The Parables of Jesus – Part 3

The Parables of Jesus – Part 3

This week, we would continue from where we stopped last week. We would be looking at other parables of Jesus from the book of Mark.

Parables of Jesus from the Book of Mark

  • The Lamp  (Mark 4:21-25)

He said to them, “Do you bring in a lamp to put it under a bowl or a bed? Instead, don’t you put it on its stand? For whatever is hidden is meant to be disclosed, and whatever is concealed is meant to be brought out into the open. If anyone has ears to hear, let them hear.” “Consider carefully what you hear,” he continued. “With the measure you use, it will be measured to you—and even more. Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them.”

Explanation of the Parable

This parable is about the receiving and handing on of Jesus’ teachings. Notice there is again the command to hear/listen three times in 4:23 (twice) and in verse 24. This parable is about “light.” In the Gospel of John, Jesus identifies Himself as the “light” three times:

Jesus spoke to them again, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (Jn 8:12).

Jesus said to them, “The Light will be among you only a little while. Walk while you have the light, so that darkness may not overcome you. Whoever walks in the dark does not know where he is going. While you have the light, believe in the light, so that you may become children of the light” (Jn 12:35-36).

I came into the world as light, so that everyone who believes in me might not remain in darkness (Jn 12:46).

In Scripture “darkness” is a metaphor for sin. Jesus who is the “Light” shows us the way to salvation.

However, in Matthew 5:14 Jesus identifies the Christian as the “light of the world.”
A Christian does not generate his own “light;” it is Christ Himself who generates the supernatural internal light of the Christian soul. We reflect the burning love of Christ within us. In John 12:36, Jesus tells the disciples “…believe in the light so that you may become children of the light.” Jesus Christ is “the light” and it is Jesus who empowers us to be “children of the light” who pass on His teaching.

Question: How does Jesus define Christian light? See Mt 5:16.
Answer: The “light” of God’s children is the good deeds of Christians; it is the work of Jesus Christ, “the Light,” working through and illuminating His children with His life.

Question: What are the examples given to express the metaphor of Christian light in positive and negative images?
Answer:
Positive:
A Christian and his faith community should be like a lamp set on a stand that gives light to the whole house just as the righteous life and good deeds of Christians witnessing the life of Christ in acts of love and charity that are visible to all who know or observe that Christian or the works of the Christian community.
Negative: A light put under a basket or a bed is a Christian or a faith community that suppresses the Gospel and quenches the power of the Holy Spirit within the community. Such a Christian or community does not teach and uphold the doctrine of the Church and do works of charity in outward signs. This person or community is not sharing the light of Christ and is doing nothing to illuminate the darkness of those who have not heard the Gospel or who have not seen Christians acting Christ-like.

Symbolism in the Parable of the Lamp (John 8:12, John 12:36, John 12:46)

  • The light – Jesus Christ
  • The darkness – Sin
  • Lamp under a bushel basket or bed – Professed Christians or Christian communities that do not share the “light” of the Gospel of salvation
  • Lamp on a lampstand that gives light – Christians who actively share the “light” of Christ and His message of salvation

Jesus is the Light of the world and we are called to reflect His light so that we can live as “children of the light.” As St. Paul wrote to the Thessalonians: For all of you are children of the light and children of the day. We are not of the night or of darkness … But since we are of the day, let us be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love and the helmet that is hope for salvation. For God did not destine us for wrath, but to gain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep we may live together with him. Therefore, encourage one another and built one another up, as indeed you do (1 Thes 5:5-11).

  •  Jesus’ Warning (Mark 4:24-25)
    He also told them, “Take care what you hear. The measure with which you measure will be measured out to you, and still more will be given to you. To the one who has, more will be given; from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.”

