A parable is a story with a hidden meaning which meaning addresses something important.
These parables are about something extremely valuable which has been lost.
Please, have ears to hear and consider these parables...
Imagine you were kidnapped and put in a horrible place, and other than the kidnapper, there was only one person on the planet who knew where you were. Fortunately, this person cared about you and although they were half way around the planet, they knew someone near you who could rescue you. So, they wrote a message to the prospective rescuer, telling him exactly where you were and how you could be rescued. They then mailed the message to the prospective rescuer. The message arrived safely at the remote post office, however, the post office employee only delivered mail to the rescuer occasionally. So, he took the letter and placed it in a large envelope with many other letters to the rescuer, and on the outside of that envelope was written, 'The Envelope of Important Messages'. By the time the rescue letter was delivered to the rescuer, it was just one note among many hundreds in the large envelope labeled, 'The Envelope of Important Messages'. Therefore, your note was drowned is a sea of other people's notes, and thus you had little hope of being free from your bondage any time soon.
Here is another illustration to help you understand what has been lost.
Imagine you are stranded on a remote island with only one piece of paper, pen and bottle. So you write a note to tell those who find the bottle where you are and your situation and you throw the bottle into the ocean. The bottle finds a current which carries the bottle towards land, but there are thousands of other bottles in that current as well. It seems there were many people who, while not desperately needing to be rescued like yourself, never-the-less greatly enjoyed putting messages in bottles and throwing them in the ocean. Unfortunately for you, all those other bottles found their way to the same current which carried your bottle, and thus your bottle arrives at the beach with thousands of other like bottles containing 'urgent' (but pretend or false) messages. Thus, you have little hope of your message being found anytime soon, and little hope as well of getting free from the captivity of the island.
Perhaps the most accurate illustration of that which has been lost, would be as follows.
Let us say you wandered into a huge and Dangerous City - dangerous due to the many people who would look to use you for their own selfish purposes - and got yourself lost in a maze of streets, and you desperately need directions out of the city. Let us say that a person who knows the way out of the dangerous city - because they made it out - has clearly and concisely written the directions down in two sentences on a page of paper. That person makes those clear directions available to any who request them and many groups and organizations of people take the directions and use them for their own purposes. In your case, the person you request the directions from is a member of one of those organizations, and that organization feels they need to add to the directions, even though they don't know for certain the way out of the city because they have never been out of the city. So they write, on a copy of the correct directions, their beliefs on how to get out of the city. And so, when you are handed the one page document, the two sentences containing the way to freedom are surrounded by many sentences which contain errors and which at best confuse you and at worst, hide the truth in the two sentences of the way out of the dangerous city. Thus, you don't find your way out of the dangerous city because in your sincere efforts to read the directions, you get more and more lost due to the confusion caused by the errors and inconsistencies contained in that page.
To continue that illustration, let us say that many people regularly get lost in the large and dangerous city, and so there is a regular need for clear directions out of the city. However, the main authority of the city benefits economically from having more people in their city, even if some are lost and don't want to be there. The paper with the two sentences of clear directions becomes well known amongst the city dwellers, as well as the one page that contains both the two sentences of clear directions surrounded by the erroneous opinions of others. The city authority and those who run the organizations give to those people lost in their city, the confused and error ridden one full page of 'directions' instead of the two clear sentences out. They do this because they discovered that when they give the people the document with errors, more people stay in their city and they all have much to gain from that. They justify it by saying things like, 'well, the directions document does contain the truth' and 'the directions document contains the way out like we say...'. Thus, they tell a very clever half-truth and thus deceive themselves and those they hand the 'directions' to.
So the city authority and the organizations formally make a diligent practice of telling the people that the one page document is 'the truth' that people need to get free from their lostness in the city. They also tell those people who find out about the page with the two clear sentences of correct directions, that that document is 'inadequate', 'incomplete' and 'too simple' and people should not rely solely on that document or its instructions. Now, if a person looking to escape the city respects that authority-person more than wanting to know truth (correct directions), then what will happen to their ability to find their way out of the city? Will it not be compromised at best, or destroyed at worst? If disagreeing with the authority will have uncomfortable consequences, or even cost the person something they want, won't they be in even a worse situation to find the truth buried in that one page?
One final step to complete the illustration:
In the same way, what if there is a book which contains sixty-six chapters, and only four of the sixty-six chapters contain what you need to be set free. And what if an authority that many people respect including yourself, and who claims to know the book better than you, tells you that all sixty-six chapters contain the truth that you need to be set free. And what if they tell you that the four chapters which contain what you need to be set free is 'inadequate, insufficient and incomplete'?
If you respect the authority more than wanting to know the truth, then what will happen to your ability to find the actual truth in the four chapters? Will it not be compromised at best, or destroyed at worst?
And what if the cost of rejecting the authority's beliefs about the book will mean you will be rejected from family and your cherished social or religious circles of friends? Perhaps you will pretend the dangerous city is not so bad after all? Or perhaps you actually like the dangerous city and thus you are not looking to be set free since you have deceived yourself and think that you already are?
