A Modern Day Parable - The Parable of the Train

Modern day parables, like parables of old, tell a simple story with one clear point. Stories are the way we think and remember. Jesus knew this and thus he used a lot of them to help his listeners and us to understand the deeper truth of God’s love and grace.

The Parable of the Train

A man is in charge of the junction switch at an important location of the train tracks. Normally, he controls the movement of the tracks from his control booth, but one day he discovers the junction control is broken and the track in its current position would send any approaching train off the rails into oblivion. The man hears a passenger train full of people approaching and knows that he will have to hold the manual lever in place personally in order for the train to make it safely across. He strains and holds the lever in the correct position as the train nears the junction. Suddenly, the man's two year old son wanders into view searching for his dad. Finding him on the other side of the tracks, the young boy runs across to him putting himself directly in the path of the oncoming train. The man's first instinct is to grab his son, but he knows if he lets go of the lever, the train and all its passengers will perish. The man decides in an instant that the only choice is to save the train and the people inside and allow his son to be sacrificed. The man collapses in tears afterwards, as the train passes on, with the people inside never realizing what had happened a few feet back...

In life sometimes we might have to sacrifice something that is huge to us in order to save something bigger in the world. Sacrifices are never easy. It isn’t for us nor was it for Jesus.