I love a good story. In fact I don’t know anybody who doesn’t enjoy listening to a good story. Stories have a way of awakening our minds and stoking our imagination. As a story unfolds we naturally anticipate “what’s next”? Curiosity comes natural for most anyone.
I think that partly explains why Jesus told stories. Scripture calls them parables. Jesus had a knack for taking slices of everyday
life and serving them up as pictures of what kingdom living is all about. Someone once said to me, “I think about the parables as ‘talking in crayon’”.Most teachers in Jesus’ day talked about faith in rather complicated terms. Spiritual conversations were mostly heavy and uninteresting. But, Jesus’ style was different. He talked in ways that caused his teaching to land in the ear a bit differently. In modern vernacular, he “put it on their level”. He told stories about seeds, fishing nets, hidden treasure, weddings, and banquets, stewards operating large estates, lost coins, lost sheep and lost sons, trees struggling to bear fruit, and a guy fixated on building it bigger and better until the day he suddenly died. He drew on experiences, attitudes and events that everybody knew about. And, every story had a point.
Every story is told with the purpose of putting something in front of us. Some are encouraging. Some hit us like a jolt of electricity. Some beg us to drop the scales from our eyes and see in a more clear way what it means to be a disciple of Jesus. They tear away the skin of traditionalism and status quo thinking that can envelope our lives and our congregations, with the hope of reawakening us to what it means to live the gospel on daily basis.
These simple stories were re-told by gospel writers for a reason. Who among us hasn’t been overwhelmed by life? We know how crazy life can get. We know about its seductions. We know the occasional struggle of trying to hum “this little light of mine” in a world that scoffs at faith and says, “live instinctually”. These stories bring strength and perspective disguised in simple plot lines.
• Has God thrown seed across your life? If so, what kind of ground are you? Am I? Is the seed still bearing fruit in us?
• Do we live oblivious to the fact that Jesus will return or do we, like the stewards who took care of the estate, carry on knowing the master (MASTER!) could return any day?
• Do we respect our faith like the guy who found buried treasure in a field and sold everything to buy the field?
• Can we hear the Father’s invitation to come to His table or are we too busy with “our lives” to hear the most magnificent thing any person can hear – the call of God through the gospel of His Son?
• Would we hunt for a person like the lady who searched for a coin or a shepherd a lost sheep or a father his estranged son? And, do we know how to throw parties for people who have come back from the spiritual dead?
Point? We need these stories. We need them every day. We need these simple stories to keep us focused on what matters. To show us reality from God’s vantage point. To borrow from Paul, they help us “take every thought captive to obedience to Christ”. Satan would have us ignorant of these stories. The more distance between us and them…the better. But, we are not ignorant of his schemes! The parables are weapons that belong in our arsenal and which help us in our struggle against sin in its many forms.
My encouragement to us all is to spend some time traveling across the landscape of the parables. Look at life – your life, the world, your congregation – through the lens of these simple stories. Tucked away in each story is a “faith awakening” that will bless our lives.
O Father, lift the veil from our eyes and give us once again the eyes of a child. Give us ears with which to hear your calling of us. Sometimes we get lost in all the messages and seductions that come at us in this life. Give us the ability to discern your truth however it comes to us. Thank you for these stories that show us what it means to belong to you and honor you with our lives. Amen
Randy Daugherty
Stephenville, Texas
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