Your Life is a Parable of Christ (My Passion Story, part 6)

10 09 2011

Our passion stories are living parables on display. As we follow Jesus, people can see a rendition of the core of Jesus’ supreme accomplishment–death, burial and resurrection.

There are three realities about parables to recall here.

First, a parable teaches a simple truth in the form of a common experience. Your Passion story is one such experience, through which Jesus is telling His story. I think if Jesus explained your Passion story to seekers, He would say something like this. The death in the story is the way my child reminds the world that I suffered and died for all. The burial my child is enduring reflects the seeming hopelessness of My grave. But the resurrection in My child’s story shows that I live and desire to share My life with all who will receive it.

Second, only a few understand the meaning of parables. Many or most don’t grasp their meaning even when seeing or hearing them plainly. That’s because understanding can only be granted by God (Mark 4:11). So when people don’t grasp the significance of our Passion story, we should not be surprised or discouraged. God will use our story to reveal Himself to those He desires.

Third, those who are granted understanding of a parable are given even more truth, while those who don’t understand grow increasingly resistant (Mark 4:24-25). I am continually amazed at how some people light up at the Passion concept while others don’t seem to resonate with it. It is incredibly sad that some don’t hear the truth of the parable. However, for those of us who have an “aha!” response, we should expect even deeper insight as we see the Passion story cropping up in many areas of life.

Paul explained the meaning of his Passion parable this way, “[we are] struck down but not destroyed — always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body” (2 Cor. 4:9b-10). To a greater or lesser degree, that is the story of all of us who portray, in living reality, the Passion of the Christ.

Have you ever sat down to consider the main elements of your Passion story? It might encourage you to reflect on the primary way Jesus has manifested His resurrection in your life experience. Consider these questions:

What is the primary way in which I died a kind of death?

Out of that experience, what is the primary way I endured a kind of burial?

Finally, what is the primary way I then enjoyed an increased display of the risen Jesus in my life?

Why not take some time to write down the key elements of your Passion story?  It is perhaps the main way in which your life announces the gospel.


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