Mark Devotions
[Please do read the passage before (or after) reading the devotion.]
Jesus did much of his preaching in the form of parables, but they were not entirely unique to him. An example from the Old Testament is when the prophet Nathan confronted King David with his sin of adultery and murder (2 Samuel 12:1-6). Parables were simple stories which easily connected to everyday life, yet their intent was to get across a deeper meaning without the hearer suspecting that they were somehow part of the story – until it was too late! Jesus used parables to draw people into the story of what God is doing in our everyday lives, and by identifying with either the characters in the story or the event (or both), he forces us to make the choice of whether we want to go along with what God is doing or go our own way. Parables were meant to make the hearer uncomfortable (because they always called for the hearer to return to God in some way), or else the hearer was not really listening. Do you listen?
