You might know it as the Parable of the Prodigal Son. Or perhaps as the Parable of the Lost Son. Or perhaps even “sons”; plural. Or you may not know it at all, nor any of the parables of Jesus. But however much or little you know about this teaching of Jesus in Luke 15, it’s always worth looking afresh at these stories because they reach beyond the characters involved and encourage us to ask questions about ourselves. In fact, that’s exactly the point of parables.
The title of this episode is a question from one of our listeners. Dan Weatherall and Jon Davies explore what’s behind it and find that there are even bigger questions to consider, like why are there differences between the Gospels? How we answer that gets to the heart of what the Gospels are for and how we read them. Listen in and see what you think!
In a two part mini series Paul Davenport talks to Josh Dean about pride and the power of parables. This is all about how human pride is characterised in the Biblical narrative and then also about how the Bible uses stories, or parables, to help us think deeper and challenge ourselves.
When Jesus was “led up by the Spirit into the wilderness” (Matthew 4:1) to be tempted, he had just been baptised, received the Spirit of God, and had heard an astonishing proclamation by God from heaven.