Dr Paul Allen

Jesus’s parable about servants investing money wisely, more popularly known as the parable of the talents (Matt 25:14), has generated many interpretations. These include: Instruction on using our “talents” (i.e., our innate skills or aptitudes) A moral tale on the value of work Sage advice for financial investment Yet Matthew presents the parable as a kingdom parable (cf. 25:1). He means it to inspire our imagination about God’s realm, not our own. If we listen closely to the parable, we can even glimpse what God is like. But this will mean taking seriously that Jesus is crafting a parable, not drawing a blueprint. The parable of the talents as eschatological discourse Matthew records a series of Jesus’s parables in what has been called the Eschatological Discourse (see Matt 24–25). The parable of the talents is the fourth of five parables that run from 24:43 to 25:46, each increasing in length and complexity. These five parables point ahead to Jesus’s return (παρουσία; see 24:37, 39) ...

Steve Hoffman When it comes to the  Parable of the Lost Son , we encounter something similar. Most folks think this parable is about the son who went away, the one who was lost and then at the end of the parable is found. We think it’s just like the first two parables in this trilogy: the lost sheep is found and brought home, the lost coin is found and brought home, the lost son is found and brought home. And if we stopped there, we still have a really good parable. But when we get to the point where the younger son has returned home and is celebrating, we realize that the parable is not over. It has two punchlines.  The father had two sons. The younger son left and wasted his money on prostitutes and frivolity. The older son stayed home and obeyed his father. But at the end of the parable, who is with the father? And when we come to the end of this parable, which son is the lost son?  Let’s turn our attention to the older son and we will learn that not only is this parab...

Clint Archer The Ascent of Adummim is a road that goes down from Jerusalem to Jericho. Does that route sound familiar? View from the Ascent of Adummim (Good Samaritan) Luke 10:30  Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead.” Anyone hearing the parable of the Good Samaritan from the lips of Jesus would be familiar with this infamous route. It included a stretch of desolation in the Judean wilderness known as the Ascent of Adummim. The 15-mile journey, at a steady pace without breaks, would take 7 hours, but likely longer due to the typical blazing temperatures and gruelling elevation gain of 3,400 ft. What made it so treacherous in those days was the innumerable hiding places robbers could lay their ambush. The setting of the story of the Good Samaritan brings a sense of perilous desperation when we hear of a man who “fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and...

The death of some Galileans during a time of sacrifice (vv. 1–3); the death of some upon whom a tower collapsed (vv. 4–5); and the Parable of the Barren Fig Tree (vv. 6–9).  The incidents reported here, in which reference is made to the murder of some Jews from Galilee and the death of 18 people in Siloam, is unique to Luke.  Neither of the episodes is mentioned in secular histories (though some scholars point to two or three inexact parallels to the incident of the murdered Galileans; see Marshall, p. 553).  Concerning theme, Evans (p. 46) points to a parallel with Deut. 13:12–18, where the emphasis on turning to the Lord in order to live is quite similar to the Lucan passage under consideration (cf. the similar expression, “all who live in that town,” Deut. 13:15, with “all the others living in Jerusalem,” Luke 13:4). 13:1–5 / Some people who presumably have just arrived from Jerusalem told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices....

Christ’s parables were never delivered in a vacuum. They were always provoked by the circumstances, discussions, and debates that surrounded Him. That kind of contextual background information is especially critical concerning the parable of the vineyard (Matthew 20:1–15). While the story itself delivers a profound lesson about the grace of God, we don’t feel the full weight of Christ’s words until we consider their immediate context.  Why did Jesus devise this parable? Our Lord gave this analogy primarily for the benefit of His twelve disciples immediately after His conversation with the rich young ruler. This young man of great wealth and influence had come to Jesus asking, “Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may obtain eternal life?” (Matthew 19:16). He may have been fishing for praise because he clearly thought he had fulfilled every spiritual duty and that his life was well in order. He certainly looked like a promising evangelistic prospect. But rather than simply g...

The good Samaritan is perhaps the most misunderstood parable in the Bible . Dozens of ministries have been started with a desire to emulate the good Samaritan. Hundreds of theologians have tried to pull out hidden truths from this parable and have come up with completely different ideas. Some teach that Jesus desires to expose the Jericho road and that we would live in a day and age where good Samaritans are no longer needed.  Others expose the need to tear down walls between enemies, and others–probably the typical evangelical Christian –see in the good Samaritan a call to love other people and to be involved in social justice. But is that what Jesus is saying in this parable? In short, the point of the good Samaritan is not to go out and try to love someone like the good Samaritan did.  The point of this story is to point out the fact that you cannot save yourself. You simply can’t love perfectly like Jesus can. Jesus is doing personal evange...

What do you do if you get a sudden, unexpected opportunity to teach or preach God’s Word? I often turn to what is for me one of the most precious of Jesus’ parables, the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant—a passage one of my favorite writers on the parables (Klyne Snodgrass) groups with parables of “Grace and Responsibility.” The “grace” is truly an amazing one: the master in the parable forgives a massive, unpayable debt—ten-thousand talents. The “responsibility” is a serious one: Jesus ends the parable with the promise that the dire consequences visited on the unforgiving servant will be visited on us all by God “if you do not forgive your brother from your heart” ( Matt. 18:35 ). I think readers may not feel the weight of the grace (or the responsibility) because we subconsciously substitute “dollars” for “talents” while reading Matthew 18. Ten-thousand dollars is not really that big a debt for most of my readers. It’s certainly not an unpayable one for middle-class people in tod...

English: "Satan Sowing Seeds" by Felicien Rops, pencil, around 1872 320px wide (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Matthew 13:36–43 “Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear” (v. 43). This passage contains Jesus ’ interpretation of the parable of the wheat and the tares (Matt. 13:36–43), which presents problems for the twenty-first century person. Simply put, it is difficult to discern whether or not this parable teaches that unbelievers will exist alongside believers in the visible covenant community until the return of Christ . Many godly scholars teach that the parable in question is concerned mainly with the church and the authenticity of the faith of its professing members. Scripture, of course, teaches that we will often be unable to distinguish those who profess faith falsely from the true believers in the institutional church until Judgment Day. Yet this point is probably not th...

English: Good shepherd (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.” So he told them this parable : “What man of you, having a hundred sheep , if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’ Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance. (Luke 15:1-7 ESV ) One of the challenges I face when it comes to maturing as a disciple of Jesus is working through passages familiar to my head (knowledge) but unengaged in my heart (life change)....