During his ministry here on earth Jesus proved himself to be the Master Storyteller. He seldom taught without a story (Matt. 13:34). As we give ourselves to studying the parables the Lord told, it becomes clear that they were carefully crafted to engage the attention of the listeners and to evoke a response from them. They were also framed in such a way that they were particularly memorable for retelling. Even those who did not like the point that the story made often seemed to come back for more, simply because they found the stories so intriguing.
When Jesus taught, he used the language of the common folk. Though he was literate and had mastered the Hebrew language he taught in Aramaic, the dialect of ordinary people. The vast majority of those listening to Jesus would not have been literate, but even those who were literate found themselves captivated by his stories. The most wonderful thing about his stories was that they revealed realities of the Kingdom of God to those whose hearts were open. For those who did not have open hearts, ultimately the stories would cause them to fall and be broken by their own wrong thinking and skepticism. But this did not usually happen immediately. Our gracious Lord knew that by their very nature, these stories tended to keep people coming back to hear another one and there was always the real possibility that their hearts would finally open to the truth.
In the Book of Acts it’s clear that the disciples continued following Jesus’ example as a storyteller.
