Christology: Parables and Gospels - Essay Example

The reason why Jesus would use parables to tell his ideas is that parables are easily understood and remembered (John). Parables can also easily be transformed into different situations, cultures, and modern societies. They offer a real-life experience version and psychological and spiritual accuracy.

          Jesus never just handed out the truth on a silver platter. He wanted the people to really think about their meaning and the impacts. Jesus’ parables, on the one hand, referred to everyday life situations, such as the ‘Parable of the Sower’ (Mark 4:1-20), the ‘Parable of the Good Samaritan’ (Luke 10:30-37) or the ‘Parable of the Pearl’ (Matthew 13:44-46). These parables deal, on the other hand, with much heavier messages about religious themes such as the Kingdom of God and the importance of praying (John).

Gospels and the Life of Jesus

According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, a Gospel is a “message concerning Christ” or “one of the first four New Testament books”. According to history, the Gospels were written at least 30 years after Jesus’ death. Can these Gospels be accurate accounts? Many believers agree with this and blindly follow the words of the writers, but since scholars started to research the Gospels, they discovered that Jesus in the Gospels is quite different than Jesus in the historic accounts (Albl 276).

          Five of the main points of dispute are mentioned in Albl (281-282). The first point is that the Gospel of John differs from the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. The second is that the first Gospel was written approximately 30 years after Jesus’ death, which means that it is not an eyewitness account. The third is that Jesus spoke Aramaic and the Gospels are written in Greek. The high ‘supernatural’ incidents that raise questions of reliability are number four and number five where the Gospels were written to encourage faith.

          Supporting the last point given by Albl (282), that the Gospels were written with the explicit purpose to encourage faith, is the rumor that the Christian church burned and rewrote many texts from the era before and after Jesus. The last decision of which books and texts were allowed in the Catholic Bible, was made on the Council of Trent (1545-1563) 1515 years after Jesus (Council of Trent, 17-21).

Conclusion
We might never find answers to all the questions we have, but as long as people need these texts and stories to practice their religion, get by during hard times, or even know how to live a good life, the purpose of both parables and the Gospels are still valid. The religious need is apparently something completely different than historic fact, and it just might have to stay this way.