How Well Do You Know the One in the Greatest Story Ever Told?

Written by Anneke Toliver

“…He interpreted for them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures.”

Luke 24:27

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What is a story? We’re all capable of defining story, but just so we’re all on the same page here, a story, specifically a narrative, is a spoken or written account of connected events.

We’ve all heard stories—in books, in movies, or told to us at the end of a school day in excessive, overlapping detail by nine-year-old little girls. But what defines a good story—what elements are necessary to make it interesting, readable, relatable? Well, it needs to consist of a few things: good characters—strong protagonists, complex antagonists, major characters, minor characters. They need to be connected to one another, or at least the story, in some way. There needs to be an overarching theme, a goal, a message that’s being conveyed. And absolutely, there must be a good Storyteller. 

There is one Story that outshines all others. It’s actually the Story in which every other story finds its base, its root. It is the Story that defines all stories, because it’s written by the Creator of the universe, and all the other stories are able to be because of this one Story. This Story is made up of more characters than we could count, connected over thousands of years. It contains main plots and subplots. It includes histories of nations, one nation in particular. It’s full of heroic adventures and legendary figures. This Story, an Epic, starts out, “In the beginning, God created…” 

This Story was written by the greatest Storyteller we could imagine, the Author of every story, of all reality. This Story, the Bible, is about God Himself, written by God Himself. It’s about a Creator who, in spite of being rejected as King by His creation, chooses to rescue them. It’s about fathomless love. It’s about redemption. 

There’s a pattern that makes up good literature. We’ve already talked about it a little bit, but it usually involves a beginning or introduction, a conflict, a resolution, and a happily ever after. We can see this basic pattern clearly in Scripture, often defined as creation, fall, redemption, new creation. We can see it in the overarching big picture: God created, Adam and Eve rejected His rule, God sent Jesus to rescue and redeem us back into relationship with our Creator, and in the end, He will restore all things and reign in His perfect world with His people forever and ever (Revelation 22:5). That’s the simple, overall message, and this theme can also be traced throughout Scripture in smaller individual stories in the Bible. But the overall goal of Scripture is this: to show us our good, good Father and His pursuit of humanity to lovingly, wholly reestablish a relationship that was broken. It all points to Jesus. My favorite children’s Bible says that every story whispers His name, that Jesus is the piece of the puzzle that makes all the other pieces fit so you can see the beautiful picture. Jesus is the answer to all of it. In Luke 24, Jesus has just risen from the dead—did you get that? He just beat death, and He shows up with a couple of His followers as they’re walking down the road, discussing all of the things that had just happened. He asks them what they’re talking about, and without recognizing Him, they start telling Him about the argument they’d been having over who exactly this Jesus of Nazareth guy actually was. Jesus joins their conversation and “then, beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, He interpreted for them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures” (Luke 24:27). He walks with them and explains the truths they’ve heard their whole lives, but this time with a knowledge that all these promises of a Savior are now fulfilled. He came. He died. He redeemed. He lives.

He’s the answer to the part of the story leading up to His coming, to the part of the story after His coming, to the part of the story that is still being written. He’s the answer to your story.

How does thinking about your life in relation to Jesus adjust your perspective? How could you view your current circumstances through the lens of the gospel—that Jesus has come to rescue and redeem you? Does that change how you see your place in the story? 

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And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.

Revelation 22:5

And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.

Luke 24:27

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