Jared C. Wilson - The Storytelling God: Seeing the Glory of Jesus in His Parables

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Growing up in church and Christian schools, I was taught that Jesuss parables were basically about how we should live. To be sure, many of the parables do show us Gods standard for our lives, but they also reveal how we have failed to live up to that standard, and how God in his infinite mercy has done for us what we could never do for ourselves. My friend Jared Wilson shows how Jesus used parables to illustrate the upside-down and counterintuitive ways of God compared to our ways. We see how the parables are not a witness to the best people making it up to God, but rather a witness to God making it down to the worst peoplemeeting our rebellion with his rescue, our sin with his salvation, our guilt with his grace, our badness with his goodness. Thanks for the reminder, Jared. I keep forgetting that this whole thing is about Jesus, not me.

Tullian Tchividjian, Pastor, Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church, Fort Lauderdale, Florida; author, One-Way Love: Inexhaustible Grace for an Exhausted World

Jared Wilsons new book is a punch in the gut. Gone are the tame, bedtime-story versions of the parables weve been told in the past. Instead, Wilson invites us to see them afresh with all of their explosive, imaginative power.

Mike Cosper , Pastor of Worship and Arts, Sojourn Community Church, Louisville, Kentucky

In showing us the parables of Jesus for what they are (and are not), Jared Wilson invites us into a deeper understanding of their author and the kingdom he came to establish. The Storytelling God teaches us to read and reflect upon the parables with great care, and rightly so. The parables, and this book, point the way to life abundant.

Scott McClellan, Communications Pastor, Irving Bible Church, Irving, Texas; author, Tell Me a Story: Finding God (and Ourselves) through Narrative

My own bookshelf has precious few commentaries on the parables and this will definitely fit nicely into that gap. In fact, this book is actually two books for the price of one. Part devotional commentary and also doubling as a solid gospel tract. This book serves the gospel straight up on a plate. His chapter commenting on the gospel and the poor is worth the price of the book alone. Clear, straightforward, biblical, gospel-centered writing. Definitely recommended reading.

Mez McConnell, Senior Pastor, Niddrie Community Church, Edinburgh; Director, 20schemes

With a characteristic combination of wit and wisdomhumor and sobrietyWilson grabs your attention, fixes it upon Christ, and keeps it there for the duration of the book. Readers in search of a pastoral introduction to biblical parables that is rich with real-life applicability can gladly make room for this volume on their bookshelf.

Stephen T. Um, Senior Minister, Citylife Presbyterian Church, Boston, Massachusetts; author, Why Cities Matter

THE STORYTELLING GOD

The Storytelling God: Seeing the Glory of Jesus in His Parables

Copyright 2014 by Jared C. Wilson

Published by Crossway
1300 Crescent Street
Wheaton, Illinois 60187

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher, except as provided for by USA copyright law.

Cover design: Faceout Studio, www.faceoutstudio.com

First printing 2014

Printed in the United States of America

Scripture quotations are from the ESV Bible ( The Holy Bible, English Standard Version ), copyright 2001 by Crossway. 2011 Text Edition. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Trade paperback ISBN: 978-1-4335-3668-7
ePub ISBN: 978-1-4335-3671-7
PDF ISBN: 978-1-4335-3669-4
Mobipocket ISBN: 978-1-4335-3670-0

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Wilson, Jared C., 1975

The storytelling God : seeing the glory of Jesus in his Parables / Jared C. Wilson.

1 online resource.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record and CIP data provided by publisher; resource not viewed.

ISBN 978-1-4335-3669-4 (pdf) ISBN 978-1-4335-3670-0 (mobi) ISBN 978-1-4335-3671-7 (epub) ISBN 978-1-4335-3668-7

1. Jesus ChristParables. I. Title.

BT375.3

226.8'06dc23

2013029344

Crossway is a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

To David McLemore,

who has helped me love Jesus

more deeply

Christianity is the story of how the rightful king has landed, you might say landed in disguise, and is calling us all to take part in a great campaign of sabotage.

C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

Contents

Throw away your Flannelgraphs. They are flat and soft, and the story of Jesus is neither.

I dont remember the day I sat down to read the Sermon on the Mount for the umpteenth time (it was about ten years ago), but I do remember the distinct feeling that I was really reading it for the first time. I felt gut-punched and mind-blown. The text had not changed, but certainly something had. The words Id been reading since I was old enough to read were finally familiar. And they scared me. I felt disturbed, interrupted. If the point of gospel ministry is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable, I counted myself at that time in the latter camp.

Matthew 5:8, the sixth of the Beatitudes, is a good example: Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Jesus isnt saying anything new, really, since this promise of blessing echoes King Davids statement in Psalm 24:34. I dont know if it really had registered with me before that day what having a pure heart entailed, but it most certainly struck me that my heart was not pure. It is frustratingly difficult to keep it pure. I dont even have to think about thinking impurelyI just do. So when I read that the pure in heart are the ones who get to see God, I freak out a little. Okay, I freak out a lot . If purity of heart is the standard, how will I ever get to see God? And is there any passage of Scripture scarier than Matthew 7:2123?

Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name? And then will I declare to them, I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.

These words push me to the end of myself, driving me back to the first word, the first beatitude in Matthew 5:3: Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 5:8 shows me the depths of my poverty; Matthew 5:3 shows me the riches that await me upon this realization, upon my owning of it as the truth about myself. The afflicted receives comfort.

The rest of the Sermon on the Mount is like that, too, constantly revealing Gods standard of livingthe blueprint for what his kingdom on earth looks like lived outand constantly driving us back to Jesus in desperation for this kingdom in spite of ourselves.