A Word to Us from the Greatest Storyteller

Jesus

With such a rich literary heritage, the Jews who followed Jesus around would have recognized his illustrative style of teaching—he was walking in the ways of the prophets before him. The Sermon on the Mount overflows with word pictures.

For instance, Jesus compares his main points to something familiar. Like any gifted communicator, he often alludes in his stories to one or more of the five senses. You can almost taste the tangy salt as Jesus said, “You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored?” (5:13). Since salt can’t actually lose its chemical composition, the people would have known he wasn’t referring to salt going bland, but rather to it being mixed with other substances and its purity defiled, making it useless to fulfill its purpose. The parallel? God created his people for a purpose, but if we allow our lives to become defiled with sin, we will lose our ability to act as his witnesses, to show others what righteousness looks like.

Anxiety afflicts generations, and Jesus faces it directly: “I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?” (Matt 6:26). Rather than just telling us not to worry, he gave all generations a living example to remember why we don’t have to worry. Every bird and wildflower will remind us of our Father’s provision:

“Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? . . . And why are you anxious about clothing? Observe the lilies of the field, how they grow: they do not toil or spin, but I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory was dressed like one of these” (6:26–29).

More Than Just Words

Studies show that our memory improves if we are able to attach an idea to something concrete and familiar. It’s why we use acrostics to memorize long passages and associate a newly introduced person’s name with a memorable facial feature or quirk. Similes and metaphors do the same trick.

For those following him who were tempted just to show up for the show, Jesus has another analogy: Consider the foolish man who built his house on sand. It didn’t last long when the storm came. Wouldn’t you rather be like the wise man, who built his house on the rock? The storms couldn’t budge it. Neither will we fall if we build our lives on the firm foundation of Christ (7:24–27).

By conjuring examples from everyday life, Jesus distills big ideas into ones that are tangible, understandable, relatable. His listeners could not claim he was talking over their heads—and neither can we.

*Originally published in Bible Study Magazine, January/February 2020.