We simply call them hypotheticals, allegories, analogies, etc. They are, essentially, the basis for teaching throughout history.<quoted text>
If he wants his words understood, maybe he shouldn't use parables. They are a terrible way to communicate. Has one even been written since Aesop and Jesus?....
Extremely common in children's stories.
Jesus made it fairly clear why he did it and explained it to his closest disciples:
"He replied, "The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them....
...This is why I speak to them in parables: "Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand.
In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah: "'You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.
For this people's heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.'"
You guys and gals grasp this stuff but the masses are generally clueless and ignorant so I have to talk to them like little children.