Robert E Rasmussen.com

Our passion stories are living parables on display. As we follow Jesus, people can see a rendition of the core of Jesus’ supreme accomplishment–death, burial and resurrection.

There are three realities about parables to recall here.

First, a parable teaches a simple truth in the form of a common experience. Your Passion story is one such experience, through which Jesus is telling His story. I think if Jesus explained your Passion story to seekers, He would say something like this. The death in the story is the way my child reminds the world that I suffered and died for all. The burial my child is enduring reflects the seeming hopelessness of My grave. But the resurrection in My child’s story shows that I live and desire to share My life with all who will receive it.

Second, only a few understand the meaning of parables. Many or most don’t grasp their meaning even when seeing or hearing them plainly. That’s because understanding can only be granted by God (Mark 4:11). So when people don’t grasp the significance of our Passion story, we should not be surprised or discouraged. God will use our story to reveal Himself to those He desires.

Third, those who are granted understanding of a parable are given even more truth, while those who don’t understand grow increasingly resistant (Mark 4:24-25). I am continually amazed at how some people light up at the Passion concept while others don’t seem to resonate with it. It is incredibly sad that some don’t hear the truth of the parable. However, for those of us who have an “aha!” response, we should expect even deeper insight as we see the Passion story cropping up in many areas of life.

Paul explained the meaning of his Passion parable this way, “[we are] struck down but not destroyed — always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body” (2 Cor. 4:9b-10). To a greater or lesser degree, that is the story of all of us who portray, in living reality, the Passion of the Christ.

Have you ever sat down to consider the main elements of your Passion story? It might encourage you to reflect on the primary way Jesus has manifested His resurrection in your life experience. Consider these questions:

What is the primary way in which I died a kind of death?

Out of that experience, what is the primary way I endured a kind of burial?

Finally, what is the primary way I then enjoyed an increased display of the risen Jesus in my life?

Why not take some time to write down the key elements of your Passion story?  It is perhaps the main way in which your life announces the gospel.

God is God of miracles, and His favorite miracle is resurrection.

And that’s a good thing, because the main thing the unbelievers around us want to see is resurrection. They’ve heard about it. Now they want to know if Christians really believe in it.

But what kinds of resurrection happen in our lives today? There is a verse that explains one aspect very well for me: “We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted but not forsaken, struck down but not destroyed–always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body” (2 Cor. 4:8-10).

As we go through challenging seasons which resemble death, and as we endure times that are like burial, God proceeds to show us ways to demonstrate that the resurrected Christ is living in and through us. It is not always that the sickness is healed, the job found, or the boy gets the girl. What matters is that Jesus takes a greater place in our lives and reveals His power and character in us, for others to see.

Let me tell you about a couple ways resurrection has happened to me as a result of the earlier parts of my Passion story. God has established our whole family in a deeper faith. The risen Christ has manifested Himself more and more to my wife and two daughters, and now to our son-in-law. Sometimes I am amazed that I can have a discussion about a Scriptural truth or about discovering God’s will with these members of my family whom I love so much. We can pray together, not just perfunctory prayers, but deep searching prayers about real life issues.

I also see my wife delighting in God, spending an hour or more in His Word and prayer every morning. Then she gets on email and encourages family and friends, most of whom are going through deep waters. God has given her a special expression of Christ, because she herself went through deep waters and found God faithful. She was struck down but not destroyed.  She carried about in her body the dying of Jesus, and now the life of Jesus is being manifested in and through her amazingly!

God the Father loves to show off His Son. What better reason to demonstrate through us that Jesus is truly risen again!

God loves to have us wait. In fact, it is likely that right now you are waiting for something to happen, and God is saying “Wait.” I believe that God uses waiting in the life of His children as much or more than any other tool in His toolkit.

I large part of my passion story involves waiting. My wife took a long time to heal. She was puffed up on prednisone for a long, long time. And my ministry didn’t resume for a long, long time. I got an opportunity to do some Bible teaching on the radio, but it faltered and didn’t work out. I had to resign. Disappointment!

My daughters (then 17 and 15) also struggled big time with the aftermath of what had happened to us as a family. They missed Kenya and all their friends. They struggled with living in the USA, unable to find friends who could relate to their big view of the world. Together we all grieved and struggled with depression. To drive toward the hospital seemed like returning to prison. The days were long and dark–like a tomb.

It’s ironic: We all spend an inordinate amount of time in tomb-like experiences, where we can only wait on God to do something…to give a job, to heal a relationship, to reveal His will. Yet we are not very good at handling burial times. One friend put it this way: We don’t have a theology for Saturday. Jesus died on a Friday, and we know a bit about suffering and hardship. Jesus rose on Sunday, and we love to talk about resurrection. But Saturday? We aren’t so good at dwelling in our tomb, handling grief, loss, and delay.

Judging from experience, God considers it essential that we learn to wait. Remember when Lazarus was sick and sisters Mary and Martha called for Jesus to come heal him? Remember what Jesus did? He waited two days before responding. By the time He arrived, Lazarus had died. Mary and Martha were disappointed and upset.

But what do we learn? Jesus deliberately waited because the delay produced a greater miracle that brought Him more glory. Instead of a healing the people saw a resurrection!

The reason God made our family wait, and the reason He is making you wait, is because He intends to do something more glorious than you are currently hoping for.

Be encouraged by this: You story cannot end in the tomb. That is impossible, because of the very character of God.

And that leads to the best part…