This teaching addresses the consequences of hearing well or hearing poorly and again has Jesus’ command not only to “hear” but the “hear carefully.”
Question: What warning does Jesus give? How does His warning apply to the 4th condition of the seed planted in good soil in the parable of the Seed and the Sower?
Answer: His warning is to be careful how you “hear” and how you receive (interpret), and apply what you hear. Be the 4th person in the Seed and the Sower parable: But those sown on rich soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it and bear fruit thirty and sixty and a hundred fold” heard the word, embrace it with a generous and good heart, and bear fruit through perseverance (4:20).

To the one who has, more will be given; from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.”
Question: What is Jesus’ promise to the one who “has” and His warning to the one who “has not”? See 1 Cor 3:11-15.
Answer: To those who have the “light” and embrace and study the word with a generous heart and bear fruit consistently in the face of adversity, more graces will be given. But as for those have the “light” but quench the Spirit and do not produce good works as demonstrations of faith but only labor for worldly, temporal goods, they will ultimately lose what few blessings they “seem” to have in their material possessions but they will not lose their salvation. As Paul says: “the person will be saved, but only as through fire” (1 Cor 3:15)

  • New Cloth on Old Garment (Mark 2:21-22)

“No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. Otherwise, the new piece will pull away from the old, making the tear worse. And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins.”

Explanation of the Parable

The Old Testament prophets told parables when the civil and religious leadership failed to listen to the voice of God through His prophet. Jesus is God’s supreme prophet and the resistance of the religious leaders to His message now leads Him to speak in parables (see Ps 78:2; Mt 13:10-15; Mk 4:12).

Question: What do the old cloak that cannot be patched with a new piece of cloth and the old wineskin that cannot hold new wine refer to? See Heb 8:7-8, 13.
Answer: In both cases, the comparison is to the Old and New Covenants. The Old Covenant must be fulfilled and transformed into the New Covenant. The Old Covenant in its present form is not capable of holding all the blessings and glory that is the New Covenant in Christ Jesus.

The Old Sinai Covenant was good for its time. It was a tutor and a guide for the children of God, and it was the first stage of revealed Law, but it had to make way for the New because it could not provide the path to eternal salvation nor could it give the gift of God the Holy Spirit.

  •  The Divided Kingdom (Mark 3:23-27)

So Jesus called them over to him and began to speak to them in parables: “How can Satan drive out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand. And if Satan opposes himself and is divided, he cannot stand; his end has come. In fact, no one can enter a strong man’s house without first tying him up. Then he can plunder the strong man’s house.

Explanation of the Parable

Notice that it is Jesus who summons His accusers. Jesus uses two arguments to refute the claim that He exorcises demons by the power of Beelzebul/Satan.
Question: What is the first argument Jesus uses to reveal the senselessness of their claim?
Answer: Their accusation is not reasonable. Jesus is casting out demons, an act that is opposing Satan and not advancing Satan’s power over the earth. Why, Jesus asks the rhetorical question, would Satan give Jesus the power to weaken Satan’s hold over men and to threaten Satan’s kingdom?

In His second line of defense Jesus uses a short parable: 27 But no one can enter a strong man’s house to plunder his property unless he first ties up the strong man. Then he can plunder his house.
Question: Who is the “strong man,” what is his “house,” and what is his “property”? How is Jesus “tying up the strong man”? See Jn 12:31; 14:30; 16:11.
Answer: The strong man is Satan (“the prince/ruler of this world”), his house is the earth, and his property consists of those who are not the children of God. By casting out demons, Jesus is tying up the “strong man’s (Satan) power and plundering his “house.”

Verse 28 Amen, I say to you, all sins and all blasphemies that people utter will be forgiven them. 29 But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an everlasting sin.” 30 For they had said, “He has an unclean spirit.”
In the Gospel of Matthew the statement is a bit stronger: And whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven; but whoever speaks against the holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come (Mt 12:32).
This passage speaks of the one unpardonable sin: the sin against the Holy Spirit. See Mt 12:31-32; 3:29; Lk 12:10;  Jesus says that all sins can be forgiven and even all blasphemies, which are sins committed against God Himself by insulting or abusing God’s Divine Name. In his encyclical on the Holy Spirit, Pope John Paul II explained that blaspheming against the Holy Spirit “does not properly consist in offending against the Holy Spirit in words; it consists rather in the refusal to accept the salvation which God offers to man through the Holy Spirit, working through the power of the Cross.” He continued that it is “the sin committed by the person who claims to have a right’ to persist in evil, in any sin at all, and who thus rejects Redemption”

“There are no limits to the mercy of God, but anyone who deliberately refuses to accept his mercy by repenting, rejects the forgiveness of his sins and the salvation offered by the Holy Spirit. Such hardness of heart can lead to final impenitence and eternal loss.”