Which brings us directly to that which is most valuable which has been lost.
What if there was a Man who said...
"I am the Way, the Truth and the Life, and no one gets to the Father except through me."
...and...
"If you continue in my Word/teachings/truths, then you are truly disciples of mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."
...and he performed many miracles including defeating death to prove what he said was true...
...but other's come along after he leaves and, like countless others to come, they say that they have the truth that people need to be accepted by God...to be set free from the things that BIND us...
...and they place these people's words in a big book along with the one sure and final Word of God, and say, "this whole book is truth, not just the person who says, "I am the truth"...
...and the religious authorities who like exercising authority over others and who enjoy the life-style they gain from the people paying them for their position say, 'you need more than the red letters, you need the whole counsel of 'God's Word', and you need us to understand it'...
...and as years, decades and centuries pass, the book is handed down from generation to generation, each generation before it, listening not to the Light, but to another voice, saying that the whole book contains the truth that people need. And if a person can't understand the book due to the errors or contradictions or complexity, the people's religious leaders say, 'well, you need us or christian leader so-and-so or bible scholar so-and-so to understand the book'...
...and the religious leaders, whose authority the people respect, point people to the book as well as many other voices, both dead and living, in addition to the one who says, "I am the truth", and say, 'the book and all these other voices which quote the book are 'the truth' you need to know God, not just the one who says, "I am the Truth"...not just the one who says, "If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed"'.
If this happened, then isn't the truth of the statements above by the one who says, "I am the truth", LOST as the people look to the book and other's words and other voices, and those other words and voice's nullify, cancel or make of no effect the one who says...
Those eternally valuable truths...
...and...
...have been drowned out ... nullified ... buried ... LOST.
Remember the Dangerous City above and the two sets of directions to get unlost? Sound familiar?
...and so, that which is extremely valuable, and which as been lost, has been revealed.
The Father sent One beloved, error-free Messenger -ONE VOICE - who can bring freedom from your hopelessness, but his voice has been drowned out, hidden, nullified, obscured.
The Beloved One says plainly...
... and...
No one knows the Father except the Son and a person's eternal destiny is based on knowing the Father by looking ONLY to the One who knows Him, and yet people do not listen to the Son, but instead listen to all the other voices that say they represent the Son - especially bible voices. How truly tragic and foolish.
It is a difficult truth to receive, but in truth, the teachings of the One who calls himself the Light of the world have been covered, buried and for all practical purposes, lost. His Voice has been drowned out by thousands of other voices. In fact, at the most essential level, his Voice has been replaced by a book, 'the Bible' or "the Scripture" or "God's Word", by a clever slight-of-hand which says that the book IS his voice. For the one who gave the alternative...the document of directions with errors out of the ciy, see "The Apostle Paul?"
His statements, "All who are of the truth listen to MY voice"; and "nor does anyone know the Father except the Son"; have been changed and corrupted to..
'All who are of the truth listen to the bible' with all its millions of words and its many contradictory precepts, accounts and teachings; and 'Nor does anyone know the Father except the other people who wrote the bible', thus pointing people away from the ONLY ONE WHO KNOWS THE FATHER FIRST HAND, PERFECTLY.
The one the Light refers to as the prince of the world is the author of the great lie, just as he is the father of all lies about God and human existence.
Perhaps the reader has believed the falsehood that the bible has no contradictions? Here is just one of many:
"Do I not hate those who hate You, O LORD? And do I not loathe those who rise up against You? I hate them with the utmost hatred; they have become my enemies." (Psalms 139:21-22) [of course the biblians/paulians say that this was written under the inspiration of the holy spirit, whatever that means.]
...and...
"A time to love and a time to hate; A time for war and a time for peace." (Ecclesiastes 3:8)
Versus
One can pretend there is no contradiction, but that only proves that one is NOT listening to the one who says, "I am the Truth". Instead, they are deceived by Paul's teaching of all scripture being inspired by God (see Is the Bible Inspired by God?), and they will defend plain contradictions to protect their key belief.
With all the dozens of bible versions and hundreds of books about 'christ', it should be curious to the reader that there are very few which use only the Light's Words to tell us who he is. Why is it that so very few are concerned about focusing whole-heartedly on his person and teachings ONLY? Perhaps, just perhaps, it is for these reasons...
Maybe the truth is that the one Voice that brings freedom, offends the vast majority because they love thier life in this world more than they love their Father? Perhaps biblians are especially loath to turn to the Light because they very much like believing they are 'saved' while they continue to not forsake anything this world offers and thus continue to love their life in the world?
...beware of the all too common self-justification and self-deception of, 'oh yes, that is true, but not of ME or MY church'.
This disciple hopes that those who are in the darkness of bible and christian religion will allow the Light of the world to shine on their hearts. Seek to understand this key saying of his...
...and then, please, come, join the peaceful revolution by following HIM!