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The Parables of Jesus Introduction
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This book was written during my sabbatical from ministry in 2005. It has taken two years to get published because after living and breathing the parables for 3 months I found needed a sabbatical from them! Returning to the book in the summer of 2006 I decided to re-write much of the original, so much so that the final draft hardly resemblances the first.
This book does not present a definitive list of Jesus’ parables, in actual fact scholars throughout history have not agreed on such a list. Neither does it pretend to be an in depth exhaustive study on them for many great scholars have honoured the parables in that regard and I am sure many will do so in the future. Many would assert that nothing more can be added to what has already been written about the parables by such theological giants as A. Jülicher, J. Jeremias and C.H Dodd but the nature of Holy Scripture is such that it doesn’t matter how much or how often you study, reflect and pray over it there is always more to be discovered.
Committing your work to print means that very soon you will see things that you have missed and wished you had included but sometimes only time and experience allow you to see those things. When it comes to a full exposition of the parables our reach often exceeds our grasp for just when you think they are nailed down and nothing more needs to be said something new and wonderful emerges. As a minister of the Gospel I know that Holy Scripture lives and breathes in the power of the Holy Spirit but I didn’t fully appreciate what that really meant until now.
The parables are clearly rooted in history and yet they still speak to us with a message as relevant today as when they were first spoken. These stories of farmers, shepherds, rich pearl merchants and beggars are so simple and at the same time very profound because they open up windows for us on the Kingdom of God and help us to glimpse something of the eternal which we know instinctively is our destiny.
Thanks to my family for their love, support and encouragement and to members and friends of Mumbles & Wesley Methodist Churches in the Swansea and Gower Circuit. We were led on a journey of faith with the Parable of the Talents and great things happened. Little became much for God’s purposes giving the churches a reason for being instead of having been.
Howard Long 2007
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