3 Mistakes People Make When Reading the Parables of Jesus

The parables of Jesus have twists and turns that can leave you scratching your head. Why does Jesus say “Come as you are” in one parable but “Count the cost” in another? And what are we to make of the king who murders his enemies or the one who hands his slave over to the torturers?

For 2,000 years, readers have interpreted the parables of Jesus three ways:

1. Read the parables as allegory

Early church fathers such as Origen and Augustine believed the parables were allegories riddled with layers of meaning.

Take the story of the Good Samaritan, for example. A traveler from Jerusalem to Jericho is attacked by brigands and left for dead. According to Augustine, the traveler represents Adam, the brigands are the devil and his angels, Jerusalem is heaven, Jericho is the waxing and waning moon, the inn symbolizes the Church, the innkeeper is the apostle Paul, and the beast of burden represents the incarnation of Christ.

Phew!

Augustine was a classic allegorist who saw hidden meanings in everything. According to his fertile imagination, every detail, right down to the oil, bandages, and money, symbolized something else.

Do all these little details really matter? Does everything represent something else?

When Jesus explained the Parable of the Sower to his disciples, he focused only on a few key elements, namely the seed and the soil. He said nothing about plowing, rainfall, or other factors relevant to farming because those details had no bearing on the lesson he wanted to teach.

2. Read the parables as morality tales

Augustine and the allegorizers go too far, say some. If we can write our own meanings onto the stories, we can make them say anything we want. And we do.

For centuries, the parables of Jesus have been used to promote legalism, liberalism, existentialism, rationalism, feminism, pietism, postmodernism, universalism, and every other kind of –ism.

The remedy to this sort of abuse, said Reformers like John Calvin and Martin Luther, is to read the parables at a surface level only. Resist the temptation to allegorize. Don’t look for hidden meanings because there aren’t any.

The Good Samaritan, said Calvin, is about being kind to your neighbor. Nothing more. But if the parables have no deeper meaning, they cease to be parables, and Jesus is just another moralizing rabbi.

Surely, both viewpoints are in error. If Augustine and the allegorizers go too far, then Calvin and the literalists don’t go anywhere at all.

3. Read the parables as lessons for Israel (not us)

These days, it’s fashionable to interpret the parables of Jesus solely within their historical setting. That sounds reasonable, but it often leads to dismissing them as Jewish stories rather than Christian ones. “Jesus was speaking to Jews, not Christians,” the argument goes. “The church didn’t exist before the cross.”

Yet in a sense, it did—it was right there in the community of Jesus and his followers. The same disciples who heard the parables later built the church and wrote letters peppered with references to them.

Are the parables Jewish or Christian? Like Jesus and the disciples, they are both. They are rooted in Jewish soil yet blossoming with new covenant truth. Every parable still speaks with wisdom and relevance today.

Two questions to unlock the parables

To properly interpret the parables of Jesus, we need to ask two questions. First, to whom was Jesus speaking? Some parables were specifically meant for religious leaders who were hindering people from entering the kingdom of God. Obviously, harsh words for them are not meant for you.

Second, how do Jesus’ stories fit within the larger context of his message and ministry? Jesus’ listeners lived under the heavy yoke of the old covenant. But Jesus was not another rule-giver recycling old religious slogans. He was the Savior sent by God to announce the good news of the kingdom.

Any interpretation that turns the parables into moral lessons or law-keeping instructions can be dismissed. Jesus wasn’t just another rabbi trotting out the tired “work hard, do more” mantras of the old covenant. He was the Son of God, inviting us into the freedom and fellowship of the new creation.

Stories of the new covenant

The parables of Jesus revealed a new message for a new era. The proof is in their many twists and reversals: a rebel son is welcomed home with a party, a rich man is tormented in Hades, and outcasts are invited to a banquet.

These stories were unlike anything the rabbis and religious leaders taught. Rebellious sons were supposed to be punished, wealth was meant to signify God’s favor, and outcasts weren’t invited anywhere.

Jesus told stories in which Samaritans and women were heroes, crooked managers were praised by their bosses, and laborers who worked only one hour got the same pay as those who worked all day. Who’d ever heard of such things?

It was as if Jesus was saying, “Everything you’ve heard about God is wrong.”

God is not a merciless judge counting all your sins; he is a forgiving king who pays your debts and sets you free.

God is not an unapproachable sovereign; he is a generous host who welcomes all to his banqueting table.

God is not a distant deity who doesn’t care; he is a compassionate father who watches for your return, runs when he sees you coming, and falls on you with hugs.

For too long, the parables of Jesus have been used to promote dead works and self-righteousness. Do more. Be nice. Try harder.

And what if we don’t? “God will bind you hand and foot and throw you into the outer darkness” (the Wedding Feast). “He will bring you to a wretched end” (the Wicked Tenants). “He will say, ‘Depart from me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire’” (the Sheep and the Goats).

Sheesh.

Jesus said his yoke is light and easy, but apparently his parables are hard and heavy. Something doesn’t add up.

When sermons on the parables sound more like Moses than Jesus, you know something is wrong.

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Extracted from Paul’s forthcoming book The Parables of Jesus (March 10, 2026). Read a sample chapter now.