The Big Story

Thoughts based on Highly Favoured, chapter 2:

This story happened on a “Sabbath.” In normal life we might have called it “Saturday.” Calling it “Sabbath” tells us there is a bigger story going on. It comes from a Hebrew word that means “rest” and it goes right back to the beginning. God, after six days making everything, rested on the seventh day (Genesis 2:2). 

Jesus could easily have argued over the rules: Yes, we shouldn’t work on the Sabbath, but is taking a handful of grain as you walk along “work”? But Jesus doesn’t do that. He brings up one Old Testament story about King David and his men. (So who is King David and who are his men in this story?) Then Jesus pushes us back to the Genesis story: “The Son of Man”, someone like Adam, is the one in charge of God’s rest and how it’s used. (And isn’t it that “Son of Man” who is talking to you right now?) Maybe he is even bigger than Adam, and like God himself—the one who set it all up.

Jesus wants us to see his place in God’s Big Story, the one that goes from Genesis to Revelation, from creation to new creation—that final rest when everything broken and wrong has been put right, through Jesus himself.

Reflect and discuss: 

Our lives are stories. There are the stories we tell others about who we are and where we come from. There are the stories we tell ourselves about each day, what happens, what we do, and why. Sometimes I tell myself stories in which I am a brave hero. More often, I am a victim, pushed around and squashed.

What stories do you tell about yourself? To other people? To yourself? 

How is your story part of Jesus’ story? How do you fit in to God’s Big Story? 

Ask Jesus to show you your story woven into his. Ask him to change what you tell about your day and your life. Do you belong to him, highly favoured and powerfully equipped to serve him?