Telling Stories!

 

I love hearing kids tell stories. They are so dramatic and captivating. With 3 daughters and 22 grandkids, I have heard some amazing tales. The imaginations and ability to tell stories, most of which are made up, is a gift that is often lost once we become BORING adults. As a part of my Masters work at Indiana Wesleyan Seminary, I had a course on storytelling. At the time I thought it was a little bit strange, but as I got into the content of the course it began to make great sense to me. And now as I host 8 discipleship groups each week, I wish I was a better storyteller. I really don’t even feel I read scripture out loud in a meaningful way. It is something I need to get better at. 

Of course the reason I was thinking about this dealt with the scripture I was reading. As I continue to delve into the gospels, I got into some of Jesus’ parables. Wow! He is such a great storyteller. I was reading one of Jesus’ awesome stories in preparation for a group and it really spoke to me about Jesus’ ability to weave a tale. 

“Now listen to another story. A certain landowner planted a vineyard, built a wall around it, dug a pit for pressing out grape juice, and built a lookout tower. Then he leased the vineyard to tenant farmers and moved to another country. At the time of the grape harvest, he sent his servants to collect his share of the crop. But the farmers grabbed his servants, beat one, killed one and stone another. So the landowner sent a larger group of his servants to collect for him, but the result was the same. Finally the owner sent his son, thinking,’Surely they will respect my son.’ But when the tenant farmers saw his son coming, they said to one another, ‘Here comes the heir to this estate. Come on, let’s kill him and get the estate for ourselves! So they grabbed him, dragged him out of the vineyard, and murdered him.” (Matthew 22:31-39)

Jesus tells this story and sucks in the religious leaders, the disciples, and the others listening. We find out they are outraged. Who wouldn’t be? Most people can’t stand this type of blatant disregard for justice. They would have been beside themselves with disgust. After Jesus gets them all riled up, he asks them what they think the Vineyard owner will do. They are harsh.

“The religious leaders replied, ‘He will put the wicked men to a horrible death and lease the vineyard to others who will give him his share of the crop after the harvest.” (Matthew 21:41)

But, it is right when they are filled with this rage, ready to spring into action to right this terrible wrong, Jesus makes his point. Through quoting Psalm 118:22, Jesus points out, this is exactly what the religious leaders are doing to him! He explains the religious leaders were the EVIL FARMERS. Ha! Gotcha! He artfully sprang the trap and his point was driven home!

What a wonderfully told story. Earlier in Matthew, the disciples ask Jesus why he always teaches in parables. Jesus clearly states that those with the right hearts, open to the Lord, can listen and understand. Those with hard hearts are blinded and deaf to God’s word. (Matthew 13:10-15)

As followers of Jesus, planting seeds, we need to keep sharing the gospel. We need to share our own story. It would be great if we would become great storytellers, capturing the imaginations of those we are witnessing to. They need to hear and understand the truth of the gospel. But, in reality, we don’t need to be that great of a story teller. All we need to do is just tell the REAL story of our lives, how Jesus has changed us. We need to prepare to share that story, let the Holy Spirit guide our message and let Him speak through us. Our lives are the best story for bringing others to him. Yes, some will listen and others will not. We will let God decide who is open to this message and who is not. Our duty is just to tell everyone we meet.