some of the parables in detail, and the hermeneutic He employed gives us a model to follow as we learn from the rest of His stories. But we must come to the parables as believers, willing to hear—not as skeptics with hearts hardened against the truth. In the chapters that follow, we’ll examine a dozen of Jesus’ most notable parables. It would require multiple volumes to cover all the parables in sufficient depth. There are roughly forty of them woven into the gospel record.