More than Just Stories

More than Just Stories October 16, 2015

Screen Shot 2015-01-07 at 3.35.58 PMBy John Frye.

Jesus sets the pace for life in the 21st century. The 21st century is driven by stories. Have you noticed that? Commercials are morphing at a rapid rate into mini-movies (or, as Scot might say, wiki-stories).

Danish futurist Rolf Jensen said that storytellers will be the heroes of the 21st century. Take note evangelical leaders. He said storytellers, not expositors. Many people are moved to tears by evangelical sermons because they are so boring. Jesus was a master at story-crafting and storytelling. He didn’t change people’s thinking with finely-tuned principles, but with attention-getting, sometimes shocking stories. Known in the original Greek as parables.

Mark presents a substantial block of Jesus’teaching by means of storytelling in Mark 4:1-34. I like what Ben Witherington III notes about Mark’s selection of Jesus stories. In the face of mounting opposition to Jesus and his kingdom way, the question is raised “Will Jesus succeed?”

Jesus tells three stories of growth: the sower and the seed; the growing seed; the mustard seed; and one story of revelation: the lamp stand. The church that Mark writes for experiences  unresponsiveness to the Gospel and mounting opposition to the Jesus Way. Will the church prevail? The stories confirm that God is at work and the kingdom will be succeed.

The startling aspect of Jesus’storytelling to me is Jesus’trust in his audiences ability to listen to the stories, to discern a truth about God in them, and to make decisions in light of that truth. Remember, we are talking about peasant farmers, religious outcasts, and anawim. The grace of respect that Jesus gives to his listeners, even while coaxing them to listen well—“let the one who has ears, hear…”boggles my mind. We would say “simple people,”and they were. Jesus told gripping, yet simple stories out of everyday life in order to provoke them into thinking about and participating in the biggest thing God was doing in that time on this earth!

Too many evangelical pastors IMO assume to do the thinking for the people. I have heard pastors speak fearfully of small group life because “what if the group comes up with something I don’t like or believe?”What the pastor is saying is, “What if I lose control?”  Alarmingly that is the very thinking of the religious leaders of Jesus’day.

Klyne R. Snodgrass writes, “A good parable creates distance, provokes, and appeals. By creating distance it gives the hearer/reader space to reconsider; one has no sense of needing to defend  one’s turf. By provoking the parable requires new channels of thought, and by appealing the parable seeks decisions that bring behavior into line with the teller’s intent”(Stories with Intent, 21). BW III refers to C. H. Dodd’s thought that parables “were meant to tease a person into active thought…”

Many years ago a friend of mine wanted to meet for lunch. Over the meal he divulged to me that he really was having a hard time with God. His wife had a brain tumor that almost took her life on several occasions. With surgery and good care, she survived and is doing well. My friend’s complaint was this: “Why am I supposed to be so happy and praise God when He is the one who is in control of all things?”He continued, “It’s like God walked her out into chest deep water and held her under. She fought to stay alive. God let her up only to push her down again. Then, just when she was about to drown, God lets her go free. I’m on the shore watching this. Now all of sudden I am supposed to praise and glorify that God? I just can’t do it!”


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