© By the Rev. Edward Chinn, D.Min.

"The Teller of Tales" is the title that the people of Samoa gave to Robert Louis Stevenson, the 19th century writer, who spent his last days in the South Seas. A tale is the story of an event. I borrow that title, "Teller of Tales," to apply to Jesus of Nazareth, for "He was never without a story when he spoke" (Mark 4:34 TM).

The theme of Jesus' tales was the kingdom of God. This phrase does not signify a place, but an activity. A British teacher, Alan Dale, paraphrased the kingdom of God as "God's way of doing things" or simply "God's Way." With the eye of a poet, Jesus used everyday examples to illustrate God's Way of doing his work: a farmer sowing seeds; a woman making bread; a man finding a treasure in a field, etc. At the heart of God's working was the way of love. A follower of Jesus of Nazareth summed it up thus: "God is love-so you can't know him if you don't love . . . When we take up permanent residence in a life of love, we live in God" (1 John 4:8, 16 TM). Jesus' tales (or "parables") embodied the wisdom of God's way of love in memorable short stories that stick in our minds, for "truth embodied in a tale shall enter in at lowly doors" (Tennyson).

The Teller of these tales is Jesus of Nazareth, whose followers saw him as the embodiment of God's Wisdom. In the Hebrew Scriptures, Wisdom is God's first creation. "[God] created me in eternity, before time began, and I will exist for all time to come" (Sirach 24:9). "The Lord created me [Wisdom] first of all, the first of his works long ago" (Proverbs 8:22). Though Jesus was a human being, a Pharisee named Saul said, "This message is Christ, who is the power of God and the wisdom of God" (1 Corinthians 1:24). See the parallel between the tales and the teller. As Jesus' tales (parables) embodied the Wisdom of God's way of love, so Jesus himself embodied this Divine Wisdom. About A.D. 90, the fourth gospel was written. The author put these words on Jesus' lips: "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. The only way to the Father is through me" (John 14:6 NCV). If the nature of the Divine Mystery ("The Father") is love, then Jesus has shown us and embodied for us this way of love. Evidently, many are walking that way, though unaware of it, for John also wrote, "Whoever loves is a child of God" (1 John 4:7).