Jesus: He Gets Us | Plan 1Sample

Day 4 - He Gets Us: Jesus was a social influencer.

Jesus told great stories. More than just for fun, telling stories was his special strategy for driving change. His stories are like a slow drip into our souls; a powerful, subtle way of changing our minds, then our hearts, then inspiring a revolution.

Once a whole hillside of people sat for days just listening to Jesus’ stories. Usually Jesus incorporated his message into the normal things we text and post about—work, friends, our vacations, our gardens, our kids. He used stories to explain our lives.

For instance, you can talk about love all day, but dare you not to be moved when you hear about a loyal father who waits up for his rebellious son to come home, watches the road for any glimpse of him, and keeps the porch light on all night.

Or try to explain kindness—and then listen to Jesus’ story about the workers who got rewarded way beyond what they earned or the widow who wore down a judge with her repeated request for help—and the stories make mercy something real.

But one of Jesus’ stories struck a particular nerve.

Just to be clear, no one in that crowd ever called a Samaritan “good.” Jews called them half-breed, heathen, and other slurs. Yet Jesus told about the day when a Samaritan came upon a beaten and robbed Jewish man left for dead on the treacherous road out of Jericho. The Samaritan stopped and cared for the Jew, at his own expense just like he would a neighbor—unlike the racist, religious men who stepped over the beat-up guy on their way to worship, of all things. The Samaritan lived every day under the weight of people’s hatred yet served up kindness to the broken.

Jesus stuns us with stories like that. In his brief, troubled life, he found out what it’s like to walk our streets and feel the joy and sting of relationships. He understood from experience what it means to live like us—to experience sorrow, loneliness, and what it feels like to be misunderstood. Every scar, every injustice is seen in a new light. Each of his stories shot an arrow into the crowd and pierced someone’s heart.

Not everyone will understand these stories, Jesus said, only the ones who are willing to change.