Jesus Must Be A Real Person!
Stories
Lectionary Tales For The Pulpit
57 Stories For Cycle C
A missionary worked some years ago among a very primitive group of people in Papua New Guinea. This missionary worked under very difficult conditions. His world and the world of those for whom he translated the Bible were two very different worlds. In order to help bridge these worlds the missionary translator always worked with a language helper. First the missionary would make his translation. Next he would share his translation with his helper. If the language helper thought the translation was adequate he would in turn read it to his people to get their reactions to the material.
One day as his translation task was proceeding, the missionary made an amazing discovery. He had shown some photographs of places in the Holy Land in order to undergird his translating work. The people were surprised that the events of Jesus' life took place here on earth. They had believed these stories all to be true only of the spirit world.
And then an even more astonishing event of translating took place. The missionary was translating one of the four gospels. The genealogical list given in the gospel seemed to the missionary to be quite extraneous and beside the point. So he skipped over the genealogy and went on with the other translating. At the end, however, the missionary had to translate the genealogical list. It was a result of this translating event that the astonishing thing happened.
The missionary translator read his translation to his language helper fully expecting him to be bored to death with the whole thing. The helper was not bored at all. Rather, he promptly announced to the missionary that a very important meeting was to be held that night so that the missionary might read today's translation to as many people as possible.
When evening time came the appointed house was completely full of people. The missionary had never seen so many people attend a Bible reading event before. The language helper asked the missionary to read his translation for the day. The missionary began to read name after name after name. As he read he realized that something strange was happening. The crowd of tribespeople was crisply attentive. They closed in upon him as he read. He was actually afraid they might crush him. He was afraid that what he was reading must have offended some ritual taboo about which he knew nothing. Perhaps they were angry with him. And he had no way to escape. He forced himself to keep on reading the names.
When the missionary translator had finished reading one of the men said to him: "Why didn't you tell us all this before? No one bothers to write down the ancestors of spirit beings. It is only real people who keep track of their genealogy." "Jesus must be a real person!" another voice cried in astonishment. "His genealogy is longer than ours!" cried out another. Still another said, "Jesus must have been a real man on this earth. He's not just white man's magic!"
What the missionary translator took to be a boring and meaningless list convinced these people that night that the truth of scriptures could no longer be in doubt. Jesus must be a real person! A real person and Son of God!
*This week's story is based on this text which is a commentary on Luke 3:15-17, 21-22.
One day as his translation task was proceeding, the missionary made an amazing discovery. He had shown some photographs of places in the Holy Land in order to undergird his translating work. The people were surprised that the events of Jesus' life took place here on earth. They had believed these stories all to be true only of the spirit world.
And then an even more astonishing event of translating took place. The missionary was translating one of the four gospels. The genealogical list given in the gospel seemed to the missionary to be quite extraneous and beside the point. So he skipped over the genealogy and went on with the other translating. At the end, however, the missionary had to translate the genealogical list. It was a result of this translating event that the astonishing thing happened.
The missionary translator read his translation to his language helper fully expecting him to be bored to death with the whole thing. The helper was not bored at all. Rather, he promptly announced to the missionary that a very important meeting was to be held that night so that the missionary might read today's translation to as many people as possible.
When evening time came the appointed house was completely full of people. The missionary had never seen so many people attend a Bible reading event before. The language helper asked the missionary to read his translation for the day. The missionary began to read name after name after name. As he read he realized that something strange was happening. The crowd of tribespeople was crisply attentive. They closed in upon him as he read. He was actually afraid they might crush him. He was afraid that what he was reading must have offended some ritual taboo about which he knew nothing. Perhaps they were angry with him. And he had no way to escape. He forced himself to keep on reading the names.
When the missionary translator had finished reading one of the men said to him: "Why didn't you tell us all this before? No one bothers to write down the ancestors of spirit beings. It is only real people who keep track of their genealogy." "Jesus must be a real person!" another voice cried in astonishment. "His genealogy is longer than ours!" cried out another. Still another said, "Jesus must have been a real man on this earth. He's not just white man's magic!"
What the missionary translator took to be a boring and meaningless list convinced these people that night that the truth of scriptures could no longer be in doubt. Jesus must be a real person! A real person and Son of God!
*This week's story is based on this text which is a commentary on Luke 3:15-17, 21-22.
