diff --git a/template/parse.go b/template/parse.go
index c0e21b1c4..a46adc594 100644
--- a/template/parse.go
+++ b/template/parse.go
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ import (
 	"encoding/json"
 	"fmt"
 	"io"
+	"os"
 	"sort"
 
 	"github.com/hashicorp/go-multierror"
@@ -290,3 +291,15 @@ func Parse(r io.Reader) (*Template, error) {
 	// Return the template parsed from the raw structure
 	return rawTpl.Template()
 }
+
+// ParseFile is the same as Parse but is a helper to automatically open
+// a file for parsing.
+func ParseFile(path string) (*Template, error) {
+	f, err := os.Open(path)
+	if err != nil {
+		return nil, err
+	}
+	defer f.Close()
+
+	return Parse(f)
+}
diff --git a/template/parse_test.go b/template/parse_test.go
index 023c3d537..2cca68b88 100644
--- a/template/parse_test.go
+++ b/template/parse_test.go
@@ -1,7 +1,6 @@
 package template
 
 import (
-	"os"
 	"reflect"
 	"testing"
 	"time"
@@ -272,13 +271,7 @@ func TestParse(t *testing.T) {
 	}
 
 	for _, tc := range cases {
-		f, err := os.Open(fixtureDir(tc.File))
-		if err != nil {
-			t.Fatalf("err: %s", err)
-		}
-
-		tpl, err := Parse(f)
-		f.Close()
+		tpl, err := ParseFile(fixtureDir(tc.File))
 		if (err != nil) != tc.Err {
 			t.Fatalf("err: %s", err)
 		}