God places no limits upon His mercy in the offering of His gift of salvation by the Holy Spirit through the sacrifice of Christ Jesus. The Church teaches that every human sin, no matter how heinous, can be repented and forgiven with one exception: anyone who deliberately and repeatedly, in his hardness of heart, refuses to recognize God’s action and even attributes that action to evil, and rejects God’s mercy and the gift of eternal life offered by the Holy Spirit up to the moment he takes his last breath in death, commits the final sin that is past pardoning and that person condemns himself to the loss of eternal life.

Jesus is not necessarily saying that the Scribes have committed the unpardonable sin, but He is warning them that in calling the good works of God the Son generated through the power of the Holy Spirit evil they are in grave peril, and they must open their hearts and repent before it is too late.

  • The Sower (Mark 4:1-20)

Again, Jesus began to teach by the lake. The crowd that gathered around him was so large that he got into a boat and sat in it out on the lake, while all the people were along the shore at the water’s edge. He taught them many things by parables, and in his teaching said: “Listen! A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants so that they did not bear grain. Still, other seeds fell on good soil. It came up, grew and produced a crop, some multiplying thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times.”

Then Jesus said, “Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.”

When he was alone, the Twelve and the others around him asked him about the parables. 11 He told them, “The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you. But to those on the outside everything is said in parables verse 12 so that, “they may be ever seeing but never perceiving, and ever hearing but never understanding; otherwise they might turn and be forgiven!”

 Explanation of the Parable

Then Jesus said to them, “Don’t you understand this parable? How then will you understand any parable? The farmer sows the word. Some people are like seed along the path, where the word is sown. As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them. Others, like seed sown on rocky places, hear the word and at once receive it with joy. But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word; but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful. Others, like seed sown on good soil, hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop—some thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times what was sown.”

Every element in the parable is symbolic.
Question: 
What does the seed represent in Jesus’ parable? See Mk 4:14 and Lk 8:11.
Answer: The seed is the “word of God,” the Gospel message of salvation. It is the same message broadcast to every person within the scope of Jesus’ teaching.

Question: Who is the in the sower of the seed in the parable?
Answer: Jesus is the sower. Jesus’ teaching plants seeds of faith, like the sower in His parable.

Question: What do the different soil conditions where the seed is sown represent?
Answer: The different kinds of soil represent the different kinds of human response to Jesus’ message of salvation in the coming of the Kingdom.

When the sower in Jesus’ parable casts his seed, he casts it in every direction into every kind of soil condition. This was a common farming technique in which most, but not all, of the seed was expected produce healthy plants.(3) The technique used up a lot of seed, but the generosity in broadcasting the seed assured the area was well covered and that many plants would spring up resulting in a fruitful harvest.

Question: How is this method of sowing seed similar to Jesus’ teaching?
Answer: Jesus “broadcasts” God’s message of salvation in every direction. His message was received by:

  • The receptive faithful
  • Those wishing to be entertained by a Galilean rabbi who performs miracles
  • The skeptics
  • Those who are hostile to His message

Question: The intent of the farmer is a bountiful harvest. What is Jesus’ intent?
Answer: Jesus’ intent is the harvest of souls.

The more difficult part of the parable concerns the comparison in the four different kinds of soil where the seed falls. In Scripture, the number four represents the world. Jesus will explain the meaning of the parable in verses 13-20. One of the keys to understanding the parable is that the produced fruit of the seed is far beyond a normal yield.

