storiesofvalue

Jesus wasn’t the only physician in His day.  In his letter to the Colossians Paul calls Luke, the writer of the gospel bearing his name, a doctor (Colossians 4:14).  In Mark 5:26 we are told a woman with a blood disorder had suffered many years under the care of many doctors, and had spent all she had.  There were enough doctors around for Jesus’ analogy, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick” to make sense (Matthew 9:12).  And in Jesus’ hometown, He exposed His skeptics: “Surely you will quote this proverb to me: ‘Physician, heal yourself!’” (Luke 4:23).

Jesus wasn’t the only physician, but He was “The” Physician who had power over every disease and sickness.  I am told the word “disease” mentioned in Matthew 4:23 refers to an illness, while the word “sickness” focuses more on the infirmities caused by disease.  For example, the flu is caused by a virus, but the flu manifests itself in headaches, body aches, fever and cough.  Jesus waged war on both, which explains why a lame man was able to carry his own bed without physical therapy.

It is any wonder people flocked to Jesus?  His healing percentage was 100% effective, and it was free!  We aren’t told of any animosity in the medical community toward Jesus, but we have to wonder if there weren’t some who were afraid He was going to put them out of business.  He undoubtedly cut into their profits.  So what has changed?

The Physician

Jesus is the greatest healer ever to walk the earth.  He stopped leprosy in its tracks, restored sight, and made the lame to walk.  He even raised the dead! Matthew 4:23 reads, “Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people.”

Did you catch that?  Jesus healed “every” disease and sickness.  It you could arrange a meeting with Jesus you were pretty much guaranteed a healing.  Your healing would be instantaneous, verifiable and complete.

Have you ever met someone who hasn’t walked in years?  I have known a few as friends.  In each case their muscles had atrophied and they had adjusted to a rhythm in life that doesn’t involve standing on two legs.  Some had spinal cord damage and some muscular diseases, but the result was always the same: they were confined to a wheelchair or hospital bed, forever.

This was the case with a lame man who was lowered from a rooftop in a house in Capernaum where Jesus was teaching (Mark 2:1-12).  When Jesus saw him He forgave His sins, causing no small stir among the teachers of the law.  Then, to prove He had authority over sin, Jesus told him to pick up his bed and go home.  The man stood up, grabbed his bed and walk out in clear view of everyone.  What a scene!  I have often wondered if he waved at the crowd and strutted a bit on his way out.  There was no wobbling or staggering to find his balance.  He just stood up and left.  The rhythm of his infirmity had been replaced by a new beat; his atrophy reversed.  This sort of thing just doesn’t happen, even with modern medicine.  People don’t go from years of immobility to carrying stuff around in an instant, unless they have met the Physician.  When the Physician shows up, anything is possible.

I like to think of Jesus’ parables as “say for example” theology, rounding out our understanding of how we practically apply truth in our daily lives.  This is, to a great degree, how the parables were presented in the first place.  “How many times should I forgive?”  “Well, let’s say for example a man owed a king a great debt.”  “Who is my neighbor?”  “Say for example, a man was traveling down a road and fell among thieves?”

We use this approach all the time when we try to describe Christian character in action.  “Say for example someone cuts you off in traffic.”  “What if, for example, you discovered a co-worker was stealing from your company?”  It would be interesting to see the examples Jesus would use in our culture had He come in our age and used parables as a teaching tool.  Yet, the parables set against the backdrop of the land Jesus trod are as relevant today as they were when He spoke them.  He wisely chose timeless cues, personalities and circumstances people of any era can understand.  As we sift through His parables we begin to understand what life is supposed to be like in the kingdom.  We also see how it compares and contrasts with the kingdoms of this world.

Perhaps Jesus knew He wouldn’t be here in the flesh to model kingdom life.  Therefore, He gave us the parables, engaged us with the truth, and filled us with His spirit to bring about our transformation.  In this way we become living examples of the kingdom.  “For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” (Colossians 1:13-14)

The parable that convicts me most is often called the “Parable of the Unforgiving Servant.”  It is found in Matthew 18:21-35 and has a way of reminding us all we have short memories.  The parable was a response to Peter’s question, “Lord, how many times should I forgive my brother who sins against me; seven times?”

In the parable a king settled some accounts with his servants and discovered one of them was short by an enormous amount.  We are told the servant owed the king ten thousand talents.  A talent was a weight measure in ancient times, and if the material was gold, the debt would have had a modern value in the billions!  The king decided to put his servant in prison, sell his possessions and enslave his family, but when the servant begged for mercy he forgave him his debt.  It is hard to imagine a king being this gracious, but this is Jesus’ story, and we can quickly surmise He is talking about His Father.  What happens next is disheartening.  The servant who was forgiven the great debt found another servant who owed him a small debt.  He choked him and had him thrown into prison.  When the second servant’s friends saw what had happened they told the king.  The king was not happy!  He spoke harshly to the first servant and had him thrown into prison to be tortured until he was able to repay his debt.  But wait!  The debt was too great to pay.  Exactly!

