In the New Testament we find numerous parables that have become part of our popular culture over the centuries. Jesus taught almost exclusively in parables (Mark 4:34) in order to veil the meaning from the uninspired (Mark 4:12). A parable is a short story through which Jesus taught gospel principle. A parable is referred to as a didactic story because it is intended to teach a moral concept. Many of the parables are hyperbole which means they are an extreme exaggeration to prove a point. I suspect that the original audience would have found great humor in the message, a humor that has been lost over the centuries. The greatest teachers use humor and if Jesus is to be considered the master teacher, we should assume he used humor a fair bit. The Jesuit Priest James Martin explains in a special article to CNN that “one difficulty with finding humor in the New Testament is that what was seen as funny to those living in Jesus’ time may not seem funny to us.” And “Too many Gospel stories have become stale, like overly repeated jokes.”

He provides the following example:

“Jesus also embraces others with a sense of humor. In the beginning of the Gospel of John comes the remarkable story of Nathanael, who has been told by his friends that the Messiah is from Nazareth. Nathanael responds, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”

This is an obvious joke about how backwards the town was; Nazareth was seen as a backwater with only a few hundred people.

And what did Jesus say in response? Does he castigate Nathanael for mocking his hometown?

Jesus says nothing of the sort! Nathanael’s humor seems to delight him.

“Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit,” Jesus said. In other words, here’s someone I can trust.” (Martin)

I believe we should read the parables with this in mind. If we take them too seriously we miss the point and often become confused because, after all, why would such serious matters be so ridiculous? The mote and the beam? It is rather silly when you step back and paint a mental picture. When I was a missionary for the LDS church, one of the missionaries I knew was an artist and he drew his vision of the story and it was, in a word, hilarious.

Some parables tell life stories that make us laugh not because they are funny, but because we can relate to them as examples of our own human folly. In Luke 15 we have three parables of things getting lost and I think we should take them together as telling one story:

The Lost Sheep – In this parable, the sheep gets lost because it is being careless. It did not start out its day planning to get lost. Sheep are just not smart enough. Rather, it started wandering searching for food and was not paying attention to its environs. By the time it realized it was lost it was too late and needed to wait for the shepherd to find it and bring it home.

The Lost Coin – This one is strictly of inadvertent neglect. The women in Palestine would wear their coins like a head band and, not surprisingly, if one were to fall off it likely would not be noticed. Here, the woman discovers a coin is lost and tears her house apart searching for it until it is found. Oh boy can I relate to this one. I think the most common prayers of utter desperation are prayers for something that is lost such as car keys, or a homework sheet. I recall losing a USB drive with more data than should ever be kept in one place. When it went missing I was sick. I searched parks, stores, and vehicles. I came home to find it in one of my pant pockets. Well, I now have three copies of the data. Lesson learned. Too many times I have gotten myself in a situation and found myself saying “how am I going to get myself out of this one”. These are definitely the lost coin situations.

The Prodigal Son. This is an example of someone intentionally getting lost. This was no sheep or coin. He got up that morning and planned how to leave. He asked his father for his inheritance and headed out into the world. He eventually discovered that he had not thought his plan all the way through. It is a rich story filled with profound nuances all on its own, but it serves to tie the three parables off. He found his own way home but was at the mercy of his father to take him back.

We learn from these three parables that we get lost in three ways. Sometimes we are not paying attention, sometimes by circumstances, and sometimes by choice. No matter what the cause, however, and no matter how lost we may be, we can always be found. The Savior will not forsake us.

When I read the scriptures, I try to find patterns because they help identify the key doctrines being taught. I have created my own organizational chart of the parables that I hope you will find useful, although arguably some in the list are not parables in the purest sense of the term. Click the link below. Perhaps you will find some parable that you had never heard of before or perhaps that you did not consider to be a parable. There is nothing revolutionary about the list but I hope it will be of value to you as spring board to further study.

Parables of Jesus Chart