Jesus reveals the symbolic meaning of the four different kinds of soil that receive the seed. The four kinds of soil represent the four kinds of human response to the Gospel of salvation.

Symbolism in the four kinds of soil where the seed is sown

  • Seed sown on the path – This person hears the word of the kingdom without making any effort to understand and embrace the truth. Since he has failed to understand, Satan is able to separate him from the truth and from his place in the Kingdom.
  • Seed sown on rocky ground – This person receives the word of God with joy, but he has not applied the word to his life; he has no internal stability (“roots”). In a time of hardship, he abandons his faith in God.
  • Seed sown among the thorns – This person hears the word but does not love God above all else; the secular world pulls him away from faith and he bears no good fruit/works.
  • Seed sown on rich soil – This person hears the word, understands it, and applies it to his “heart”/life and bears the fruit/works of faith in abundance.

Question: Jesus describes those who hear the word of God but fail to fully embrace the Kingdom. To what does Jesus attribute the three reasons for their failure? List the verses.
Answer: Jesus attributes the failure to produce the good fruit of repentance and conversion to:

  • The activity of Satan (4:15)
  • Personal shallowness (4:16-17)
  • The ambition for worldly pleasures and wealth (4:18-19)

Question: How many times does Jesus use “the word” in this passage? Why? What is Jesus referring to as “the word”? See Mt 13:19 and the document “The Significance of Numbers in Scripture”.
Answer: Jesus uses “the word” eight times in this passage. In the symbolic meaning of numbers in Scripture, “eight” is the number of salvation. “The word” refers to the Gospel message of salvation that will be manifested in Jesus’ Kingdom.

Mark 4:20 ~ But those sown on rich soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it and bear fruit thirty and sixty and a hundredfold.”

Those who accept “the word” are known by the “fruit” deeds/works they bear (see James 2:14-26). Although some bear more than others, in each case their fruitful lives in the service of the Kingdom far exceed what might be expected. It is common to expect a very good crop might yield about tenfold, but the yields Jesus expects are far above what is average; it is an extraordinary, superabundant amount. Notice not everyone yields the same amount of good works/deeds. The yield is according to the different spiritual gifts given to believers and how they manifest those gifts in works of mercy and love as they carry forth the Gospel message of salvation.

  • The Growing Seed (Mark 4:26-29)

He also said, “This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. All by itself the soil produces grain—first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head. As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come.”

Explanation of the Parable

This “kingdom parable” is told only in Mark’s Gospel, and it may be recalled in James 5:7-9. The focus of the parable is the seed’s power to sprout and grow “of its own accord” after the sower has liberally scattered his seed. It is a mystery to the farmer how this happens, and the farmer cannot control the growing process. In this modern age, scientists can provide chemicals to increase yield and can describe what happens in seed germination and growth, but the root cause of germination and growth still remains a mystery.

Question: What three stages are listed in the growth of the seed?
Answer:

  • First, the blade appears
  • Then the ears appear
  • Finally the fully developed grain

Question: What is the final stage when the grain is fully developed?
Answer: When the grain is fully developed it is time for the harvest and the farmer is ready with his sickle to reap the crop.

Question: In the Bible “the harvest” represents what symbolic image? See Joel 4:13; Mt 13:39-43; Rev 14:14-15.
Answer: The harvest is a biblical image for the Last Judgment.

All human beings will face two judgments. When one dies one faces an Individual or Particular Judgment where each person will be rewarded according to his works and faith (Mt 16:26; Lk 16:22; 2 Cor 5:8; Phil 1:23; Heb 9:27; 12:23;). But there is also a Last or Final Judgment that all humanity will receive at the end of time when Christ will return in glory “to judge the living and the dead” (Mt 25:31-46; Jn 5:28-29; Acts 12:15; 1 Thes 4:16; 2 Thes 1:8-10).

