{"id":9601,"date":"2013-11-07T21:06:27","date_gmt":"2013-11-07T21:06:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/iamsignificant.ca\/?p=9601"},"modified":"2020-06-11T15:44:54","modified_gmt":"2020-06-11T15:44:54","slug":"jesus-a-parable-of-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iamsignificant.ca\/home\/soul-significance\/jesus-a-parable-of-god\/","title":{"rendered":"Jesus. A Parable of God"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;\">They say a \u00a0picture is worth a thousand words. \u00a0A story can hold so much more than dry\u00a0propositions or facts\u00a0and one of the reasons Jesus was such an effective\u00a0communicator\u00a0was because He employed stories. \u00a0In these stories, Jesus could communicate big ideas in a way that they could be more accessible. \u00a0These stories have come to be called parables. \u00a0 Parables are different than fables because they tend to use human beings as characters where fables often use animals, plants, trees, or other non-human things as characters. \u00a0<span style=\"line-height: 1.6em;\">Another interesting aspect of parables is they by nature, tend to be about one central, specific idea. \u00a0While other forms of the story leave the reader to draw their own conclusion and may contain many messages, parables by nature are single-minded. This is often a good thing to keep in mind when we read Jesus&#8217; parable. \u00a0The danger is to read too much into the details and miss the point, and often, one runs the risk of inferring qualities and character of God which were not intended.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/78582790\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/vimeo.com\/78582790\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Jesus: The Parable of God<\/a> from <a href=\"http:\/\/vimeo.com\/user10372517\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Michael Rose<\/a> on <a href=\"https:\/\/vimeo.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Vimeo<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-size: 13px;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;\">Parable can be a powerful way to communicate dense truth and can help us to grasp the heart of it in a deeper way. \u00a0With story, we paint a picture using things that many of us can relate to and understand &#8211; like the spoon full of sugar that helps the medicine go down, it makes these truths accessible to so many. \u00a0Sometimes though, for those who may tend to over-think things, parables can often be a little elusive. \u00a0It is for this reason parables are great at freeing us from some of our self-righteousness and can level the playing field. \u00a0 These stories help us move from an often two-dimensional, flat, and linear way of thinking to a three-dimensional experience. \u00a0These big picture stories can help free us from our little stories, they enlarge us!<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-size: 13px;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;\">While Jesus used parable masterfully, I reflect on the person of Jesus, his life, his death and Resurrection &#8211; and his promised coming again.\u00a0I can see that Jesus as a person, the God-man is very much a parable of God Himself. \u00a0The way that Jesus lived; the things He said and did. \u00a0How He embodied the Good News of a loving God who was and still is actively engaged in reconciling Himself to His good creation. \u00a0To rescue it from sin and death. \u00a0 To demonstrate this heart of love in such a profound way as to hold nothing back &#8211; not even the life of the King of Kings.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-size: 13px;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;\">Jesus was asked by Philip in John 14 &#8220;Jesus, show us the Father!&#8221; and Jesus replied:<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"font-size: 13px;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u201cYou\u2019ve been with me all this time, Philip, and you still don\u2019t understand? To see me is to see the Father. So how can you ask, \u2018Where is the Father?\u2019 Don\u2019t you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I speak to you aren\u2019t mere words. I don\u2019t just make them up on my own. The Father who resides in me crafts each word into a divine act. (Message)<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"font-size: 13px;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;\">To see Jesus is to see the Father! \u00a0The <strong>BEST<\/strong> picture in all of scripture of what God is like; His heart, His character, His desire, His passion, His mercy, His kindness, His justice is in Jesus. \u00a0Jesus is a perfect parable of God with the one clear message &#8220;God is Love&#8221; (1 John 4:8)<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"They say a \u00a0picture is worth a thousand words. \u00a0A story can hold so much more than dry\u00a0propositions or facts\u00a0and one of the reasons Jesus was such an effective\u00a0communicator\u00a0was because He employed stories. \u00a0In these stories, Jesus could communicate big ideas in a way that they could be more accessible. \u00a0These stories have come to&#8230;","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":9605,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34,38],"tags":[87,111,152,172,207,221],"class_list":["post-9601","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-soul-significance","category-video-2","tag-casting-vision","tag-compassion","tag-discipleship","tag-experiencing-god","tag-giving-generosity","tag-grace"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iamsignificant.ca\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9601","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iamsignificant.ca\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iamsignificant.ca\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iamsignificant.ca\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iamsignificant.ca\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9601"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/iamsignificant.ca\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9601\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iamsignificant.ca\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iamsignificant.ca\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iamsignificant.ca\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iamsignificant.ca\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}