Mustard Seeds and Viral Videos: Modern Retellings of the Parables of Jesus

Jesus told stories. His most powerful stories were parables about the kingdom of God: The kingdom of God is like a mustard seed . . . The kingdom of God is like a persistent widow . . . The kingdom of God is like a man who had two sons . . . Jesus's stories have captivated hearts for thousands of years. Countless books and sermons have been written and preached explaining the background of these parables, but these dry explanations can rob the parables of their beauty and "punch." Think about it: if you explain a joke, it isn't funny. Jesus's parables primarily captivated the heart. Similarly, in Mustard Seeds and Viral Videos, Matthew Edwards combines his backgrounds in New Testament theology and semiotics with his fifteen years of preaching the Bible to retell the parables of Jesus in modern contexts. Instead of explaining that the kingdom of God is like a mustard seed because it starts small and grows big, Edwards tells a story of a video that goes viral. Each chapter is a different story of the kingdom of God based on a different parable of Jesus.