Before I finish explaining my attachment to this parable I want you to know I don’t live in constant fear of God.  Jesus has cast out fear and I can approach my Heavenly Father in full assurance of His grace.  I don’t deserve His mercy, but He has offered it freely on the cross of Calvary.  On the other hand, I do fear God.  I fear what might happen to me if I deny His mercy.  Every time I am tempted to hurt others because I think they owe me something I remember the words of the second criminal at Calvary when he chastised the first: “Don’t you fear God?” (Luke 23:40)  I also remember the words of Paul to the Roman Christians, “Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody.  If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.  Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: ‘It is mine to avenge; I will repay,’ says the Lord” (Rom 12:17-19 NIV)

Therefore, if I have been forgiven an impossible debt at Calvary, who am I to torture others for the harm they inflict on me?  This has always been a challenge for me.  Maybe it is because I have some clannish Welsh blood in me.  My father’s people are from the mountains of Eastern Kentucky.  Do you think the history of violence in that part of the country was all about coal and moonshine?  Well, perhaps these things contributed to the problem.  But mostly, a long memory is bred into my Appalachian kind.  We are willing to “live and let live”, but we don’t forget.

But when my sinful human nature comes to the surface, the words of the criminal pierce me, “Don’t you fear God?”  I don’t live in fear, but I fear living in fear.  I am convinced if I refuse to pass God’s grace along He is going to hunt me down.  And God has no problem finding us when the need arises.

Disillusioned or Deluded?

Which group do you identify with in Jesus parables: the one that was tired of empty religious rhetoric or the one that was convinced of its own righteousness?  Don’t answer too quickly.

I believe most of us can sympathize with the first group.  Who hasn’t endured the condescending attitude of the spiritual superstar, quick to criticize, and slow to admit wrong?  Someone calls us brother, but speaks against us in private.  We try to take the high road, but nothing we do seems to be good enough.  It becomes obvious we can never be good enough, and even when we are there is some good we failed to perform.  It’s hard being a sinner, but much more difficult living with no hope of redemption; at least in the eyes of those making the rules.  Even if we know the Lord, and aren’t duped into thinking we are hopeless sinners, we can still be robbed of our peace.

Since we have felt the barb of the self-righteous, we cannot imagine ourselves standing with them.  Surely we wouldn’t have condemned the sinner who anointed Jesus’ feet with expensive perfume, or grabbed a stone to kill the adulterous woman.  We wouldn’t have complained because a man with a withered hand was healed on the Sabbath, or kicked a man born blind out of the synagogue because we couldn’t imagine God blessing someone we believed to be cursed.

But we really must ask: are there others who might see us differently?  How about our cold behavior toward the fast-food cashier when we grab a meal after church?  Is it hard for you to believe someone with political views contrary to your own loves the Lord?  Would we be as sure of our righteousness if our secret sins were posted somewhere for the whole world to see?  Alright, it might be true some of us behave better, make wiser decisions and have a better internal moral compass.  But where would we be had we not been taught?

I don’t mean to suggest there isn’t such a thing as a righteous life.  If that were true, Noah wouldn’t have found favor from God and we wouldn’t be here today.  We should strive for a righteous life and seek to serve God with all of our heart, mind and soul.  It’s just that Jesus’ parables have a way of keeping us honest, if we have ears to hear and eyes to see.

A couple of years ago, during a spiritual emphasis sermon series, I encouraged our church family to carry a twenty-dollar bill with them and give it to someone in need when the opportunity arose.  Twenty-dollars posed a significant stretch for those who were living on a tight budget, but the amount wasn’t what challenged people most.  The biggest struggle was answering the question an expert in the Law asked Jesus: “Who is my neighbor?”  The lawyer had accurately quoted the second greatest commandment to “Love your neighbor as yourself,” but he was troubled by the possibility his neighborhood might be larger than hoped.

In answer to the lawyer’s question, Jesus told His famous parable of The Good Samaritan (Luke 10:32-37).  In His parable, a Samaritan was the only one who cared for a dying man, while a priest and Levite passed him by.  Samaritans were looked down on by people like the lawyer, so we can assume Jesus’ command to “go and do likewise” hit hard.

