Parables are illustrations or stories that Jesus used to convey deeper spiritual concepts. In the Greek world, parables were well known; the word “parable” even comes from a Greek source. Rabbis for ages used the idea of parables not just for moral storytelling, but they used to use it as broadly as possible. Parables became fictitious narratives that would generally refer to something that might naturally occur by which spiritual and moral matters might be conveyed.

Jesus creates word pictures so we would understand more of God, the world He made, and how to live in it.