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Gospels – Love to Live the Story We Love to Tell
Luke 1:31-35 – (31) “Blah blah blah blah.” (32) “Blah blah blah blah.” (33) “Blah blah blah blah.” (34) “Blah blah blah blah.” (35) “Blah blah blah blah.”
That is not exactly what you expected, is it? That inane introduction has two instructive purposes. First, it suggests that we can be so familiar with a story so as to become numb to its true impact so that we stop hearing it. Second, the story we love to tell is not the story people expected. In fact, I would suggest that we need to look deeper into the story. Only by becoming uncomfortable can we truly love to tell the story.
Imagine that the first time that you are introduced to Jesus you are an unmarried, possibly teenage girl, who is told you are going to miraculously conceive the Messiah your people has been waiting for, for 2000 years. Imagine that this introduction will make your future fiancé question your faithfulness to him. Imagine the scorn that you will have to live with. Imagine that your life is about to change forever, where, as someone later will tell you, a sword will pierce even your own soul (Lk.2:35). Now imagine that nothing else matters because of who it is that you are being introduced to – Jesus. We can only imagine because for us it is a story, although a true and real story. For Mary, it was to become her story. Imagine being introduced to Jesus as if you were Mary.
Imagine the strangest dream you have ever dreamed – and we all know we can have wild dreams – but imagine that the dream is real. Imagine going to bed with a plan, having your real life dream to be married, ruined and trampled upon by the supposed betrayal of your fiancé; only to be comforted in your nighttime dream so that your plan is completely changed. Imagine being willing to live with any gossip anyone might have because you marry someone who is already pregnant. Imagine being willing to raise a child not your own. Imagine being introduced to Jesus as if you were Joseph.
As said before, this is not the story we love to tell. This is a story of ridicule. So, why did this story become the beginning of a story we love to tell? And how did this story become one we love to tell? There is nothing normal and sanitized about this story of Jesus that we love to tell. And that is the point. Being a Christian will bring ridicule. There is nothing normal and sanitized as to why Jesus came to earth to be born. Sin is not God’s norm. Sin makes us unclean before God. Jesus came into the world because we are sinners. To truly understand the story we love to tell, we have to confess the story we are ashamed of – we are unclean sinners. In order to love the story and tell it, we have to be willing to live a ridiculed life. Only then, and because of that, can we receive the grace of God, and truly rejoice in the story we love to tell.
Charles Dickens wrote a book to sum up the life of Jesus for his children. In it the portrait emerges of a sweet Victorian nanny who pats the heads of boys and girls and offers such advice as, “Now, children, you must be nice to your mummy and daddy.” Is this the Jesus we grew up with? A “Mister Rogers type Jesus?”
Jesus did treat children kindly, and that got the children and parents ridiculed. Jesus did tell people to treat others nicely, but is that His main message? Was Jesus a “Mr. Manners” for the first century? “How would (just) telling people to be nice to one another get a man crucified? What government would execute Mister Rogers or Captain Kangaroo?” (Philip Yancey, The Jesus I Never Knew, pp.14-15.)
How can there be so many different views of Christ? Most people remake Jesus into their own image so that they can tell that story. They see what they want to see. They will look at many of the vignettes in the life of Christ and disregard those that don’t fit their preconceived conclusion. We’ve never really walked with Him as if we didn’t already know Him.
I have a confession to make: I am not sure I would have enjoyed walking with Jesus, especially when I was younger. I think He would have made me too uncomfortable. It’s not that I was a great sinner, according to the world’s standard; I don’t think I would have enjoyed walking with Jesus because all my life I was so…religious – remember, it was the religious people that crucified Jesus. It was the religious people whom Jesus scathingly scolded so often. Just think, he made some statements that were considered blasphemous – “your sins are forgiven” (Mk.2:5); “before Abraham was born I am” (Jn.8:58); “I am the way, the truth and the life (Jn.14:6).
To truly understand the story we love to tell, we have to confess the story we are ashamed of – we might be too comfortable with being religious to tell the real story. Only after accepting that the most religious were often the greater sinners can we receive the grace of God, and truly rejoice in the story we love to tell.
Seven percent of people believe that Elvis Presley is still alive. That is seven percent more than who believed Jesus was alive when they came to the tomb. This easiest belief to accept is that which we grow up with. The easier belief to reject is the same. What would have been your reaction on that first Sunday of the resurrection? Would you have even needed to go to the tomb? Would you have said, “Of course He is resurrected, He told us He would be.” If it would be easy for you to believe, then I would suggest that makes the story not the one you love to tell. Anything that is easy loses its magnificence and awe. Stories that are common every day examples are not stories we love to tell.
The resurrection story in John 20 is filled with running. Mary runs to the apostles, and then Peter and John run to the tomb. None of them are running out of joy or conviction, but rather out of confusion. If you were writing a story that people in the first century loved to tell, this would not be it. A woman is the first witness? Why not the apostles? Not only were they men, they were Jesus’ closest friends. Speaking of the apostles, does the resurrection story tell the story they would love to tell about themselves? Did they believe before they came to the tomb? Did they believe when they first came to the tomb? This is not an easy story to believe. At least it was not for them.
No one, and I repeat, no one on that Sunday morning, at first believed Jesus based on His word only, or even the scriptures prophesying it. The story we love to tell was rejected by the majority of people in the first century. The resurrection got ridiculed (Acts 17:32) was considered foolish or moronic (1 Cor.1). In order for this story to become the story we love to tell, we must be willing to tell it even when ridiculed and thought strange, out of touch with society and reason. Only after then, and because of that, can we receive the grace of God, and truly rejoice in the story we love to tell.
Personalizing all these thoughts into a final succinct thought, in order to love to tell the story, we must first love to live the story, deeply, no matter how much at first it hurts.
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