The Storyteller - As told by Nathanael

Some of these little stories he certainly told for our benefit, but, as often as not, he'd be talking to crowds of ordinary people ‑ in the market‑place, by the lake, wherever. Often, people would be moved by what he said, and perhaps someone would call out, "Lord, Lord!" "Why do you keep calling me 'Lord, Lord!'", he says, "when you don't do what I say? I'll show you what it's like when someone comes to me, listens to my teaching and then follows it: it's like a person building a house who digs down deep and lays his foundations on solid rock. When the rains come and the floodwaters rise and break against the house, it'll stand firm, because it's been well built. But anyone who hears and doesn't obey what I say is like a person who builds a house without any real foundations at all. When the floods sweep down against that house, it'll simply collapse into a heap of ruins."

And here's another of his little stories about building: "A rich man had a fertile farm", he says, "producing some fine crops. So he says to himself, 'What shall I do now? I don't have room to store all my crops.' So he says, 'I know! I'll tear down my existing barns and build bigger ones. Then I'll have room enough to store all my wheat and my other goods. Then I'll sit back and say to myself, "My friend, you've enough stored away for years to come. Now take it easy! Eat, drink, and be merry!" But God says to him, 'You fool! This very night, you're going to die, and then who's going to get everything you worked so hard for?' Yes, I tell you, a person is a fool to store up earthly wealth, but not have a rich relationship with God."

The little group who were following Jesus gradually became a bit more clearly defined. There were a fair number of us, in fact, including quite a lot of women, but eventually he chose just twelve of us 'regulars', to form a kind of 'inner group' of men. As John the Baptiser had done, he called us his 'disciples' (which means 'teachable people') ‑ later on, of course, we would also become known as 'apostles' (which means 'people sent out').

Word about this remarkable young Teacher soon got around, and we'd often find ourselves surrounded by some very large crowds, all eager to hear what he had to say. Mostly, they were 'locals' from Galilee, but there were often a few 'High-ups' from Jerusalem there, too ‑ Law‑Teachers, Scribes, Pharisees, those kind of people ‑ checking up on Jesus, I suppose, to make sure he was 'toeing the party line'. To be honest with you, I was pretty scared of them ‑ always whispering to one another and asking awkward questions. I don't think they really wanted to learn anything from him! They thought they knew better, I suppose.

I mentioned before that one of the places where Jesus would choose to talk to the crowds was along the shore of the Sea of Galilee. That was fine when there were just 30 or 40 people, but if the crowds grew much bigger than that it became a problem, because there's not much shoreline along the lake ‑ just room enough to pull up a few boats out of the water ‑ that's all, really. So, since some of the other disciples are fishermen, one afternoon he says to a couple of them, "I'll just hop into your boat, and preach to them from there!" So they pushed the boat a few yards out into the lake, and he talked to the crowds from there. It worked like a charm!

There are fields all round the lake, sloping down towards the water, and Jesus points out a farmer nearby, trudging along across his field, scattering seed all the way. It's quite a skilled job, actually ‑ you can always tell if the seed has been sown evenly, by an experienced hand, once the wheat begins to show! "Listen!", he says, "A farmer just like that chap went out to plant some seed. As he scattered it across his field, some of the seed fell on the path, and the birds came and gobbled it up. Other seed fell on shallow soil, with underlying rock; the seed sprouted quickly, because the soil was shallow, but the plant soon wilted under the hot sun, and since it didn't have any deep roots, it died. Yet other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked out the tender plants, so they produced no grain; but still other seeds fell on fertile soil. They sprouted, grew, and produced a crop that was thirty, sixty ‑ even a hundred times as much as had been planted! Anyone with the ears to hear", he says, "should listen and understand!"

We did try to understand him, but ‑ to be honest ‑ most of us weren't really too sure what he'd been getting at! So, later, when the crowds had gone home, we asked him what his story meant, and he explained that it was all about something he called 'The Kingdom of God', and how different people respond to the Good News that he was bringing ‑ his Essential Message ‑ in different ways. The 'seed' he'd been talking about was the Word of God, so you'd think that everyone would want to receive it eagerly, but it doesn't work out like that, and just as those seeds didn't all sprout equally, so people would receive his Message in different ways. How true that would prove to be, later on!

Of course, we all wanted to know more about this 'Kingdom of God' ‑ we knew a good deal about Kingdoms, in those days, but what we saw of Herod's Kingdom, for example, wasn't very encouraging, to say the least! Neither was what we saw of the Roman Empire, in those parts: to us, it seemed impersonal and oppressive.

Often, Jesus would refer to this 'kingdom' as 'The Kingdom of Heaven'; I suppose he'd picked up that expression from John the Baptiser, whose rallying‑cry was always, "Repent of your sins, and turn to God, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near!" On one occasion, I remember asking him, "Master, what's this 'Kingdom of Heaven' like, that you keep talking about?" And, as so often, he would answer a question like that by telling us stories.

And what a great Storyteller Jesus was! ‑ he had lots of word‑pictures to share with us! For example, here's another one about a farmer: he plants good seed in his field, but then his enemy comes along and plants weeds alongside the good stuff. What to do? ‑ rip up the weeds? "No," says Jesus, "let them both grow together until harvest; otherwise you might damage the good crop as you're trying to uproot the bad stuff. Then, at harvest‑time, you can keep the weeds on one side, and burn them." I'm pretty sure now that he was really talking about people! "The Kingdom of Heaven", he says, "is like a mustard seed planted in a field. It's only a tiny little seed," he says, "but it'll become a whacking great tree, and birds'll come and make their nests in its branches."

Maybe he realised that people were finding it hard to follow what he was trying to tell them about this 'Kingdom of Heaven', for he used lots of other illustrations, as well. Yeast ‑ one little spoonful will spread through a whole batch of dough, to transform it into a beautiful loaf of bread. Treasure Trove ‑ you stumble across an undiscovered 'hoard', in a field, and so you go and sell everything you possess in order to buy that field, and make the treasure yours! Or a Pearl ‑ one of inestimable value; the knowledgeable merchant is prepared to sell everything he has in order to acquire that one lovely pearl.

Jesus knew that several of the disciples were fishermen, and I guess that's why he sometimes used illustrations about fishing. This one was especially graphic, and a bit frightening, I thought. "The Kingdom of Heaven", he says, "is like a fishing net that was thrown into the water and caught fish of every kind. When the net was full, they dragged it up onto the shore, sat down, and sorted the good fish into crates, but they threw the bad ones away." So far, so good ‑ that's exactly what we saw the fishermen doing when they came ashore with their catch. But he went on to explain what he meant: "That's the way it's going to be at the end of the world. The angels will come and separate the wicked people from the righteous, throwing the wicked into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." Scary, or what?

So maybe that's what he'd been trying to tell us, all the time! Seed, weeds, yeast, treasure, pearls, and now fish ‑ they were all stories about what was going to happen at what he called 'the end of the world', and how important it was that we all should use this life really well.

To be continued

BK‑S