JESUS TOLD STORIES AND CHANGED THE WORLD. More specifically, he told parables—taught lessons—about eternity and immortality and how to live a life of meaning and relevance. He knew how to make powerful, radical, complex ideas accessible and practical. People gathered to hear him, and when they walked away, they probably didn't yet realize how profoundly their lives would change because of what they'd heard.
The word parable comes from the Greek word parabole, meaning "comparison"—and that's the technique Jesus relied on. When someone asked him a challenging question, he often began by making a simple statement such as, "A man is like ..." and then he would draw a parallel between someone everyone could relate to—for example, a farmer storing up goods for tomorrow. Or sometimes he talked about a simple object, a thing, like a humble mustard seed. And from these plain comparisons that people could easily grasp, their entire view of themselves and others altered—forever.
When Jesus used storytelling to convey his radical ideas, he turned religious teaching on its head. Rather than sitting in the temple with the other eiders, he walked among the people, talked with sinners and unbelievers, telling his stories of redemption and salvation without most of those listening even realizing that they had just heard a sermon!
