Parabolic Curves - Women In Jesus’ Parables

Matthew 25:1-13; Luke 13:20-21; 15:8-10; 18:1-8

Women are not major players in Jesus’ parables. They appear in only a handful of the many that he told. But don’t let that make you think that women weren’t important to Jesus. He wanted people to relate to his parables so they could learn something important. He had to put these truths in contexts they knew.

If Jesus had, for example, told the story of the Prodigal Daughter instead of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32), people would have been confused. Women did not receive inheritances from fathers and seldom traveled on their own. The message of the parable would have been the same, but those hearing the parable would have missed it.

In crafting his parables, Jesus operated within cultural expectations, so women show up in parables doing rather traditional things. A woman bakes bread with “only a little yeast in three measures of flour,” but that yeast gets worked through every part of the dough (see Luke 13:20-21). Bread-baking listeners would understand something deeply true about God’s Kingdom. A little bit means a lot. The transformation of the world begins not with big armies, but with a little bit of leaven.

A woman loses a silver coin in her home. She sweeps the floor until she finds it and then calls her neighbors to celebrate with her. “In the same way,” Jesus explains, “there is joy in the presence of God’s angels when even one sinner repents” (Luke 15:10).

In another parable, a widow nags a judge into a favorable ruling. Unscrupulous businessmen often preyed upon those who had lost their husbands. Though the judge is unscrupulous himself, he is worn out by the widow’s appeals—a lesson for us to “always pray and never give up” (Luke 18:1).

In a parable rooted in the marriage customs of the time, Jesus contrasted wise and foolish bridesmaids. The wise ones remained ready—just as we should be ready for Jesus’ return (see Matthew 25:1-13).

If Jesus were crafting new parables today, he’d surely include soccer moms, career women, and bridezillas. The truths of God intersect with our experience in real, livable ways. What parable would he tell about you?

[Jesus said,] “I will speak to you in parables. I will explain things hidden since the creation of the world.”

Matthew 13:35