404: Best Story Wins | Tim Henderson

So I wanted to mention to you guys that one of my jobs here at Holy Spirit is to lead Feast. Feast is the church's 20-something ministry. So if you're in college but you're in town, or if you're a young professional just kind of launching in life—and you might not even know because I do a terrible job of advertising this—but we have a gathering. We get together every Wednesday night. Alternating weeks, it's large group and then small group. We often meet here in town in Cave Spring at the home of Brynn and Sarah and now Emmy. And if you're not part of it, we have so much fun. You should come check it out.

If you want to learn more about what we're doing and how it all works, I would love to hear from you. I'm sure Brin is in here? Brin, there's Brin. If you don't know Brin Satter and myself, you can reach out to any of us or honestly probably most of the 20-somethings around here. If you want to learn what we do and how it works and if you can jump in, the answer is yes, you can and we'd love to tell you more. Find me sometime, we'll make sure you get on the list to know all the particulars of the schedule and what we're doing. It's a ton of fun, we'd love you to come.

The Power of Story

Morgan Housel is an investor and an author. He's written two books that I'm aware of at least. He wrote The Psychology of Money and he wrote Same As Ever. His books have been very successful. He sold millions of copies. If you're at all interested in investment, it's possible you've read one of his books.

That second book, Same As Ever, he describes it as a guide to what never changes. It is full of enduring principles that are true in all of life, but particularly true of investing. And one of the chapters in that book is titled "Best Story Wins." Here's an excerpt:

The best story wins. Not the best idea or the right idea or the most rational idea, just whoever tells a story that catches people's attention and gets them to nod their heads is the one who tends to get rewarded. Great ideas explained poorly can go nowhere, while old or wrong ideas told compellingly can ignite a revolution. There's too much information in the world for everyone to calmly sift through the data, looking for the most rational, the most correct answer. People are busy and emotional. And a persuasive, good story is always more powerful and persuasive than ice cold statistics.

Now, even if I had not given you that setup just now, and I were to ask you, what do you think is the primary teaching mode that Jesus used? You probably could have answered the question. Jesus asked questions, he asked a lot of questions, and he made a lot of statements. But I don't think there's really any argument that what makes Jesus so famous as a teacher was his parables. Parables. Right? And parables are simply stories.

What this guy is tapping into is the same thing that Jesus knew: that the human heart is designed for stories. Some of Jesus' parables are extremely brief, just short little vignettes, and then some are very developed. The parable of the prodigal son kind of goes on for a long time. But the short ones, long ones, it doesn't really matter. Jesus' stories have been heard and chewed on by literally millions of people for thousands of years. Jesus told the best stories.

Last week, Sloop mentioned that we are resuming our study in the Gospel of Matthew. We started it a long time ago, like over a year ago I think. And we're resuming it here last week looking at chapter 12. Today we're gonna be in chapter 13. We're not doing a comprehensive study of Matthew. We're just picking one thing out of each chapter to kind of give you a glimpse of the life and teaching of this person, Jesus, who has so radically shaped our lives.

Today, we're gonna be in Matthew chapter 13. So if you have your Bible, you might want to turn there. For my money, Matthew 13 is the most important chapter in all of the gospels if you want to understand the way Jesus used stories. The whole chapter is all about Jesus' parables.

First of all, Matthew puts seven distinct stories that Jesus told into this singular chapter. It contains the parable of the four soils—sometimes it's called the parable of the sower. It has the story of the weeds and the wheat. He tells a story about the parable of the yeast, the parable of the mustard seed. He's got this little double set: the parable of the pearl of great price and the parable of the hidden treasure, and then it ends with the parable of the net. So there's seven stories. That's a lot of stories for one chapter.

But not only that, Matthew 13 also contains—really, the only and the biggest explanation that Jesus ever gave about one of his stories.

