Jesus’ Stories
Ever read through the first four books of the New Testament? I heard a great presentation of Luke 15 at the Exponential Conference and began thinking about how I view these stories of Jesus. Depending upon how you view Jesus, these stories take on some special significance. I know Jesus to be God in human form, and his stories are one of the two things that marked his ministry, the other is helping people. I would like my life to be characterized by those two things too– telling stories that help people understand their lives from God’s perspective and helping people.
If you follow me with the identity of Jesus, then you have to really think about the importance of these stories. This is the method of Jesus for communicating the intentions of God to humanity. He didn’t choose some of the other methods of expression available to him at the time, he choose story telling. So if God in the person of Jesus wants to tell me stories as the best way of explaining his intentions, shouldn’t those stories rise above my other casual reading in importance?
What characterizes your thinking about your relationship with God? Can you find it in a Jesus story? How do you share with others about God–Jesus’ Story? How about the predominant expressions of religious teaching in your church–Jesus’ Story? Do these stories have authority in our lives? Have they become a part of our devotional life?
In western culture, we entertain ourselves with stories, and we usually teach and learn through other methods–wonder if we might not have that quite right? What would happen if we centered our church life on the biggest story– Jesus’ life, death and resurrection, and used Jesus’ storytelling as our primary teaching approach– I know its heretical, but worth some thought? Or maybe I’m just telling a story.