Blog Post #5: Parbles

What specific things did you learn from your group's parable?

In The Rich Man and Lazarus, the story mentions the relationship between life and death and how your choices in life have consequences after you die. It showed how wealth has nothing to do with your morality, and that God recognizes what you do in life. The parable confirms that you will be punished for your sins but also rewarded for your good deeds. The Rich Man's consequences were not immediate and that might have encouraged him to continue being glutinous. That is very important to take away from this parable, because many people continue committing sins because they don't have immediate consequences. Like The Rich Man and Lazarus they eventually got what they deserved. Lazarus was able to go to heaven, and the Rich Man went to hell.

What specific things did you learn from the parables that were presented by the other groups?

In the first parable, The Prodigal Son, loyalty and family is depicted as the most valuable in the story. The relationship between father and son in the story is the central point, just like how our relationship with God is. God is known as a Father and we are his children (sons). In the second parable, The Laborers in the Vineyard, life's unfairness is represented with workers who do different amounts of works for the same amount of pay, even though they both agreed to do so. In life, this situation of unfair pay and work is everywhere, but we must realize that the pay is still a generous act and be grateful for it. In the Parable of the Sower, the importance of not only hearing God's words but living them out is represented through soil and plants. The Parable of the unforgiving Servant is very relatable for people today and how we only care for ourselves. The message is that we must not only want to be repaid but we must also repay the ones we owe.

Which moral/lesson impacted you the most and why?

All the parables have important morals that I can apply to my life. The moral of The Prodigal Son is very significant in my life. My family is everything for me and our loyalty means a lot. Being able to forgive is crucial for a relationship and I must remind myself of that when their are conflicts between me and my family. It is also significant in my relationship with God. God is able to forgive me for all my sins, even though some are hard to stop. Saying God's name in vain, for example becomes a habit, but since God is able to forgive me, I must stop because it puts a strain in our relationship.

What do you think it would be like if Jesus were physically in our society today?

Jesus would have parables that relate to our new conflicts in our technology advanced society. He would guide us on how to use is appropriately and use it as a device to help others and spread love. We tend to use technology for a lot of negative things, cyber bulling, hacking, black mail, theft, and Jesus would be able to have his parables relate to those things. We would have less crime, as people would listen to the word of God and try and change their bad behavior. Less sins would be committed, but also revolts and people of different religions might retaliate. In the end, I think Christianity would grow, and the human race would change their ways of life to be more positive and sinless.

(Labeled for Non commercial use)

This is a painting depicting the parable of The Prodigal Son. The forgiveness can be seen as the father embraces his sorrowful son. It can also be interpreted as how God forgives us when we confess our sins and he will take us into heaven when we die.