Usually, he tells the story and he just lets it lie. He doesn't really unpack it. But in Matthew 13, he walks through the parable of the sower, parable of the four soils. That's the same thing. And he goes line by line to explain it, which is very rare. In fact, the only place I can even remember him ever doing that otherwise was when he explained the parable of the weeds and the wheat, which is also in chapter 13. Right? And then finally, you got seven parables. You got these only two times he ever explains his parables. And then you've got this encounter that he had in which he explained why he told parables in the first place. Right? So Matthew 13 is clearly designed to be like, hey, if you wanna understand Jesus' use of story, this is base camp. Right? This is ground zero for us to really get our head around his stories. And I get twenty five minutes to talk about any of that or all of that or some of that.

And so here's what we're gonna do. I wanna look at the passage that Bob read to you guys a few minutes ago. It's verses 10 to 17. 10 to 17 is the place where Jesus answers the question, why do you speak in parables? Like, what's that all about? What are you getting at with there? And I want you to hear Jesus' explanation, way that he answers that. Why is this the method that he uses for so much of his instruction? And then after we've had a chance to kinda digest some of that, I wanna go back and look at a pair of his stories. We'll talk about a couple of them and see if we can apply the why he does it to a particular instance. Okay? So that's where we're gonna go.

So I'm gonna read it to you again. Bob, you did a great job, but I'm gonna read it again now that they know what they're listening for. And we'll be in Matthew 13 starting in verse 10. You ready? Alright. Here we go.

Then the disciples came and said to Jesus, "Why do you speak to them in parables?" And he answered them, "To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. For to the one who has, more will be given and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. This is why I speak to them in parables: because seeing they do not see and hearing they do not hear nor do they understand. Indeed in their case, the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled that says, 'You will indeed hear but never understand. You will indeed see but never perceive. For this people's heart has grown dull and with their ears they can barely hear. And their eyes have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn and I would heal them.'" — Matthew 13:10-17

Now the way that Matthew frames this is honestly a little bit ambiguous, and you could be forgiven if you don't catch what it is that he's saying here. Okay? Let me try to refine it down a little bit. Look at the heart of his answer, which is in verse 13. Jesus says, "This is why I speak to them in parables because seeing they do not see and hearing they do not hear nor do they understand." K. If I refine that down just one more click, why do you speak in parables? Because seeing they don't see, and hearing they don't hear.

When we refine it down to that, you're still left, I think, with two possible meanings for what Jesus is saying there. Okay? Either Jesus means, I tell parables so that people who see but do not understand will come to understand. Or he means, I tell parables so that people who are unwilling to understand will miss the meaning. Okay?

He's either telling parables to clarify or to conceal. He's either telling parables so that people who don't understand will come to see, or so that people who won't understand will remain oblivious. You with me?

The Purpose of Parables: Concealment, Not Clarification

Do you know which one he means? It's the latter. Jesus told parables to obscure, not to clarify, which is completely upside down from what we might expect. Most people tell stories to clarify, to explain, to illustrate, to make more plain. But Jesus does the exact opposite. He told stories to conceal and to hide so that some people will not understand. That was the purpose of his stories.

Now, if you don't believe me, I fully admit that here in Matthew, it is ambiguous. But if you look at the parallels in Mark and in Luke, all the ambiguity just vanishes. And not only that, but the source material that Jesus is drawing from in Isaiah six is absolutely explicit. The purpose of Jesus' parables is to conceal rather than reveal.

Here it is in Mark:

But to those on the outside, everything is said in parables so that they may be ever seeing but never perceiving and ever hearing but never understanding. Otherwise, they might turn and be forgiven. — Mark 4

And again in Luke:

The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of God has been given to you, but to others I speak in parables. So that, though seeing they may not see, though hearing they may not understand. — Luke 8:10

Right? And if that's surprising to you, that makes sense why that would be surprising to you. But I want you to think about why he does that. Why does Jesus intentionally hide his message and tell us that that's exactly what he is doing?

