The Truth Incarnate
Written by: Lori Asher, Wichita, KS
I have three children. Two of them are teenage boys, and the third is an amazing surprise of a little girl, who has been keeping us on our toes for the past two years. In this particular season of life, something that I have been missing a lot, which my boys have grown out of, and my daughter is not quite grown into fully, is read aloud or story time.
As humans, we love stories. We organize our thoughts and our lives around stories. While it may manifest in different ways, we can see this pattern throughout different ages, cultures, and historical contexts. We see children piling up around the teacher’s feet at story time, and as modern adults, we pre-order movie tickets and line up crazy early to be among the first to watch the next Superhero du jour movie installment. Why do stories create such a pull for us? In the book Tales of Wonder, author Matt Bianco argues that “since Truth must be incarnated for the mind to apprehend it…stories are one of the most powerful tools for communicating truth.”
What does it mean for a story to incarnate truth? A word we might use more often in daily life would be embody. A story gives our mind something concrete to cling to. We do this so often with our children, it is almost second nature. If you have a child who is, say, prone to lying (not that I would know anything about that), you can sit down and give them a lecture about why we should not tell lies and what the consequences may be. But, it can be more effective to tell them a story about a little boy who told many lies about wolves in order to get attention and what his consequences were. They naturally seem to understand the moral of the story and can make the application.
The Bible gives us examples of using stories as well. Jesus spent much of his time teaching in parables. One of his most famous is a story of a rebellious son running away from his father and sinking to the low of working with pigs. This visual of a young man in the muck with pigs gives quite a picture of what sin does in your life. His story continues to live on today as many people will use the term “prodigal” to invoke the memories of this parable. On the other end of the spectrum, Jesus tells a story about a pearl of such value that someone is willing to sell all they have to attain it. This shows a picture of the value of being part of the kingdom and embodies the truth of this value in our minds.
Interestingly though, we must be open to the stories. Jesus understood this and spoke to it when asked why He taught in parables. He responded in Matthew 13:11-17 and basically stated that there would be those who understand and those who do not. There IS something about stories that can prepare the soil of our hearts to receive truth – but we must be ready to receive the moral. We must be as Jesus states – “like little children” (Matt. 18:3). Children have a way of spotting the moral of the story quickly, but as we age, we can start to see the “grey area” and try to justify our behavior or make the moral of the story a little different. An example given in the book Tales of Wonder is that children understand Aesop’s fable of the grasshopper that plays music through the summer and has no food to eat to be if you don’t work, you don’t eat. However, adults can start to question – isn’t there value in music, and should he really be punished? So, we must be ready to heed the moral of the story.
Jesus is not the first in the Bible to get to the truth through stories. There is a famous encounter in 2 Samuel 12:1-14 where Nathan confronts King David with a story. David knew the truth intellectually – but Nathan clearly helped him connect this truth in his heart. This simple story awakened the need for repentance within David. It was the embodiment of the truth of his sin and the consequences.
If embodiment of truth is so important for us in the form of stories – how much more important is the ultimate embodiment of truth - Jesus Himself. He came to earth and lived a life so that we could have the ultimate example of what a human being looks like living out the truth of loving the Lord with all your heart, mind, and soul and loving your neighbor as yourself. Jesus’s embodiment of the truth is the ultimate incarnation that we must look to and reflect on in our lives. As Andrew Peterson states, “If you want a child to know the truth, tell him the truth. If you want a child to love the truth, tell him a story.” God had been telling His people the truth from the beginning via the law and prophets. However, then He told the greatest story ever known through the life of Jesus to help us love the truth. Jesus’s story is seeing the truth lived out among squabbling disciples, vindictive religious leaders, and constant interruptions from the most vulnerable and downcast in society. He responded with grace and kindness but had no fear of confronting sin head on. As women in society today, this embodiment of the truth gives us a solid rock on which to grasp how we need to walk out the story of our lives. Do you need a practical application to this truth? Are you a mother with squabbling children? How did Jesus respond to his squabbling disciples? Are you working a job and being asked to compromise your morals? How did Jesus respond to such challenges? Are you growing weary of the constant needs of those in more difficult situations tugging at your resources and time? How did Jesus respond to those who needed his resources and time? Ladies, let us look into the truth embodied in Jesus and respond with a love for the truth.