THE JESUS STORY
When my oldest daughter was about four or five, she looked up at the Crucifix and then to me for an explanation of why Jesus was hanging there.
“The bad men didn’t like what He was saying and they got mad,” I told her. “So they put Sweet Jesus on the cross.”
“What did Sweet Jesus say to make them mad?” she asked.
“He told them that God loved them and expected them to love others.”
“Why didn’t they want to love others?”
“Because sometimes loving others is very hard. They didn’t want to do anything that was hard.”
“It’s not hard to love you, Mommy.”
“That’s because I love you back. But when your little brother hits you and takes your doll, do you love him?”
“No! It’s my doll. It’s not his doll. He is being bad!”
“Well, Sweet Jesus told the bad men who put him on the cross that they should love everyone.”
She thought a minute. “But if brother takes my doll, he isn’t loving me.”
“That’s true. And that’s why it’s sometimes hard to love, but Sweet Jesus expects you to forgive your little brother.”
Her expression became one of disbelief. “Do you mean let him hit me and take my doll?”
“No, he’ll be punished for what he did, and maybe next time, he’ll think twice about it. Still, Sweet Jesus says you must let Brother know that you forgive him.”
She looked again at the Crucifix, as if seeing it in a new light, and then rushed away, calling out, “Brother, come here right now! I have something to tell you.”
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The Jesus Story begins and ends with forgiveness. It is ‘all the way through’ about forgiveness. Not just that we forgive others, but that we ask forgiveness for ourselves. Because we live on the edge of a fallen world, a world of imperfections, often so startling that we shake our heads in disbelief that one human being could do such evil to another.
For me, this is The Jesus Story. And it’s easy to tell. Or sing.
Translating a World on the Edge 