the all knowingness of jesus in modern day terms

It is unfortinate that in our society today, it is so difficult to understand what Jesus was attepmting to say, but fear not!

I would now like to present Jesus- the modern Man

Jesus, old and new

Parable:

The parable of the lost sheep. See that you do not one of these little ones, for I say to you that their angels in heaven always look upon the face of my heavenly father. What is your opinion? If a man has a hundred sheepand one of them goes astray, will he not leave the ninety-nine and go in search of the stray?

Translations

This is a fairly commonly told parable, and the meaning is fairly straight foward. The shepherd is God and the sheep are people. The lost sheep represus sinning, or leaving God. The parable is meant to show us that if we sin, God searches for us and rejoices when he finds us

New Parable

While I feel there is no need to redo this parable, I also feel it is hard to lose the meaning, even if things are changed. For example: instead of sheep, money, or a prized possesion.

Another Parable relationship

Parable:

A sower went out to sow. and as he sowed, some seeds fell on the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky ground, where it had little soil. It sprang up at once because the soil was not deep, and when the sun rose it was scorched, and it withered for lack of roots. Some seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it. But some seeds fell on rich soil, and produced fruit, a hundred or sixty or thirtyfold (Mt13, 3-9)

Translation

This, for some reason, is my favorite parable. The seeds sepresent the word of God. The pathe represents those who hear it, but do not understand. The rocky soil is those who hear God's word and rejoice until they are persecuted. The thorns represent people who hear God's word, but give in to temptation. The good soil represent those who hear the word, and undersatand it.

The revised edition

To make this parable more relatable to those of us who are not sower, I am going to change the scenerio to sports, namely baseball. The path would be like the spectators that don't get it. They see what is happening, but chose to ignore it. The rocky soil is like a popfly, it looks good initially, but ultimately ends up going no where. The thorns represent those player that use steriods, they can't abid by the rules. The good soil would be Those fans that appreciate the game and the players who play fair.

Another relationship

Parable

There was a rich man whose land produced a bountiful harvest. He asked himself, "What shall I do, for I do not have space to store my harvest?" And he said, "This is what I shall do: I shall tear down my barns and build larger ones. There I shall store all my grains and other goods and I shall say to myself, "Now as for you, you have so many good things stored up for many years, rest, eat, drink, be merry!" But God said to him, "You fool, this night your life will be demanded of you; and the things you have prepared, to whom will the belong?" Thus it will be for the one who stores up treasures for himself but is not rich in what matters to God.(Lk 12, 16-21)

Translation

This parable seems to directly refer to our times. People today do act so much like the rich man it is uncanny. The parable tells us that it is pointless to become wealthy in worldy possesions, because they mean nothing to God. And yet that is what our society stress, instant gratification. While I personally feel that ther is nothing wrong with being wealthy, I do not think that is what the paraple is adressing but rather greed. The rich man neglets a relationship with God and embraces what he will eventually lose.

The new one

Given the nature of this parable, it seems that any part of our society can relate. While farmers are no longer as they were during the time of Jesus, there are still geedy rich peopel. While I do feel that money, even in access, is not evil, I also feel that there something wrong with becoming obsessed with it. So instead of a planter, why not Donald Trump? According to a story I heard, he kept the top floor of every apartment building, because he could.

Revised edition

As I said before, this parable is about who is ones neighbor. As long as the basic structure is kept, I do not see anything wrong with changing the charecters. I mentioned before replacing the Samaritan with a muslim, mainly because, due of societie's need for a scapegoat, they are not seen as equals. (Personally, I think they should be, at least in general)

Anothr parable

Parable

A man fell victim to robbers as he went down from Jerusalem to Jericho. They stripped and beat him and went off leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the road, but when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. Likewise a Levitite came to the place, and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan traveler who came upon him was moved with compassion at the sight. He approached the victim, poured oil and wine over his wounds and bandaged them. Then he lifted him upon his own animal, took him to an inn and cared for him. The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper with the instruction, "Take care of him. If you spend more than what I have given you, I shall repay you on my way back."

Translation

This is another parable easily relates to our time. First, I would like to say I am not trying to instult those who are like the priest and Levitie. I myself am like them. I am mainly focusing on xenophobia, and given todays views, Muslims. Jesus was a Jew, the Samaritan was not. People in our society are overly biased, which is why the relationship works. This parable tells us that our neighbors are those who help us, not those we assosiate ourselves with.

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