In his ministry of teaching, Jesus was a master at the art of storytelling. Many of his stories, known as parables, have been our favorites through the years since first we heard them. They can be repeated many times, and we will never tire of them - the story of the Good Samaritan, the prodigal, the two men praying in the temple, the sower in the field. And the lessons that the Master taught in parables are pointed, holding up for our inspection virtues to be practiced, vices to avoid, relationships to be cultivated, and especially his promise to believe.

His promise cloaked in parables is most important. The burden that the parables of Jesus carry is much weightier than little tidbits of morality or vice or virtue. Their concern is not so much with our behavior and what we are up to as …