Stories That Expose Us (A Lived Belief, Part 2)

In my last blog I wrote about the human tendency toward self-deception (read it here). This is not a new problem. It has been around as long as humans. When the first man and the first woman ate the fruit in the garden, they wasted no time telling a story about it was not their fault.

This mindset persists from generation to generation. Eventually the prophets in Israel rise up to confront this way of thinking. In Jesus’ day he spoke to this as well. Their approach was subtle but powerful. They knew that you cannot address self-deception head on. The person who is self-deceived will dismiss you and think you are wrong.

So, the prophets and Jesus told stories. Not just any story, but another story about those who were self-deceived and the world in which they lived. The stories, allegories, and parables they shared were told from a different point of view, and allowed those who listened to see the world from a different place. This viewpoint allowed them to see what they really believed (or how they really lived).

This is what happened when Nathan confronted King David. David had violated a woman by bringing her into his palace to have sex with her. She became pregnant and David got nervous. He tried to cover his tracks and that didn’t work. So he had Bathsheba’s husband murdered, and then married her.

As far as we know David’s life went on from this in a fairly normal way. Who knows what kind of story he told himself, but it seems that David was living in self-deception, until Nathan showed up and told him this story:

“There were two men in a certain town, one rich and the other poor. The rich man had a very large number of sheep and cattle, but the poor man had nothing except one little ewe lamb he had bought. He raised it, and it grew up with him and his children. It shared his food, drank from his cup and even slept in his arms. It was like a daughter to him.

“Now a traveler came to the rich man, but the rich man refrained from taking one of his own sheep or cattle to prepare a meal for the traveler who had come to him. Instead, he took the ewe lamb that belonged to the poor man and prepared it for the one who had come to him” (2 Samuel 12.1-4).

David was fuming and in his response yelled in anger, “The man who did this must die!” Nathan, in reply to David said, “You are the man!”

With this, David’s heart broke. Many believe that his response to Nathan’s words are found in Psalm 51, “Create in me a pure heart, O God … Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me … You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart …”

David’s response, when confronted with his life, is repentance. Contrast that with the chief priests who were confronted by Jesus in Mark 12.1-12 (read it here). Jesus told a story about a vineyard that exposed the evil they were taking part in. They wanted to take Jesus out.

Both David and the chief priests were exposed by a story told from another place. It is their responses that tell the most about their hearts. The stories we tell ourselves have the power to blind us to what is true about us, and have the power to expose what is true about us.

Our reaction to the moments we are exposed by a story will tell us far more about ourselves than any story we tell ourselves ever could. Which raises the question, “How do you respond when someone tells a story that exposes you?” How you answer that question just may tell you the truest story about yourself.