Jesus: Our Lord, Savior, and Storyteller?

        What is this?  Well, duh, Lissa, it's a cave painting.  Elementary-level painting.  (And yet, so beautiful, in my opinion).  Okay, but just follow me here, What do we see here?  Some animals?  A herd of horses? So?  They're just horses, right?   Why paint just horses?  What is so important about this?  Historians have many different speculations for this.  Maybe, these horses were very important to the painters? Perhaps this led to an easier way for them to hunt?  To keep up with their prey?  As storytellers, the answer is much more obvious.  Possibly because I just gave it away.  This painting is telling a story.  (Possibly a Dreamworks one about horses?)
         After these paintings, we stumble across the first human civilizations.  Mesopotamia, Egypt, and so on.  What do these civilizations have in common?  A lot, actually.  But, there's one underlying theme: their stories. Besides farming, trade, authority, these ancient humans believed they simply had to tell stories to explain the world around them.  Along with technology and science, each civilization offered new and elaborate tales of gods and heroes and adventure.  Of love and hate.  Of anger and sadness.  Of gods and humans.  Of life and death.  And life again?
        In class, this was temporarily brought up, Leeper (who is a beautiful man and a genius) said that God acts out the dreams and stories we tell. Okay, time out.  Remember the "seasons" we discussed in class the other day.  How we all had said that life cycles through each one from birth to death to birth again?

       Take, for example, Osiris from Egyptian mythology.  He was the god of the Afterworld.  It was because of him that Pharaohs were mummified.  Why?  Well, his brother, Set, had torn his body in pieces and took over as king of Egypt.  Through the power of love (quite literally), his wife, Isis, pieced him together again, giving him life once again.  Thus, he ruled over the dead, giving them life after death.  Hm?  Sound familiar.  That's because this story has been told since the very beginning. 

      Now, question time.  Do you think God enjoys our silly little stories (besides the idolistic ones,of course)?  I mean the silliness of a carriage turning into a pumpkin at midnight.  A girl marrying a rich man after selflessly serving her step-mother (or mother-in-law) without ever trying to get anything in return.  A boy defeating a giant.  A boy, now a man, giving his life up for those he loves and, somehow able to come back to lead them against his enemy.  Hm... This is starting to sound really familiar, actually. 

     Okay, time in.  Now, y'all know where I'm going with this.  We talked a bit about it in class.  Leeper suggested that perhaps God sent Jesus to fulfill not only his own prophecies, but maybe also to fulfill the ancient stories we've told. We know what Jesus said while on Earth.  He was the son of God come to die for our sins.  He said it over and over (and, yet, no one still believed him).  We know the teachings, too.  "Love thy neighbor as thyself." The Good Samaritan.  The Prodigal Son.  The parable of the Mustard Seed.  Now, wait. 

    Now, this is interesting.  Jesus told stories.  I literally scribbled that down in my notes Thursday.  How about that?  Jesus taught through stories.  Of course, we have the Sermon on the Mount and such.  But, how many times did Jesus frustrate his followers through parables?  God not only sent his Son  to become human to fulfill our stories, but when he got here, he started telling his own stories!  

    So, now I'm wondering if storytelling is a human trait?  Every culture around the world has stories. Each culture explains the world around them in equally unique and equally similar ways. And, while he was here, Jesus taught through stories.  The Lord Almighty.  The one we sing praises to in Chapel.  The one we thank for our daily bread.  He taught (continues to teach) the way we have since our own creation!  So, take heart, fellow storytellers.  We may not be architects or lawyers or engineers.  But, neither was Jesus.  He was a storyteller.  And so are we.  

    And, maybe, just maybe, that might be a reason why God created us in the first place.  Maybe he birthed us.  And, though we tragically chose our death, he offered a new birth.  A way to join him once again.  Maybe to tell him stories.  

     Hm...that would make a good story.