The growth of the Kingdom of God is a divine act that defies human understanding. St. Paul will refer to this supernatural phenomenon when he writes about his work and the work of a fellow laborer for the Gospel: I planted, Apollos watered, but God caused the growth. Therefore, neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who causes the growth (1 Cor 3:6-7).

  • The Mustard Seed (Mark 4:30-34)

Again he said, “What shall we say the kingdom of God is like, or what parable shall we use to describe it? It is like a mustard seed, which is the smallest of all seeds on earth. Yet when planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all garden plants, with such big branches that the birds can perch in its shade.”

Explanation of the Parable

Jesus uses hyperbole in describing the mustard seed as the smallest of seeds and its plant in full growth as the largest of plants (a mustard plant could only grow as high as 8-12 feet). This is another “kingdom parable.”
Question: What is the contrast that Jesus is making between the mustard seed and His Kingdom?
Answer: The contrast here is between the small beginnings of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ and its future expansion to encompass the whole earth, sheltering all who come to dwell in the household of Jesus that is the Church.

The allusion to the kingdom becoming so large that birds of the sky come and dwell in the shade of its branches is probably a reference to the dream of King Nebuchadnezzar in which he saw a huge tree that sheltered “birds of the sky” and other animals (Dan 4:7). Daniel interpreted the tree and the animals to represent Nebuchadnezzar’s kingdom and the many different peoples over whom he ruled. The comparison is that the Kingdom of Jesus Christ will be even greater than the Kingdom of the Babylonians (also see Dan 9:17-19).

Symbolism in the Parable of the Mustard Seed

    • The tiny mustard seed – The small beginnings of the Kingdom (Church) of Jesus Christ
    • The mustard seed that is planted in the earth – Jesus plants the seed of the Gospel in the hearts of all who accept His message
    • The great growth of the mustard plant – The tremendous growth of the Church that is nurtured by the Holy Spirit
    • The large branches and the creatures that dwell in its shade – The spread of the Church across the face of the earth, calling all men and women of every ethnicity to salvation in Christ Jesus
  • The Heart of Man  (Mark 7:14-23)

Again, Jesus called the crowd to him and said, “Listen to me, everyone, and understand this. Nothing outside a person can defile them by going into them. Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles them.”

Explanation of the Parable

After he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about this parable. 18 “Are you so dull?” he asked. “Don’t you see that nothing that enters a person from the outside can defile them? For it doesn’t go into their heart, but into their stomach, and then out of the body.”

He went on: “What comes out of a person is what defiles them. For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and defile a person.”

The Parable of Clean and Unclean is Jesus’ 7th parable. In the teaching of this parable, Jesus will do away with the ritual purity laws associated with clean and unclean foods (Lev chapter 11). The foods designated “clean” and “unclean” were meant to separate the Israelites from their pagan neighbors and to remind the Israelites that were a pure and holy people dedicated to God. This is the first of the ritual commandments of the Sinai Covenant that Jesus has changed. Ritual defilement was an external condition under the Sinai Covenant, but the New Covenant penetrates the heart to cleanse and govern the inward life of the believer. It is the beginning of the end of the separation between Jew and Gentile.

In the language of the Bible, the “heart” is the center of the person and the source of every decision that manifests itself through the person’s actions.
Question: What is the point of Jesus’ parable?
Answer: True defilement comes from the thoughts and actions of a person and not from what foods he consumes.

Question: What examples does Jesus give of actions/sins that defile a person?
Answer:

  1. Evil thoughts (the sin starts in the mind)
  2. Unchastity (lack of modesty in appearance and behavior)
  3. Theft
  4. Murder
  5. Adultery
  6. Greed
  7. Malice (intent to inflict harm on someone physically or emotionally)
  8. Deceit
  9. Licentiousness (not restrained by law or morality)
  10. Envy
  11. Blasphemy (abuse of the Divine Name of God)
  12. Arrogance (excessive pride and lack of respect for others)
  13. Folly (unwise conduct)
  • The Tenant Farmers (Mark 12:1-12)

Jesus then began to speak to them in parables: “A man planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a pit for the winepress and built a watchtower. Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers and moved to another place. At harvest time he sent a servant to the tenants to collect from them some of the fruit of the vineyard. But they seized him, beat him and sent him away empty-handed. Then he sent another servant to them; they struck this man on the head and treated him shamefully. He sent still another, and that one they killed. He sent many others; some of them they beat, others they killed.

