Parables of Jesus

In our studies of the New Testament, it seems that Jesus really liked using allegories in His teachings.  He called them parables.  Another word for allegory is pictogram and that’s certainly appropriate to how He used them because He used them so that someone could understand a spiritual concept by the use of a familiar and commonplace thing.

He would use such familiar examples as “weeds (tares), pearls, field laborers, fig trees, clothes and even weather signs.”  Plus many others.  But, one of the more beautiful and appropriate familiar examples He used is found in the 10th chapter of the Gospel of John.  The parable of the “Good Shepherd.”  We’ll talk more about this parable in a moment but first, a little more regarding parables in general.

In the parables of Jesus, someone desiring to know the truth can easily see it.  He tells us this in the 13th chapter of Matthew when His disciples asked Him why he spoke to them in parables?  (Matt. 12:10-16)   In essence, Christ paints us a picture with the parable serving as His canvas.  And, repeating myself, one of the most beautiful paintings He ever rendered is that of the relationship of the sheep and their shepherd. So, for the remainder of our time here we’re going to return to the parable of the “Good Shepherd.”

I hope that you noticed the verses that I used as a preamble to our lesson today because these verses immediately came to mind as I watched a video demonstration the other day.  I happened across this little video that so aptly demonstrated the words of Jesus and I felt that it was something that I just had to share with you.  It was shown on a news website that I had never heard of before.  It’s NTDTV.com (New Tang Dynasty TV) and specializes in news for the U.S. and Asia.  I highly recommend it.

Anyway, back to the video: a school teacher (high school aged kids) took his class out to a farm pasture where a flock of sheep were scattered out, grazing on the grass.  The teacher gave the students the words to say to call the sheep and then had three of them go out, one at a time, and call them. 

On each occasion, the student would step out to the edge of the field and call the sheep.  The sheep paid absolutely no attention to the student and just kept on eating.  Basically, they totally ignored the voices of the students.

The teacher then had the shepherd step forward and call the sheep.  As soon as he made the first sound of the call the sheep’s heads raised, their ears popped up and they turned towards the shepherd and came running.  They had totally ignored the voices of the others, but immediately recognized their shepherd’s voice.

Now, I never had any doubt that what Christ said about sheep and shepherds in John 10 wasn’t true.  But, the actual seeing of this truth in action I found very spiritually moving.  It was exactly as Jesus said.  His sheep will not follow a stranger because they don’t recognize his voice.  But, they do know the true Shepherd’s voice and they respond and follow.

It was just as Jesus said: “I am the Good Shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine.”   (John 10:14)

If any of you would like to view the video I mentioned and you have access to the internet, the easiest way to find it is to go to YouTube and open “search” and then type in “ntdtv shepherd’s voice.”

Respectfully submitted,

Ron Covey