I speak to them in parables, because they look but do not see and hear but do not listen or understand. (Matthew 13:13)
There are a lot of great stories. Some of them teach important lessons. Like “If you build it, they will come.”
But the parables of Christ are not like these. The parables of Christ are in a class by themselves.
If we think Christ’s parables are moral lessons, we will not understand them. What is the moral lesson of the Parable of the Dishonest Steward?
The parables of Christ are about Christ Himself. They are about the salvation which God won for us by becoming man, suffering, dying, and rising again. The parables of Christ make sense only by the light of faith. They are not interchangeable with other morality tales.
There is a key to entering into Christ’s parables. Without the key, they are impossible to understand. With the key, Christ’s parables explain all of life, all of reality.
The key is the Nicene Creed, the truth about Who Christ is.