“He had one left to send, a son, whom he loved. He sent him last of all, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’

“But the tenants said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ So they took him and killed him, and threw him out of the vineyard.

“What then will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and kill those tenants and give the vineyard to others. Haven’t you read this passage of Scripture:

“‘The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes’?” Then the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders looked for a way to arrest him because they knew he had spoken the parable against them. But they were afraid of the crowd; so they left him and went away.

Explanation of the Parable

The noun georgos generally means a farmer but when the planting is vines it refers to a “vinedresser,” a distinction that is significant in the context of the parable.

This parable is told to the crowd of people standing in the Temple’s outer courts, but the teaching is a warning to the religious leadership concerning their rejection of both St. John the Baptist and Jesus, thereby rejecting God’s divine plan for mankind. The parable should be studied within the context of Jesus’ warning in Luke 19:41-44 where He prophesied the destruction of the city of Jerusalem when He said: “They will smash you to the ground and your children within you, and they will not leave one stone upon another within you because you did not recognize the time of your visitation.”
Question: What is the time of their “visitation” that is also the “proper time” in verse 2 of the parable?
Answer: Jesus’ presence within the holy city is the time of “visitation” and now is the “proper time” (Mk 12:2)

  • The Budding Fig Tree ( Mark 13:28-33)

“Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. Even so, when you see these things happening, you know that it is near, right at the door. Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.

Explanation of the Parable

Jesus uses the symbolism of the fig tree once again but in this case it is the sign of what is coming. In the same way that leaves on a fig tree appear in the spring as a sign that the summer season is coming, when these things He has mentioned begin to happen, they will know that the judgment He prophesied is near. “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Be on guard! Be alert! You do not know when that time will come.

  • The Faithful vs. The Wicked Servant ( Mark 13:34-37)

It’s like a man going away: He leaves his house and puts his servants in charge, each with their assigned task, and tells the one at the door to keep watch.

“Therefore keep watch because you do not know when the owner of the house will come back—whether in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or at dawn. If he comes suddenly, do not let him find you sleeping. What I say to you, I say to everyone: ‘Watch!’”

Explanation of the Parable

In this passage, Jesus appears to be referring to His return in glory. He tells a short parable in which He is the man who leaves and places his servants (the Apostles and disciples and those of future generations) in charge of His “house” the Church. The “gatekeeper” on the watch refers to the chief steward of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ, St. Peter and his successors. The periods of time Jesus mentions are the names of the four-night watches that were observed during the period of the Roman occupation: evening watch, midnight watch, cockcrow watch and morning/dawn watch.

The Four Night Watches:
#1: Evening Watch from sundown (c. 6 PM) to 9 PM
#2: Midnight Watch from 9 PM to midnight
#3: Cockcrow Watch from midnight to 3 AM (the trumpet that signaled the end of the watch at 3 AM was called the “cockcrow”)
#4: Dawn Watch from 3 AM to dawn (c. 6 AM)

A trumpet blast named for each watch announced the change from one watch to the next. The same movement in time from the coming events in the destruction of the Temple and the end of the Sinai Covenant to the return of Jesus in the Second Coming of Christ occur in Matthew and Luke’s Gospels. But the point may be that the end of the Old Covenant, finalized in the destruction of the Temple, signals the Messianic Age and the rule of Christ’s Kingdom that has been established. It will be an age that will be concluded in the Second Coming of Christ and the judgment of the nations. The key word for all generations in this passage is the command to “Watch!”

Next week by the grace of God, we will be concluding this series on The parable of Jesus by considering all the parables of Jesus in the book of Luke.

God bless you.

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