Jesus Christ taught in parables because we are story telling and hearing creatures. We love stories and learn much better from them than from cold facts. Advertisers know this and often use stories to sell their products.
Here is a teaching story from the Jewish tradition on parables:
Truth entered a village naked as the day he [...]
Nasrudin and the rats
A friend complained to Nasrudin that he had fifty pounds of wheat and before he knew it the rats had come and eaten all his wheat.
Nasrudin replied, “I too had fifty pounds of wheat and before the rats knew it I had eaten all my wheat.”
Since that was a short story two [...]
Three short Mullah Nasrudin short teaching stories:
Nasrudin and the sea water
Note in those days no refrigerators so they would smoke the fish to preserve it. These were extremely salty.
They asked Nasrudin why is the sea water salty?
The Mullah replied, “Haven’t you eaten fish? You know it’s so salty. It’s obvious if you throw so [...]
Mullah Nasrudin was walking with his son when a funeral procession came by.
The mullah’s son pointed to the coffin and asked him, “What is in that box?”
Nasrudin replied, “A man, my son.”
The son continued, “Where are they taking him, father, and why are they so sad?”
“They are sad because they take him to a place [...]
Nasrudin and snoring
Mullah Nasrudin’s wife kept complaining that he snored. The Mullah said, “It is absolutely impossible. I have awakened myself a few times in the middle of the night and I was never snoring.”
Since this was short I’ll include a few other short Mullah Nasrudin teaching stories.
Heaven and hell:
They asked Nasrudin how long will [...]
In the olden days there was a wise physician who had an eager apprentice. This student kept asking the master if he could prescribe for on the patients. The teacher kept repeating that the student was not yet ready.
The pupil kept importuning and pleading to serve a patient. Eventually the teacher said, “Soon a patient [...]
In the ancient days in China there was a villager who had a strong handsome son and a strong white stallion. Every one talked about this man telling how lucky he was.
He would always answer them, “Maybe, it’s good. Maybe, it’s bad… You never know!”
One day the stallion ran away. All the villagers came to [...]
A storm had thrown thousands of starfish onto the sea shore.
A little was picking the starfish one by one and returning the dying beached animals to their watery habitats.
An adult came by and said, “It’s hopeless. You cannot make any difference to all these starfish.”
The little girl smiled and picked up the next one and [...]
Time, what is it? It’s like when I don’t think about it I know what it is and when I think about it I’m clueless. That’s what Saint Agustin or Saint Paul or saint Thomas Aquinas said about something or other or was it a supreme court justice said about pornography.
We do know that time [...]
There was once an evil usurious money lender (you know the type who charged one tenth the interest that modern banks charge us)….
He had lent money to a kindly merchant. Unfortunately the merchants ships had sunk in a storm. Now, in those days people who defaulted their debts would go to debtor’s prison.
The lecherous money [...]