I want you to remember your childhood. Do you remember playing hide and seek? Why did you hide? It was so that others would come and seek. You guys, Jesus hid his message and he made it obscure so that those whose hearts were hard would miss it. But those whose hearts were soft, who were intrigued, who were curious and thirsty and needy and humble would seek.

Several years ago, Susan McQuade gifted Kelly and I a subscription to MasterClass. Which is this massive library of all these fascinating videos. You can study anything you've ever been interested in. It's enormously fun. And Kelly and I watched a ton of these videos. And one of our favorites was on interpreting poetry. The host or the teacher of it is a guy named Billy Collins who was America's poet laureate several years ago. His poems are hilarious. And Kelly and I loved to watch those ones because he did a great job of teaching you how do you extract the meaning. How do you figure out what the thing is all about?

It's fun to discover meaning, especially when that meaning is hidden. There's a particular joy in solving a mystery and unraveling a puzzle and understanding a message. And poems are like parables. The meaning is intentionally obscured. But don't miss this. Poems are also published. The author, the poet wants you to understand them. Or at least he wants those that are willing to do the work to understand them. Poems are meant to be read. They're meant to be heard. The poet hides his message. But he wants you to find it. Right? At least if you're willing.

And this is really the key idea. Parables are like poems. They're meant to be chewed on. They're meant to be mined. They are meant to be understood. Jesus told parables so that some people would ponder them, would chew on them, and then would retain them. He told parables so that if you have ears to hear, you would discover their meaning. But if you don't have ears to hear, this encoded message would just pass you by and you would not discover the secret. They're supposed to be hard so that some people would be enticed to find the treasure. But that others will be kept from learning the secret. Makes sense?

Notice this though. This is not a game of the smart versus the stupid. It is a game of the curious versus the disinterested. Of the humble versus the arrogant. Parables are a sieve. They're a filter. They are a way for Jesus to sow broadly and to reap selectively.

And it's possible that that might frighten some of you. If it does, consider this. If you want to have ears to hear, if the prospect that you're like, what if I don't have ears to hear? What about that? Well, if that is troubling to you, then that's really good evidence that you have ears to hear. The desire to understand is the first step in actually understanding. Right? But if you don't, if you're like, that's stupid. Why would I play a game with somebody that plays this game with me? Well then that would be evidence that you don't have ears to hear. And that these stories today might not be for you. But remember this, your story is not over. And there is no telling what experiences you will be brought through. There is no telling what your life might hold that might come to make you curious. You cannot foresee the grace that you might be shown that you just can't presently imagine. So attend to yourself. Do you want to find his meaning? Are you curious, intrigued? Hooked? I hope you are. But if you're not yet, I hope that you'll become so.

Two Simple Stories

So what I want to do, I want to look briefly at this little double set of stories that Jesus told. These are, for my money, some of the simplest stories. They're brief. I mean, one of them is one verse long. The second one is two verses long. They're basically the same story. They're very brief, but there's kind of a trap in them. And I think the common approach that most people take to these two stories leads them astray. These stories are meant to be chewed on. And if you're like, that's simple, it's easy, you're done, move on to the next one, you just might miss it.

So we're going to look at this. There is a surface layer meaning that a lot of people take, but I don't think it's the right meaning. And there's a deeper meaning. So let's take a look at them. And then we'll see if we can figure out what Jesus actually meant.

And by the way, the most famous story in this paragraph or in this chapter is probably the parable of the four soils, parable of the sower. Jesus explains that one. So that's not any fun. Like, just you want to know what that one means? Just read it. He'll tell you.

Weeds and the wheat, that's all there too. There's nothing to unpack. And what fun is that? So we're gonna skip those. Those are valuable, but you can read those on your own. Here's the ones we wanna look at. Go down to chapter 13 verse 44. We'll start there.

