Metaphors for Jesus



Defintions

A sentence of the form

S is P

is figurative if there is a contradiction of what is taken literally and what is seen
(quoted from Steven Nemes)
A sacrament is:

An outward sign of an inward grace, instituted by Christ.
(St. Augustine)

A sign of a holy thing - (instituted by Christ?)
(Zwingly):


A metaphor is a figure of speech
A metaphor says one thing is another to make a point, even though everyone knows it’s not literally true.

Examples on Prayer by George Herbert

A metaphor:
A symbol is a sign that stands for something
It is an object, action, or mark that represents a deeper reality.

Examples:

A symbol becomes “substantial” when the thing it points to is claimed to be really present
A ceremony (ritual??)
Ceremonies include symbols and metaphors and rituals....

Metaphors for Jesus - by Jesus




Living Water

John 7:37-39 [ESV] 37: On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. 38: Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, 'Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.'" 39: Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
Explanation given: Water = Spirit
John 4:5-43 [ESV] 5: So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6: Jacob's well was there; so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour. 7: There came a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus said to her, "Give me a drink." 8: (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) 9: The Samaritan woman said to him, "How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?" ( For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) 10: Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, 'Give me a drink,' you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water." 11: The woman said to him, "Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? 12: Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock." 13: Jesus said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14: but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty forever. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." 15: The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water." 16: Jesus said to her, "Go, call your husband, and come here." 17: The woman answered him, "I have no husband." Jesus said to her, "You are right in saying, 'I have no husband'; 18: for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true." 19: The woman said to him, "Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. 20: Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship." 21: Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. 22: You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23: But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. 24: God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth." 25: The woman said to him, "I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things." 26: Jesus said to her, "I who speak to you am he." 27: Just then his disciples came back. They marveled that he was talking with a woman, but no one said, "What do you seek?" or, "Why are you talking with her?" 28: So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, 29: "Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?" 30: They went out of the town and were coming to him. 31: Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, saying, "Rabbi, eat." 32: But he said to them, "I have food to eat that you do not know about." 33: So the disciples said to one another, "Has anyone brought him something to eat?" 34: Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work. 35: Do you not say, 'There are yet four months, then comes the harvest'? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest. 36: Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. 37: For here the saying holds true, 'One sows and another reaps.' 38: I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor." 39: Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony, "He told me all that I ever did." 40: So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. 41: And many more believed because of his word. 42: They said to the woman, "It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world." 43: After the two days he departed for Galilee.




Bread

John 6:32-47 [ESV] 32: Jesus then said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. 33: For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world." 34: They said to him, "Sir, give us this bread always." 35: Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. 36: But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. 37: All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. 38: For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. 39: And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. 40: For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day." 41: So the Jews grumbled about him, because he said, "I am the bread that came down from heaven." 42: They said, "Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, 'I have come down from heaven'?" 43: Jesus answered them, "Do not grumble among yourselves. 44: No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day. 45: It is written in the Prophets, 'And they will all be taught by God.' Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me- 46: not that anyone has seen the Father except him who is from God; he has seen the Father. 47: Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life.
It is written in the Prophets, 'And they will all be taught by God.'




Light

John 8:12-17 [ESV] 12: Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." 13: So the Pharisees said to him, "You are bearing witness about yourself; your testimony is not true." 14: Jesus answered, "Even if I do bear witness about myself, my testimony is true, for I know where I came from and where I am going, but you do not know where I come from or where I am going. 15: You judge according to the flesh; I judge no one. 16: Yet even if I do judge, my judgment is true, for it is not I alone who judge, but I and the Father who sent me. 17: In your Law it is written that the testimony of two men is true.
John 12:35-37 [ESV] 35: So Jesus said to them, "The light is among you for a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you. The one who walks in the darkness does not know where he is going. 36: While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light." When Jesus had said these things, he departed and hid himself from them. 37: Though he had done so many signs before them, they still did not believe in him, John 12:44-46 [ESV] 44: And Jesus cried out and said, "Whoever believes in me, believes not in me but in him who sent me. 45: And whoever sees me sees him who sent me. 46: I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness.




Vine

John 15:1-8 [ESV] 1: "I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. 2: Every branch of mine that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. 3: Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. 4: Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. 5: I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. 6: If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. 7: If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8: By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.




Door

John 10:9-10 [ESV] 9: I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. 10: The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.




Good Shepherd

John 10:11-15 [ESV] 11: I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12: He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. 13: He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. 14: I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, 15: just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep.




