1. The Kingdom Parables of Jesus

2. What is a parable? Talk to your partner then jot down an answer
How many parables can you name?
Can you guess these 3 parable from the picture clues?

3. A parable is a teaching story or a story with a meaning
A parable is a teaching story or a story with a meaning. It uses everyday examples to explain something about God.Parables use metaphors and similes to help make the meaning clearer. When you read a parable it is important to understand the meaning. Jesus told parables to help us understanding what God is like and how God wants us to live. Jesus told parables about the Kingdom of God.
Where do we pray ‘Thy Kingdom come’?

4. The Sower (Mt13)
Watch this cartoon version of part of the Sower.
What dangers did the seed face? Read the actual account in MT 13: 1-9
What happened to the surviving seed?
The disciples didn’t understand the story can you make a guess at what Jesus meant?
What do you think the people listening would have thought about a farmer who sowed his seed everywhere not just in the good places?

5. The Sower

6. The Meaning of the story
Read Mt 13: This is the explanation Jesus gave for the parable. In our world today it might go something like this:
The seed that he sows is the seed of the good news about Jesus. The farmer sows the seed in many different places, just as Christians tell God's good news in many different places. The Good News is always the same but what happens to it is different.
. The first seed fell on the path, where there was no soil. This might be that someone hears the Good news but no one else around them cares, or there is too much going on in their lives to think about it properly. Maybe everyone else thinks thinking about God is stupid but the seed cannot grow so that person goes on with there life without God

7. Some seed falls where there are rocks
Some seed falls where there are rocks. It grows quickly, but then it dies because it has no roots. People hear the Good News they seem to like what they hear but this does not last. They have a difficult time, or other people laugh at them. They give up easily perhaps because they never really understood or give up when things get difficult maybe they have no one to help them.
Some seed began to grow among weeds, and the weeds killed it. We are encouraged by lots of programmes on the TV to want to be rich or famous, to be selfish; these ideas are like weeds. Jesus asks us to look out for others to care for them not just ourselves.

8. Finally we hear in the story about seed on good ground
Finally we hear in the story about seed on good ground. People hear the Good News and they decide to live in the way God wants and to try to do what God asks. Because they reach out to others and help others God’s word spreads.
This parable is also saying the Kingdom of God is for everyone. The people hearing might have been shocked that the farmer wasted the seed sowing it in silly places but Jesus was saying God’s word is for everyone. We have to help everyone hear it. However you have to allow God’s word to grow in your heart and then really live it out so others can grow too.

9. The parable of the Pharisee and the Tax collector LK 18:9-14
To understand this story you need to know that Pharisees were really strict Jews. Their name actually means separated one. They kept lots of laws and were looked up to by other Jews. Tax collectors however were regarded as the lowest of the low. They worked with the Romans (the enemy) they broke Jewish laws and were not welcomed by others.

10. Watch the cartoon version of the story:
In the cartoon which character is the tax collector, which the Pharisee? How do you know?
What do each of the characters say?
What is the difference in their attitudes?
What do you think the people listening to the story would have felt? Why might they have been shocked? What do you think Jesus is trying to say about God’s Kingdom?