Matthew 13 verse 44. Jesus says:

The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and he sells all that he has and he buys that field. — Matthew 13:44

Verse 45 is the second one:

Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who on finding one pearl of great value went and sold all that he had and bought it. — Matthew 13:45

Now, at first blush, I think these stories seem relatively obvious. In each case, you have something valuable—and one that's a pearl, another it's a treasure that's not really described. In each case, you have a person. In the first, it's simply a man, and the second, it's a merchant. And each one of these people finds the valuable thing. They find the treasure. They find the pearl. And then, for joy, each party in each one of these stories does the same thing. What do they do? They sell everything and go buy the treasure. They go get the treasure.

Now, most people come to this story and they think, well, it's obvious. Jesus is clearly the pearl, he is the treasure, and he is worth more than anything. In fact, he's so valuable that if you gave everything that you had, your whole everything you own, and you got him instead, you would be richer for the exchange. I think that's true. Jesus is worth everything. But I do not think that that is what these stories mean.

Who Is the Hero of the Story?

Just consider this. Jesus is enormously valuable. Check. Yes. That's true. He is worth more than the rest of your life combined. That is also true. But let me ask you this. Did you sell all that you own in order to obtain him? Not even close. Would you have? I mean, maybe you should, but did you? Would you?

Listen, friends, the gospel is—let me do like a question. Is the gospel the story of the incredible sacrifice that you made to get Jesus? Or is it the story of the incredible sacrifice that Jesus made to get you? Is it not obviously the second version?

When you approach the story with the unconscious assumption that you are the hero, that you are the protagonist, that you are the merchant, that you are the man—when you cast yourself as the hero of the story, you flatter yourself as the one who does the heavy lifting. But you're not and you don't. Jesus is the hero of the story. He's the hero of every story.

It was for the joy set before him that Jesus endured the cross. — Hebrews 12:2

He gave everything he had, including his very life that he might win you and make you his own. The gospel is not the story of your great sacrifice, it is the story of his.

And if he is the merchant, if he is the man, then where do you fit in the story? Do you see yourself? You are the pearl. You are the treasure. You are the beloved of God.

And you guys, it is only when you understand the story in that light—when you see that he gave everything for you—it's only then that you will even begin to make smaller trades as you begin to preference him. He is worthy of your life. I'm not denying that. But it is not your meager exchange that won him. It is his radical exchange that won you.

So be of good cheer, for the gospel is not a story of what you must do. It is a far, far better story of what he has done. If you have ears to hear it, you will see that story is being told over and over and over again through his book. It's being told to woo you away from all the relatively worthless things that you preference to him.

We do love him. We do. But we only and always love him as a response to the fact that he loved us first. So can I exhort you—do not set your hope on your great love of him, which waxes and wanes, but on his great love of you, which is the sure foundation.

Invitation to Prayer

It very well may be that some of you came in today and there's something that you're holding onto because you love it, because it's bright and it's shiny, or you're grasping for because you can't quite reach it and you desperately desire to have it. If in hearing this and being reminded—maybe in a familiar way or maybe in a fresh way—that he let everything go for you, if that would resource you and help you to preference the one who has already preferenced you, then we would invite you to come down.

You could pray all by yourself down here and process with him whatever that thing is, that treasure that has demanded your attention. I know it's precious to you. But whatever that thing is, if you would come down, you could pray and speak to him about it.

Or if there's some burden that you're carrying and you'd like to pray with someone, we've got people that'll meet you back here near that prayer banner. It will be our pleasure to pray with you as God brings you through whatever particular step of the journey you're in.

Lord Jesus, we love you, not just because you told great stories, but because you are the hero of the great story. You are the hero of every great story. We can scarcely tell a story that captures the heart without invoking gospel themes. And in fact, Lord, you're the hero of our story. And you help us to see that, to embrace our role, not as the protagonist, but as an extra in this great narrative that you are telling. We thank you that you invite us into it. And we love you. We praise your name. Amen.