parable, you get nothing out of it.

John Bytheway: 02:27 What does that say about you?

Hank Smith: 02:28 Yeah, what does that mean? Yeah. So, we dive into these parables and we start to look at the details. The fun of the parables, I think, is in the details. If you just read the story and say, “Oh, okay, a guy planted some seeds. Some of them grew and some of them didn’t,” that’s not the parable. Go in the details. Look at the specific soils, what he says about them, and try to analyze, “What is that? What does he mean?”

John Bytheway: 02:50 And how do I grow roots so that I can have fruit one day?

Hank Smith: 02:55 Yeah. I want to be the good ground. There’s four different types of ground. I want to be to be the good ground. How can I be the good ground? And really, after the parable of the sower, you can really analyze your own heart and make some changes in your life and in your personal worship that really can have influence for the rest of your life.

John Bytheway: 03:11 In fact, the detail’s there. He even tells us what the weeds are. The cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and in Mark, the lust of other things. So, we can actually go, “Ooh, do I have any of those weeds?”

Hank Smith: 03:23 “How do I weed my life?” Most people have had the trial of trying to grow something with rocks all the way around and pulling out those rocks, and how hard that is, and sometimes the rock is huge and you just got to dig it out and take it out. And how long that takes and how difficult it is can play into how you feel about this story. You can say, “I know I’ve taken rocks out of the ground. That’s hard to do. That’s really hard to do. How am I going to get these things out of my own life? How am I going to get these sins or addictions or problems or ideologies, how am I going to get them out of my heart so I can grow deep roots?”

John Bytheway: 03:55 So, I think what you’re saying there is just what Jesus said, “Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.” So those who really want to hear something and are willing to think about it and look at the details, like you said, ponder it, even pray about it, they’re going to get more out of it. And so, I love that he spoke in parables. They’re some of my favorite stories.

Hank Smith: 04:12 Me too. I could spend all day just reading through the parables and talking about them with friends like you, John, and saying, “What are you seeing here? What does he mean?” And it’s amazing to me that I’ve read them dozens of times and still people will show me things I’ve never thought of.

John Bytheway: 04:26 Yeah, me too.

Hank Smith: 04:27 Absolutely wonderful. So, love the parables. Learn to love the parables, and you’re going to get to know the Lord, and the parables of Jesus can really change your life. We hope you’ll join us on our full podcast. We’re talking about the parables this week with Dr. Daniel Becerra. Come over. It’s called followHIM. You can get it wherever you get your podcasts. And then come back here next week, we’ll do another followHIM Favorites.