Citizens Weekly

The Parable of the Ten Virgins is read best alongside Jesus' concerns for His disciples in Matthew 24. We also do well to consider this parable through biblical definitions of "wise" and "foolish" as displayed in Proverbs. In such readings, we find this parable to be less about what we do for God and more about how well we receive God's Goodness towards us, made available through His Son Jesus Christ and granted by the Holy Spirit. Only His Goodness can entice us to seek zealously the oil of His friendship.

Parables, like all good metaphors, work best when their comparative elements are unexpected and novel. While the parables of Jesus may have grown familiar to the point of white noise for many believers, listening to them afresh through the ears of Jesus's audience, with all their narrative and theological expectations, may help us experience Jesus's teaching as He intended.

As we begin our summer series on the parables of Jesus, Kathryn sets the stage for how we’ll handle these well-known passages of scripture over the coming weeks. 

Together, we look at three things this week:
What is a parable?
How should we approach and read them?
The Parable of the Sower

On Palm Sunday, we explore the surprising way Jesus revealed His kingship—not through power, but through humility. As the Church enters Holy Week, we ask a deeper question—not just who the Holy Spirit is, but what He is saying to us right now. This episode is a call to reject pride, embrace humility, and live from the Father’s approval rather than striving for our own.

Some people may falsely believe that the Holy Spirit is a rogue agent doing His own wild, dramatic, attention-seeking thing apart from Jesus the Son and God the Father. Nothing could be further from the truth. By looking at three scenes of Paul "filled with the Holy Spirit" in Acts 13 and 14, we see reflections of both Jesus the Son and God the Father. In this examination, we find the Holy Trinity in concert, singing the same song, telling the same story, enacting the same glorious (and sometimes painful) redemptions into the Earth.