Everyone has a story.
Once upon a time, I was walking with two very funny people. So funny they had careers in comedy. Being with them was always a blast. You could count on laughing so hard your side would ache, cringing with a "I can't believe you just said that!" reaction and wishing, oh so wishing, you could be that funny too. When I was walking and listening to them I blurted out, mid-laughter... "I wish I could be funny." They just looked at me... seriously. I, in similar seriousness, restated, "I'm just not that funny." To this they burst into laughter! At first I didn't know whether they were humoring me (no pun intended) or genuinely caught off guard by my unassuming wit! When I asked them what was so funny? They just said... "That was funny." Their point, as we talked about humor, was everyone is funny. But we try to say funny things when we over look what is truly funny is often where we find ourselves!
"It would be funny if it wasn't so tragic!" Ever heard that? or how about, "How in the world did I get myself into such a mess?" Maybe this one... "I never saw it coming."
Everyone has a story. Yet few people can really tell a story.
Jesus was a master story teller... these stories or parables we call them have had a lasting impact beyond culture and context. Each parable told either revealed the nature of the Kingdom of God or the heart of the listener. When we read these stories today we are without the presence of these listeners and without them we most likely miss much of the meaning of the story being told. We can categorize these listeners in three ways... 1) Disciples or followers of Jesus. 2) Religious types such as pharisees, scribes and priests and 3) sinners or common folks without faith. From tax collectors and lepers to the poor, it pretty much describes anyone not a disciple or religious.
As Jesus told stories, the characters within were usually the characters around. Take the story of the Prodigal in Luke 15. The audience was religious types who were questioning the company Jesus kept and the sinners and tax collectors who basically were the ones around the table when Jesus ate dinner. In the story were three characters... the Father; who graciously and abundantly grants favor and forgiveness to the next character... the youngest son; who disrespectfully asks for his inheritance, all but saying, "Dad, thanks for letting me have all these wonderful things so I can now act as though you're dead!" And the oldest brother; who disdains both father and younger brother for their frivolity and reckless behavior.
Jesus tells the story placing his listeners at the very center of the story by causing both sinners to identify with the younger brother... "I have sinned against heaven and you, I am no longer worthy of being called your son..." vs.18,19 and the religious to identify with the older... "I have never once refused to do a thing you told me to do!" vs.29 NLT.
Today when we hear this story it is easy for us to adopt a beautiful "and they lived happily ever after" mindset but the object remains the same as it did two thousand years ago... put yourself in the story! Who are you? Sinner... needing to return home? Religious... arrogant and demanding? Either way, neither are very funny. They are tragic, a mess and the outcome was nothing anyone would have predicted.
Jesus, found himself the center of a story, which for any outsider might think, tragic, mess, never saw it coming, but in fact, he knew all along how the story would end. Not only was he the master storyteller, He is the master story! Or to be cute... H is story!
What's your story? I could use a good laugh!
