“Life moves pretty fast.  If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”(1)

Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of Lent.  It is a day when many Christians remember we are all equal in the end.  You are dust and to dust you shall return.  The story about Jesus has tumbled through time as if we climbed aboard Bill and Ted’s phone booth time machine(2), and followed Jesus from birth to young adult.  Pause, and think about the speed of the story we journey through each year.

Advent’s waiting, candles, magnificat, and wading into hope, peace, joy, and love led shepherds, and some of us, to a manger.

Some of us journeyed with the Magi from far away places in our lives searching for a person, this child, hoping that the epiphany of his presence could help us change our stars.  And when two paths diverged did you take the one less traveled?

Still, some of us fled with Joseph, Mary, and Jesus.  Fled from bad situations.  Fled from feelings to strong to deal with.  Fled from our mistakes, from our neighbors, or fled from ourselves dropping our compass along the way.  Through this migration Jesus has grown.  During the season of Epiphany we meet him in young adulthood.  The once refugee now welcomes as he has been welcomed in a land occupied and yet still home.  This Jesus of Nazareth emerges from the desert to hand us a compass he picked up on his journey.  He is ready to help disciples recalibrate their moral compass with his teaching and by an example he set.

The parables can be effective tools to recalibrate your compass.  These little teaching stories, the ones that scholars think are authentic to Jesus and those attributed to his unofficial biographers, these teaching stories may be the best way to test out your beliefs and practice the way of Jesus against the backdrop of our historical context.  Arguably, it’s always been that way.  You have heard it was said in ancient times that a little child would lead them, well I say to you that our youth are leading us.

Our Regional Youth Council is blogging for lent this year, and once again will turn their attention to the parables of Jesus.  (See a complete list of the parables below.) I asked them to pick two parables: a favorite and one that challenges them.  The assignment: create a devotion about those parables.  Devotions will be posted on Monday morning of each week in Lent and will continue to the Monday of Holy Week.

Join us on the road with Jesus.

Parables of Jesus

According the the work of the Jesus Seminar, these five parables are probably original to Jesus.(3)

  • Leven [Matt 13.33b, Luke 13:20b-21]
  • Good Samaritan [Luke 10:30-37]
  • Dishonest Steward [Luke 16:1-9]
  • Vineyard Laborers [Matthew 20:1=15]
  • Mustard Seed [Matthew 13:31b-32 / Mark 4:31-32 / Luke 13:19]

And here is a list of all the parables.

  • The Growing Seed: Mark 4:26–29
  • The Two Debtors: Luke 7:41–43
  • The Lamp under a Bushel: Matthew 5:14–15, Mark 4:21–25, Luke 8:16–18
  • Parable of the Good Samaritan, Luke 10:25–37
  • The Friend at Night: Luke 11:5–8
  • The Rich Fool: Luke 12:16–21
  • The Wise and the Foolish Builders: Matthew 7:24–27, Luke 6:46–49
  • New Wine into Old Wineskins: Matthew 9:17–17, Mark 2:21–22, Luke 5:37–39
  • Parable of the Strong Man: Matthew 12:29–29, Mark 3:27–27, Luke 11:21–22
  • Parable of the Sower: Matthew 13:3–9, Mark 4:3–9, Luke 8:5–8
  • The Tares: Matthew 13:24–30
  • The Barren Fig Tree: Luke 13:6–9
  • Parable of the Mustard Seed: Matthew 13:31–32, Mark 4:30–32, Luke 13:18–19
  • Leaven: Matthew 13:33–33, Luke 13:20–21
  • Parable of the Pearl: Matthew 13:45–46
  • Drawing in the Net: Matthew 13:47–50
  • The Hidden Treasure: Matthew 13:44–44
  • Counting the Cost: Luke 14:28–33
  • The Lost Sheep frequently called The Good Shepherd: Matthew 18:10–14, Luke 15:4–6
  • The Unforgiving Servant: Matthew 18:23–35
  • The Lost Coin: Luke 15:8–9
  • Parable of the Prodigal Son: Luke 15:11–32
  • The Unjust Steward: Luke 16:1–13
  • Rich man and Lazarus: Luke 16:19–31
  • The Master and Servant: Luke 17:7–10
  • The Unjust Judge: Luke 18:1–9
  • Pharisees and the Publican: Luke 18:10–14
  • The Workers in the Vineyard: Matthew 20:1–16
  • The Two Sons: Matthew 21:28–32
  • The Wicked Husbandmen: Matthew 21:33–41, Mark 12:1–9, Luke 20:9–16
  • The Great Banquet: Matthew 22:1–14, Luke 14:15–24
  • The Budding Fig Tree: Matthew 24:32–35, Mark 13:28–31, Luke 21:29–33
  • The Faithful Servant: Matthew 24:42–51, Mark 13:34–37, Luke 12:35–48
  • The Ten Virgins: Matthew 25:1–13
  • The Talents or Minas: Matthew 25:14–30, Luke 19:12–27
  • The Sheep and the Goats: Matthew 25:31–46
  • Parable of the Wedding Feast: Luke 14:7–14

—

Notes
1. Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, 1986.

2. Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure, 1989.

3. Funk, Robert, et al. The Parables of Jesus: A Report of the Jesus Seminar. Polebridge Press, 1988.