Does this sound like something that could have happened today?  Do some people in our world ignore the cries of the helpless?  Are prior commitments and legal contracts still used by religious people as an excuse for mistreating fellow believers?  I will let you grapple with the answers to these questions, but I have discovered human nature hasn’t changed much.  The timeless properties of Jesus’ parables still stir our conscience.  God expects nothing more or less of His kingdom citizens now than then, and Satan still twists our values and priorities to blind us to the truth.

Some stories become classics because they capture human nature in its truest form and provide windows into history’s transitions.  For example, Ernest Hemmingway’s novel, “The Old Man and the Sea” became a monumental capstone at the end of his literary career.  It was also set in Cuba just a few years before the Communist revolution.

Every one of Jesus’ parables are classic because they teach us kingdom truths at a time when Jesus was laying the foundation for the coming church.  Jesus described this season of change in His parable of the wine skins.  No one tries to put new wine in old, stretched-out wine skins, or patch an old wine skin with new skin.  The new wine will ferment and burst the skin or make the patch pull away (Matthew 9:16-16).  In the same way, Jesus’ death and resurrection fulfilled God’s old covenant Law and ushered in a new and lasting covenant of grace.

Though the parable of the wine skins captured this important shift in covenants, it also illustrated the human tendency to miss what God is doing among His people.  We sometimes fail to realize our methods of reaching our lost world are no longer effective and ignore the new opportunities God is placing before us.

After two thousand years, people are still referring to the simple stories Jesus told to teach eternal truths.  They continue to convict, inspire and guide.  And just as they did in Jesus’ day, they also create controversy as our views of kingdom life are challenged.

This “something else” for Jesus was His Father’s kingdom.  His stories were called “parables”, which bring two things alongside one another for contrast or comparison.  In the case of Jesus’ teachings, eternal truths were brought alongside human experiences to drive His point home.

Jesus used parables to cut through the hard exterior of His listener’s hearts.  Some of the people who came to hear Him were tired of religious teachers.  They had been taught God’s Law since childhood, and understood its nuances, as well as man-made traditions piled on through generations of rabbinical leadership.  The teachers were faithful in communicating expectations, but they were so far from the heart of God their message was void of love and grace.  Without this crucial balance their teachings were used to puff up their personal pride and condemn others.  Is it any wonder Jesus’ style was welcomed with open arms by those who had been spiritually harassed?  His yoke was easy and his burden light (Matthew 11:29-30).

But the teachers came too.  They complained a great deal (Matthew 9:11), but they still came.  Their hearts were hardened by self-righteousness, and they were convinced they didn’t need spiritual help (Matthew 9:12). It was hard for them to hear the truth, and when they recognized themselves as the villains in Jesus’ parables they decided to kill Him!

In Matthew 13:13-15 Jesus explained His rationale for teaching in parables this way: ^“This is why I speak to them in parables: “Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand.  In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah:” ‘You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving. For this people’s heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.’”

Through parables, Jesus chose a form proven to connect with life, stir adventure and communicate the heart to teach important kingdom truths.  And He did so with a style that was irresistible to some and reprehensible to others.  Only a Master Story Teller could find a way to touch everyone.  The reactions were varied, but there was always a response.

The Story Teller

I love stories.  We all do.  The question of why we love them is an interesting one.

We love a good story because stories imitate life.  The reason books and movies move us is because they allow us to process life through others.   We understand the obstacles characters are facing and the tension they are attempting to resolve.  For this reason, we might say we love stories because we all know how complicated life can be and it makes us feel hopeful when others succeed.

Stories also deliver adventure.  Murder mysteries, science fiction and historical novels all lead us down a road with an uncertain outcome.  Have you ever read a book you couldn’t put down?  The author cleverly held your attention by crafting a plot and you couldn’t quit reading, or a movie producer kept you on the edge of your seat because you couldn’t wait to see what was going to happen next.  Perhaps stories with adventure satisfy our desire to fulfill our dreams, whether or not we are able to invest the time and money to pursue them on our own.

But we mustn’t think stories have to have a well-developed plot to keep us engaged.  There are others factors.  For example, a small child will sit in his mother’s arms and listen to her read the same simple picture book night after night.  He might like a particular picture or the way his mother pronounces a certain word, but it is possible that is as deep as it goes.  It is enough his mother is holding him.  In fact, her loving arms are a part of the experience, just as taking others with us to a movie makes it more enjoyable.  Stories give us an opportunity to interact with others.  The dialogue around the story can be as important as the story itself.

In C.S. Lewis’ On Stories: And Other Essays on Literature, he wrote, “To be stories at all they must be a series of events: but it must be understood that this series – the plot, as we call it – is only really a new whereby to catch something else.”  This “something else” is the foundation of story as told by Jesus.