A Life Changing Story
Telling stories is one of the things that makes us human.
We are creatures who are capable of reflecting and remembering. Usually stories have a more powerful effect on us than ordinary information or moral teaching. Our lives are shaped by the stories we remember and tell. Our lives are also shaped by the stories we don’t remember and tell.
A number of years ago in another community, I, as a pastor, visited a young couple who had come to our congregation.
They were a normal young married couple with little kids, but they seemed restless and discontent. In our conversation it came up that he was the son of Hungarian parents who became refugees while fleeing Hungary during the revolution in 1956.
When I commented that it must have been a very difficult and scary experience for his parents, and that they were probably most grateful to have settled in Canada after their hardships, he said that his parents had never talked about it and he had no idea what they had lived through.
I then learned that the wife also came from a family of refugees fleeing Communism overseas. I actually knew a bit of her family’s history and commented that her grandfather had been a very prominent religious leader who had a profound influence in helping thousands of his people emigrate to Canada and become settled here.
It was quite surprising to hear that she knew almost nothing of her grandfather’s work and influence.
I felt so sad for these two young parents. In their background lay stories of family members who had shown great courage, fortitude, daring, faith, commitment and generosity in some terribly challenging circumstances of life.
Their lives could have been greatly inspired, directed and strengthened by the remembering and retelling of these stories, but the stories were not given to them.
Stories of faith are likewise important, if not more so. They remind us of what is important in life and faith, and inspire, direct and strengthen our living. Jesus once told the story we call “The Good Samaritan,” about a person beaten half-dead by robbers and left on a remote roadside. Two different religious leaders passed by without stopping to help. Only a man from a despised ethnic group stopped and saved the life of the victim. This simple story has reminded billions of people of the importance of walking the talk; of our responsibility to help people in need.
We are nearing the climax of the Lent and Easter season. During this time we reflect on and tell the story of the One, the Christ whom God sent to earth to accomplish His purpose of salvation. Those of us who are Christians believe this is the most important story of our lives, indeed of all history.
Unfortunately, all too often Christians have allowed the story to lose much of its power. Familiarity with the story has hindered recognition of its profound drama and significance: literally a life and death encounter between God in human form (Jesus) and human authority and power (religious and political authorities).
Lack of interest in historical context has domesticated a shocking story: most of the victim’s friends deserted him, and religious leaders conspired with brutal political leaders to cruelly torture (bloody whipping of 39 lashes) and viciously execute him (by excruciating crucifixion).
Turning the story into a formula for salvation – “Jesus came to die for my sins” – has caused us to ignore the larger picture of the drama and its profound claim on our lives.
In Christ, God was coming to humankind to show His love for us, and to remove the barriers that keep us from recognizing His love and being reconciled with Him.
Paul puts it powerfully bluntly thus: “For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more surely, having been reconciled, will we be saved by His life” (Romans 5:10).
“Dying for our sins” is one part of it, but there is so much more. We Christians see that in Jesus, God was present in our midst and we not only rejected Him, we murdered Him. Jesus knew the fate that awaited Him, understood that He walked among “enemies” who wished to eliminate Him.
His response was not to use violence to defend Himself or punish the enemy, but to do as He had always done: reach out to one and all with love, grace and forgiveness.
The Easter story is not primarily about a formula for how I can escape hell and go to heaven. It is the expansive account of the climactic encounter between God and human beings, with God determined to reconcile the world to Himself and choosing to accomplish this through self-sacrificing love.
This Easter story reminds us of our human frailty, of our potential for evil and sin, of our need, desire and hope to be freed from being enemies of God to being reconciled to Him and living for Him, of our calling to be emissaries of God in inviting all people, even and especially our enemies, to know His love and grace, of God’s intention for us to treat our enemies the way He treats His.
Now that’s a life changing story.
