the role of the lukan parables in terms of the purpose of luke's gospel

likely challenge the faith-life of the Christians, especially in the situation that the early church
in Acts is experiencing the vigorous expansion of the gospel. Therefore, Luke would feel a
pressing need, as the next logical step, to emphasize the faith-life of Christians and how, as
God’s redeemed people, they are to live in this world. This emphasis would, as a result, cause
Luke to take up this theme with great care.
To do this, Luke used the particular parables which primarily contain instruction in the
Christian life, to emphasize the need for a completely transformed life in the whole realm of
one’s life in accordance with Jesus’ life and teaching. Furthermore, in order to lay great
emphasis on the faith-life of Christians, Luke located the parables in the travel narrative of
Luke’s Gospel with the motif of a new Exodus and the Way. In short, Luke places special
emphasis on the faith-life of Christians and the confidence they can have in the gospel, by
means of his particular parables with instruction of the Christian life, and locating the
parables especially in the travel narrative with the motif of a new Exodus and the Way.
Moreover, Luke’s parables help God’s redemptive purpose that we identified as the
purpose of Luke’s Gospel, since the newly-changed life in the whole realm of one’s life that
the Lukan parables predominantly teach, promotes God’s saving purpose. That is to say, the
Christian life described in the Lukan parables establishes and embodies the redemptive
purpose of God within their lives, as well as help accomplish God’s saving purpose. In this
way, the Lukan parables play a vital role in concretizing and accomplishing God’s redemptive
purpose.
Taking all that into consideration, we can say that Luke wrote his Gospel with special
concern for the faith-life of the Christian, although Luke’s major purpose is confidence in the
gospel in shaping God’s plan of salvation. Therefore, when examining Luke-Acts, we are
called to give more attention to Luke’s pastoral concern for the faith-life of Christians than
any other theological themes in the Gospel. As a result, Luke’s great concern for the faith-life
of Christians answers the question as to why Luke chose these particular parables that the rest
of the synoptic writers did not, and incorporated them within his Gospel in the way that he
did.
In short, by means of features which only the parable bears, the Lukan parables give a
vivid description of the Christian life, showing how Christians should live in this world, and
vividly portray a range of ambiguous and contradictory values found in the familiar details of
ordinary life, and reverse and subvert the audience’s world, as well as challenge them to a
new life presented in the parables.
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