Interpretation Of Jesus’s Parable And Its Comparison to Aesop’s Fable

In many scenarios, a Christian can accidentally intertwine Jesus’s parables with a fable. A parable is almost identical to a fable, even though they seem similar, in many ways they make completely different points. Jesus’ parables were also prophetic pronouncements against Israel, as a fable does not have a deeper meaning other than a moral. A fable is predominantly portrayed so that a child can easily understand the morals by which they tell.

The relationship between law and grace for Christians is how Jesus would choose grace as opposed to the law, he would always help those who need help even if they made a mistake.

The relationship between grace and law for Aesops's fables are quite different than that for Christians. In most all fables they always choose law before grace instead of helping someone that made a mistake, they would ignore their cry for help. Christians generally put grace before the law, opposed to fables where the story teaches the reader to put the law before grace.

Get quality help now

Sweet V

Verified writer

Proficient in: Jesus Christ

4.9 (984)

“ Ok, let me say I’m extremely satisfy with the result while it was a last minute thing. I really enjoy the effort put in. ”

+84 relevant experts are online

Hire writer

The relationship between law and grace for Christians is that Jesus always put grace before the law. Jesus helped many people who had ailments, even if they committed a crime, he would never put the law before grace. Jesus taught those who needed help law while he was expressing grace to them, this is so they would learn from their mistakes and not make them again. Jesus died on the cross to forgive people not to judge them, Jesus never judged anyone even if they sinned.

Even though what people proclaimed the righteous were judged those who were less. Righteous, even though Jesus says that all humans are equal no matter what they did. John 8:1-11 states that when Jesus was at the temple, a crowd gathered around him and he taught them. As he was speaking, the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in the act of adultery. They put her in front of the crowd.“Teacher,” they said to Jesus, “this woman was caught in the act of adultery. The law of Moses says to stone her. What do you say?” They were trying to trap him into saying something they could use against him, but Jesus stooped down and wrote in the dust with his finger. They kept demanding an answer, so he stood up again and said, “All right, but let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone!” They walked away because none of them were without sin, and the only one without sin didn’t put the blame on ones below him. This proves that he would put grace before the law.

The relationship between law and grace in the stories told by Aesop's law would be put before grace. In many of the stories told by Aesops, an animal wouldn’t help another animal if they needed it. Instead, they would tell the other animal how they made them and because they made that mistake they shouldn’t help them. A perfect example of this is in the story of the ants and the grasshopper. The grasshopper had been singing all summer and didn’t search for any food. When the grasshopper asked the ants for some food when he saw them drying out their own food they collected, they asked him what he did all day. When the grasshopper responded the ants laughed at him and told him he should have collected his own food instead of being a sluggard. The grasshopper would end up dying due to starvation.

The fables have a perfect way to get their point across to any reader of any age, they use animals opposed to a human. The benefit of this is because the animals won't have a change of heart as opposed to where any man could have pity on an animal and choose not to kill it for food.

A common mistake many people make with the parables of Christ is that when reading the parables, they forget that they weren’t just giving morals like a fable but were prophetic pronouncements against Israel. Jesus spoke about Israel and the Gentiles, and did not mean a moral like how someone should always treat elders with respect. Although they can give a moral they weren’t told for such, if we only see Jesus’ parables as a fable we will miss a great deal of what he meant. Jesus’ parables were also meant for the time he was on earth, while they can still have meaning in today's society they can be taken out of context. Or how it can be interpreted differently by different books in the Bible. An example of this is in Matthew 13 and Luke 8. They both tell the same story, however in Matthew 13 Jesus’ seems to mean that the seed with a good foundation will rise taller than all others. In Luke the seeds which are the word of god, landed on the wayside were trampled and eaten by birds. The seeds that fell onto the rocks sprang up fast, but wilted away due to a lack of moisture. Others fell upon thorns, and the thorns sprang up with it and choked it. But others fell on good ground and yelled a crop a hundredfold. The parable is then explained by saying “Those by the wayside are the ones who hear; then the devil comes and takes away God's word out of their hearts. lest they should believe and be saved.” Luke continues by explaining what the parable means. Two very different meanings of the same parable. This is how Jesus’ parables can be interpreted in so many different ways. One has little depth and tells a moral, the other has a deep meaning linked to the word of God.

The relationship between law and grace for Christians and the relationship between law and grace in Aesops is the exact opposite. One is for grace, the other for the law. This doesn’t mean that one is more important than the other. However, there should be a perfect balance between grace and law. People commonly make the mistake of thinking Jesus parables tell a moral like a fable, nevertheless, this is not the truth, they tell morals, but have a much deeper meaning such as prophetic pronouncements against Israel. Christians look to Jesus for being the best and only role model that they can look up to, Jesus always used grace and law as a teaching tool, favoring grace but never disregarding the law.