Eternality

John 6:34- [ESV] 34: They said to him, "Sir, give us this bread always." 35: Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. 36: But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. 37: All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. 38: For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. 39: And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. 40: For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day." 41: So the Jews grumbled about him, because he said, "I am the bread that came down from heaven." 42: They said, "Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, 'I have come down from heaven'?" 43: Jesus answered them, "Do not grumble among yourselves. 44: No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day. 45: It is written in the Prophets, 'And they will all be taught by God.' Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me- 46: not that anyone has seen the Father except him who is from God; he has seen the Father. 47: Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. 48: I am the bread of life. 49: Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. 50: This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. 51: I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh." 52: The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?" 53: So Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54: Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. 55: For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. 56: Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. 57: As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. 58: This is the bread that came down from heaven, not as the fathers ate and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever." 59: Jesus said these things in the synagogue, as he taught at Capernaum. 60: When many of his disciples heard it, they said, "This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?" 61: But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, "Do you take offense at this? 62: Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? 63: It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is of no avail. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. 64: But there are some of you who do not believe." (For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.) 65: And he said, "This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father." 66: After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. 67: So Jesus said to the Twelve, "Do you want to go away as well?" 68: Simon Peter answered him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, 69: and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God." 70: Jesus answered them, "Did I not choose you, the Twelve? And yet one of you is a devil." 71: He spoke of Judas the son of Simon Iscariot, for he, one of the Twelve, was going to betray him.
John 17 1: When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, "Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, 2: since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. 3: And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. 4: I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. 5: And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed. 6: "I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. 7: Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you. 8: For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. 9: I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. 10: All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. 11: And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. 12: While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. 13: But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. 14: I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 15: I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. 16: They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 17: Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. 18: As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. 19: And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth. 20: "I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, 21: that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22: The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, 23: I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. 24: Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. 25: O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. 26: I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them."




Eucharist Bread and Wine

  • Present To: in mind
  • Present By: in proximity
    Steven Nemes distinction

    Passover is a ritual reenactment of a historical event made personal

    Eucharist is a ritual reenactment of what Jesus did for us

    Bread and Wine





  • Resurrection

    John 11:11-44 [ESV] 11: After saying these things, he said to them, "Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I go to awaken him." 12: The disciples said to him, "Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover." 13: Now Jesus had spoken of his death, but they thought that he meant taking rest in sleep. 14: Then Jesus told them plainly, "Lazarus has died, 15: and for your sake I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him." 16: So Thomas, called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, "Let us also go, that we may die with him." 17: Now when Jesus came, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. 18: Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles off, 19: and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them concerning their brother. 20: So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, but Mary remained seated in the house. 21: Martha said to Jesus, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22: But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you." 23: Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise again." 24: Martha said to him, "I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day." 25: Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, 26: and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?" 27: She said to him, "Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world." 28: When she had said this, she went and called her sister Mary, saying in private, "The Teacher is here and is calling for you." 29: And when she heard it, she rose quickly and went to him. 30: Now Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still in the place where Martha had met him. 31: When the Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary rise quickly and go out, they followed her, supposing that she was going to the tomb to weep there. 32: Now when Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet, saying to him, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died." 33: When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled. 34: And he said, "Where have you laid him?" They said to him, "Lord, come and see." 35: Jesus wept. 36: So the Jews said, "See how he loved him!" 37: But some of them said, "Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying?" 38: Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it. 39: Jesus said, "Take away the stone." Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, "Lord, by this time there will be an odor, for he has been dead four days." 40: Jesus said to her, "Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?" 41: So they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, "Father, I thank you that you have heard me. 42: I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent me." 43: When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out." 44: The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, "Unbind him, and let him go."




    Life

    John 14:1-10 [ESV] 1: "Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. 2: In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3: And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. 4: And you know the way to where I am going." 5: Thomas said to him, "Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?" 6: Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7: If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him." 8: Philip said to him, "Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us." 9: Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'? 10: Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works.
    John 1:1-5 [ESV] 1: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2: He was in the beginning with God. 3: All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4: In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5: The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

    Metaphors for Jesus - New Testament





    Word

    John 1:1-5 [ESV] 1: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2: He was in the beginning with God. 3: All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4: In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5: The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. John 1:11-14 [ESV] 11: He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. 12: But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God. 13: who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. 14: And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
    The Word spoke words

    The words Jesus spoke addressed the inner man, that, that is hidden
    God is interested in the interior of a person
    Men do not speak words like this

    A substantial metaphor or much more than a metaphor





    Lamb

    John 1:30-37 [ESV] 30: This is he of whom I said, 'After me comes a man who ranks before me, because he was before me.' 31: I myself did not know him, but for this purpose I came baptizing with water, that he might be revealed to Israel." 32: And John bore witness: "I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. 33: I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, 'He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.' 34: And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God." 35: The next day again John was standing with two of his disciples, 36: and he looked at Jesus as he walked by and said, "Behold, the Lamb of God!" 37: The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus.
    1 Corinthians 5 1: It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans, for a man has his father's wife. 2: And you are arrogant! Ought you not rather to mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you. 3: For though absent in body, I am present in spirit; and as if present, I have already pronounced judgment on the one who did such a thing. 4: When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus and my spirit is present, with the power of our Lord Jesus, 5: you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord. 6: Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? 7: Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. 8: Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. 9: I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people- 10: not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. 11: But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler- not even to eat with such a one. 12: For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? 13: God judges those outside. "Purge the evil person from among you."






    Summary

    July 2026