Stories Jesus Told Leader Guide: How to Read a Parable

By Prof. Greg Carey

The parables of Jesus—like the Good Samaritan, the Prodigal Son, and the Laborers in the Vineyard—make up the most distinctive element of his teaching and are essential to our common memory of Jesus. However, almost all of them open themselves to multiple interpretations, leaving interpreters to scratch their heads and argue with one another for centuries.


In this book, Greg Carey explores six of Jesus’ stories to understand how to read them, interpret them, and understand what they mean for our own lives today.


The Leader Guide contains everything needed to guide a group through the six-week study including session plans, activities, and discussion questions, as well as multiple format options.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Abingdon Press
• Release date: Aug 6, 2019
• ISBN: 9781501884252

Prof. Greg Carey

Greg Carey has taught at Lancaster Seminary since 1999, having previously taught at Rhodes College and Winthrop University. His publications include numerous studies on the Book of Revelation and ancient apocalyptic literature, rhetorical analysis of the New Testament, and investigations of early Christian self-definition. He is the author of five books, including The Gospel According to Luke: All Flesh Shall See God's Salvation and Sinners: Jesus and His Earliest Followers.

Book preview

Introduction

Jesus loved to tell stories. His parables generally involved everyday activities, common characters, and familiar relationships. He wasn’t the only teacher in the ancient world to use parables, but he used them in unique ways, painting word-pictures of God’s kingdom. Perhaps the most distinctive feature of these stories, according to author Greg Carey, is that they challenge readers and hearers to think for themselves.

So don’t expect Carey—or this leader guide, for that matter—to tell you what the parables mean. And that’s not your job as a teacher or leader. This guide will help you bring your group into the parables of Jesus, filling out the context, but letting them experience these surprising stories and their lessons for themselves.

The questions and activities in this guide are designed to spark connections between those age-old stories and the modern lives of group members. Maybe you’ve never gone hunting for a lost sheep, but have you ever lost your keys? While some details may need explaining, the parables’ impact transcends time.

In each parable, Carey urges us to look for the hook—which he defines as that part of a parable where the story abandons conventional logic and jumps off the rails. These tales are full of surprises, head-scratchers, and hard left turns. Some Bible students can develop the bad habit of sanding down the rough edges of Scripture into familiar lessons. The stories of Jesus defy that practice.

People in your group may have questions like that, and they’ll ask them if you encourage them to. Give them explicit permission to be as unconventional as Jesus was.

A parable’s hook challenges us to open our imaginations to the possibility that the things of God are not as we’d expect, Carey writes. Parables with hooks refuse to wrap spiritual lessons in fancy paper and tie them up with a pretty bow. Parables challenge us to look one another in the eye, to explore the mystery of the kingdom together.

SESSIONS

The six sessions of this study guide correspond to the six chapters of Stories Jesus Told by Greg Carey:

•Session 1—Divine Inefficiencies (Mark 4:1-20)

The Parable of the Sower shows God’s message being scattered on good soil and bad alike. Isn’t that wasteful? Come to think of it, aren’t parables themselves rather inefficient? This opening session introduces us to the concept of parables, including why Jesus used them and how we can approach them.

•Session 2—Funny Business (Matthew 20:1-16)

The Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard raises curious questions. While Jesus often drew his stories from the daily business of his hearers—fishing, farming, herding, and getting paid—it’s seldom business as usual. The Master Teacher routinely challenges our assumptions.

•Session 3—Weddings Gone Awry (Matthew 22:1-14; 25:1-13)

The Parables of the Wedding Party and the Bridesmaids are rooted in first-century culture, but each one has its surprises. And just when we think we get it, there’s a new twist.

•Session 4—Lawyers and Samaritans (Luke 10:25-37)

The Parable of the Good Samaritan is one of the best-known stories in the Bible, but most people get it wrong. This session digs into who these characters are and how this parable answers the question Who is my neighbor?

•Session 5—Losing, Finding, Partying (Luke 15:1-32)

The Parable of the Prodigal Son is probably the next-best-known parable, but this presents challenges too. This session looks at all three main characters in that drama, and at the other two lost and found stories contained in Luke 15.

•Session 6—A Reversal of Fortune (Luke 16:19-31)

Several of Jesus’ parables deal with surprising turnabout. The last shall be first, Jesus liked to say. The Rich Man and Lazarus is a great example, extending beyond the death of both characters. This session works to strip away the theological presuppositions that might keep us from reading this story on its own terms.

Each session contains the following elements: