I love a good story, don’t you?
Storytelling is a distinctly human
trait. No matter how proficiently animals like dolphins, apes and some birds
can communicate with us, they don’t care about stories. People, on the other
hand, almost seem to be born craving stories. Think about the child at bedtime
– “One more story, mommy! Just one more.”
As we move through our lives, we find stories almost everywhere:
books, movies, TV shows, music, even commercials tell us tiny little 30 second
stories. The Bible is filled with stories. Who doesn’t enjoy retelling or
listening again to the stories of Joseph, his beautiful coat, and his
treacherous brothers; Samson’s feats of strength; and King David’s battle with
Goliath.
A well-told story can transcend time and place, social status,
education level, and political or religious affiliation. That explains why
Jesus used stories and parables so often in His teaching. The people who came
to hear Jesus speak varied widely in their intellect, occupation and education.
There were theologians, farmers, beggars. If He had directed His lessons to any
one group, He would have lost the interest of the others. By telling parables,
each person was engaged and able to understand the story within the framework
of his own education and experience.
As I thought about the effectiveness of storytelling as a teaching
tool, I remembered a study I’d read about that found that when people are shown
a normal (realistic) drawing of a person along with a caricature of the same
person, they will recognize the caricature more readily than the realistic
drawing.
Why? Well according to the study, it’s because the caricature minimizes
the “average” parts of a person’s face and emphasizes the distinctive features.[1]
“OK,” I hear you saying, “but we’re talking about stories and
parables, not caricatures.”
True, but I believe that the best stories do the same thing as
caricatures do – they condense ideas into their most important points so that
they’re easier for us to imagine and remember.
Think of the story of the Prodigal Son. Jesus could have told His
audience about all the disagreements the younger son had had with His father;
the step-by-step progression that brought him to ask for his inheritance. He
could have gone into specifics about the relationship between the two brothers,
too. He could have mentioned the boys’ mother and how she felt about the whole
situation. But all of that would have diluted the story until it sounded just
like everyday life. People would have gotten bored; they might have decided
that since they weren’t a man, or a younger brother, or whatever that the story
didn’t apply to them. By telling just enough, Jesus made it possible for every
one of us to share the experience each of the characters in the story.
Another great advantage of storytelling is that we can say things in
the context of the story that we probably wouldn’t get away with saying
directly.
An example of this is the story of David and the prophet Nathan. Think
about it – David has just pulled off what he figures is the perfect cover-up of
his affair with Bathsheba when Nathan shows up and tells him a parable about a
rich man stealing a poor man’s only, much loved, sheep. Once David is properly
worked up about the injustice of the story, Nathan points out that David had
done just that.
Chances are, if Nathan had marched into David’s throne room and
spelled out all the things David had done wrong, Nathan wouldn’t have lived
through the afternoon. As it was, David was convicted by his own reaction to
the story and was brought to repentance instead of defiance.
Jesus could have gone from person to person spelling out exactly
where each one was wrong and needed to change immediately, but as we all know,
that only puts people on the defensive and really makes it much less likely
that they will listen to anything anyone has to say after that.
Using parables allowed Jesus to put the needed information out there
in a way that didn’t back anybody into a corner … it allowed (and still allows)
each hearer to face their own need for forgiveness and redemption and take
steps to receive those things.
This story from Kevin Harney’s book, Seismic Shifts, illustrates this
point.
“It was a battle. A wrestling match. A test of wills. Every day, at exactly the same time, Margaret would go to the bathroom cabinet, open it, and take out a huge bottle of castor oil. Then she would head to the kitchen to get a tablespoon. At the sound of the drawer opening and the silverware rattling, Patches, her Yorkshire terrier, would run and hide—sometimes under the bed, at other times in the bathtub or behind Margaret's recliner. Patches knew what was coming.
“Someone had convinced Margaret that her beloved dog would have strong teeth, a beautiful coat, and a long life if she gave him a spoonful of castor oil every day. So, as an act of love every 24 hours, she cornered Patches, pinned him down, pried open his mouth, and—as he whimpered, squirmed, and fought her with all his strength—poured a tablespoon of castor oil down his little doggie throat. Neither Patches nor Margaret enjoyed their daily wrestling match.
“Then one day, in the middle of their battle royal, with one sideways kick, Patches sent the dreaded bottle of castor oil flying across the kitchen floor. It was a momentary victory for the canine, as Margaret let him go so she could run to the pantry and grab a towel to clean up the mess.
“When Margaret got back, she was utterly shocked. There was Patches licking up the spilled castor oil with a look of satisfaction only a dog can make. Margaret began to laugh uncontrollably. In one moment, it all made sense. Patches liked castor oil. He just hated being pinned down and having it poured down his throat.”[2]
Jesus’ use of parables and stories is just one more evidence that He
loves us enough to let us choose our own destiny. He never tries to shove
anything down our throats. He puts it out there and it’s up to us to make our
choice.
How will we share His love with the people we meet – by pointing out
all they’ve done wrong or by showing them all that Jesus has done to make us
right for His Kingdom?
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