Jesus. Deacon Keith Strohm
rel="nofollow" href="#ube1b70d1-c87f-5392-81db-824006c74a08"> The Kingdom Cannot Be Contained—Resurrection
Jesus Invites Us into a Relationship
Jesus Calls Us into a Life of Discipleship
How to Use This Book
The Great Story of Jesus is more than a simple tale to be read through once or even multiple times. It is a journey through the deepest facets of reality. This story is meant not just to be read, but to be encountered. When we encounter it with an open heart and mind, it changes and transforms us. The book you hold in your hands is structured to facilitate that encounter. Each chapter takes a section or “Act” of the Great Story and breaks it open. Many of the chapters include suggestions for further reflection, providing a more structured way to “pray through” each of the Acts of the Great Story. There are also questions provided so you can journey through the story of Jesus with a small group.
To get the most out of this book, spend time in reflection and prayer as you complete each chapter before going on to the next one. There may be particular Acts of the Great Story that touch, move, or challenge you more than others. If that happens, take the time to offer that reaction to God in prayer and ask him what he is trying to communicate in that moment. When you finish the story of Jesus, you may want to go back and spend additional time with particular Acts of that story. Listen to that desire.
Like any journey, the more we approach with intentionality and the willingness to be present to what we experience, the more we change. In the Bible, Jesus sent out his disciples on a journey. They went in pairs and announced the presence of God’s kingdom to towns and villages. When he sent them, Jesus instructed them to “take nothing for the journey” (Luke 9:3). As you encounter the Great Story in your journey through this book, those same instructions are important. Take nothing for the journey—meaning take no expectations about how the Lord will communicate his love and life to you. If God normally comes to you in quiet and contemplation, don’t expect that he will do so in the same way as you go through this book. If God is often present to you in the midst of great activity or in grand experiences, don’t assume that this is how he will move in you as you encounter this story. If you’ve never really had an encounter with the Lord that you can identify, and you often feel that God doesn’t speak to you (or that he won’t speak), then let go of that expectation. You have begun to read this book. The rest is up to the One who led you here—so be willing to follow where he leads, even (especially!) if it’s not exactly where you expected.
This is the Great Story of God’s love for you. We know, through the testimony of Scripture and the lived history of the Church, that anyone who encounters Jesus with an open heart receives something. What the Lord desires to pour into your life as you encounter his story may be something entirely new for you. Take nothing for the journey. Leave behind all expectations so that you can receive precisely what he wants to give.
The Great Story is waiting—for you.
Introduction
This is not a book on theology.
Such books, as noble and enlightening as they are, weigh down shelves in libraries all across the world. This is not an extended biblical exegesis or heavily footnoted academic treatise. Nor is this book a spiritual autobiography or written meditation on some aspect of the Christian life. Rather, this book tells a story—a story that can completely alter the course of your life and transform it forever.
Stories hold a central place in human culture. In fact, the power of story is prevalent in humanity. From the simple cave paintings of our earliest ancestors, through the oral tradition of storytellers, bards, and keepers of lore, to the great masterpieces of literature and poetry, and even down to the visual storytelling of Hollywood, stories shape our understanding of ourselves and our world. They help to define our identity, give us a sense of a shared experience, and point us to a particular place in the future.
When I was a child, my mother used to spend time reading to me. I treasured those moments as the stories came alive at the sound of her voice. I remember The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins by Dr. Seuss as one of my favorites. Each time my mom finished the tale, I would immediately ask her to read it again. When I grew older and could read on my own, I spent hours each day with my nose in a book. When I finally discovered J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy at the ripe old age of nine, I was hooked. I reread Tolkien’s books each year for the next ten years. I lost myself each time in the rhythm of Tolkien’s prose, in the epic scope of the story, and in the heroism of the characters who struggled against the forces of darkness and evil. This story had a profound effect on my development as an adolescent, shaping my understanding of heroism, of the necessity of sacrificial love, and of the critical importance of the bonds of affection between friends.
Yet no story contains the sheer power to heal and transform found in the story you will encounter in this book. Why? Because the person at the center of this story is Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who through his life, death, and resurrection broke the chains of sin and death, and who, at this very moment, offers each of us meaning and fulfillment in this life and eternal joy in the next.
This is a story of cosmic proportions—of love versus hatred, of ancient prophecies fulfilled, of an apocalyptic showdown between the forces of God and the minions of the Enemy woven into the very fabric of creation. It is the story of the tenacious love of a Father who wills that his children not be abandoned to the consequences of their abuse of freedom. It is the ultimate triumph of meaning over the self-consuming abyss of nothingness. It is, in short, the story of salvation.
This is not an abstract story of a God who is far removed from the struggles and realities of life in the twenty-first century. Instead, “the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us” (John 1:14), the one whom the prophets called “Emmanuel,” literally “God with us.” According to Scripture and the unbroken Tradition of the apostles, the Second Person of the Trinity left the glory of heaven to live in the midst of human uncertainty and brokenness, becoming one of us in the Person of Jesus Christ, who is both fully divine and fully human. Jesus experienced the joys and sorrows of this life from the inside, within a human context. He wept, laughed, celebrated, and suffered—dying a bitter and all-too-human death on the cross. This is what the author of the Letter to the Hebrews referred to when he wrote that “we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses” (4:15).
The humanity of Jesus is not an incidental or accidental part of the story. Rather, it is the entire point of the story! In his divinity, Jesus reveals the Father to us—a critical act of love. In his humanity, however,