Jesus: The Original Storyteller

​IN THE BEGINNING was the Word, the Word is the Truth and the Truth is Jesus. When God spoke, He was telling a story. He created the world, the universe with the spoken Word. Throughout the Old Testament, the Spirit came to Moses, the Prophets, and scribes who wrote down the inspired Word onto scrolls. These scrolls told the history as well as the traditional stories of important people and the events that shaped their lives and ours. But I should need to tell of all the Old Testament because I would regress.
 
When the Word became flesh in Jesus, He was given the opportunity to speak to all mankind through human means and could have given a clear understanding and interpretation in order to right wrongs and renew the narrow path. Instead, He spoke in a way that only those with clarity of mind and a faithful heart would hear and understand.
 
So why did Jesus speak in Parables? Well first let us define it. A Parable is, “a simple story used to illustrate a moral or spiritual lesson, as told by Jesus in the Gospels”. Since the time of Aesop (publically known Greek moral storyteller), children learned morality lessons with ethics and values through fables, a story with a life lesson. Jesus gave the people Parables which expanded on the life lessons and made them into Kingdom lessons. In one way you could say that these parables were meant for the adept, but they were specifically meant to give the truth only to those who would truly understand them. They were meant for those who took the step and followed Jesus while others who would hear it would not fully understand and the seed of truth would be planted. They were simple stories with the most complicated meaning and interpretation for people who did not know Him.
 
            What was so important about the Parables? They were and are Life Lessons about Kingdom Living using common issues Jews and followers of Christ would face. The issues are slightly different now in the age of information overload, but their original meaning stands stronger more now than ever. Jesus spoke of the secrets of the Spirit and how we need to separate ourselves from the mortal life. Are we not spirits (the life God breathed into the shell) that inhabit bodies? We certainly are not bodies that have Spirits. So how much more important is the life that the Spirit within us leads while being complicated by sins of the flesh.
 
            Jesus gave the secret on how to live a right life through the Parables and since then we have been trying to figure out what He meant. Jesus uses the functions of our senses to connect the body and the Spirit so that our flesh does not fail us. The senses are what the spirit uses to control the actions of the body. Jesus, according to Matthew 13:16-17, explains that the prophets and righteous of old only dreamed of meeting God face to face. 16 But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. 17 For truly, I say to you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it. The Disciples were given that opportunity so that the Truth would be revealed and a personal relationship could be established (also see Luke 8:9-10). 
Mark tells us:    
10 And when he was alone, those around him with the twelve asked him about the parables. 11 And he said to them, “To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside everything is in parables, 12 so that “‘they may indeed see but not perceive, and may indeed hear but not understand, lest they should turn and be forgiven.’” 13 And he said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables?”
 Mark 4:10-13
The Parables Jesus spoke were to give the insight needed so that when the 72 were sent, they could teach others what Jesus said and in their own words the expectation of the Kingdom to come. Jesus’ teachings are the base of all Christian thought. The problem today is that there are so many interpretations and the Word has been perverted so often to meet human needs that the world today does not know the Truth as it needs to be. Jesus warned us that men (and women) would misinterpret and speak with a slit tongue. We must be aware of the teachings of others and be vigilant in prayers of discernment to know right from wrong.
Jesus was and is the teller of His(S)tory. The story is not yet over and as we live out the remaining prophesies, we need to play our part of His plan so that we can enjoy His inheritance. As we continue to go through this year of change, may God bless your days and strengthen your desires to share His Story and the part He has played in your life.