Jesus parable # 40 – The Wedding Banquet

Jesus will reject those who refuse his invi­tation into honor and privilege, replacing them with true worship­ers, those restored from sin by his grace. The hypocrites got the message, but Jesus was not finished.  There was one more aspect of their disobedience that needed to be confronted. This is a poor place for a chapter …

Jesus parable # 39 – The Wicked Tenants

  In this weeks’ parable, Jesus continued with his second blow against the credibility of Israel’s leaders. Although they fancied themselves to be big-time leaders and rulers of Israel, he charged, they were actually only custodians of God’s vineyard.  Let us read our parable found in Matthew 21:33-44. 33 “Listen to another parable: There was a …

Jesus parable # 38 – The Two Sons

Early in the Vietnam war, a section of jungle called War Zone D was one tough stretch of enemy-infested ground. It was a “secret” zone about which allied intelligence knew almost nothing, except to stay away. Conventional allied infantry units never went near it. Finally, allied intelligence decided to invade the enemy’s sanctuary. But no …

Jesus parable # 37 – The Parable of the Minas

We are back this week and the parable for this blog message is found in Luke 19:12 – 27, the parable of the Minas.  A minas is a Greek measure of money equal to slightly more than three months salary or one-sixtieth of a talent.  Even though the actual parable begins in verse 12 I …

Jesus parable # 36 – The Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector

This week’s parable is about dedicated kingdom living involving prayer that confesses one’s sin and seeks God for forgiveness, not prayer that praises self, and excludes others.  We can find this week’s parable in Luke 18:1 – 14. 9 To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told …