STORYTELLERS AT GOLGOTHA
…an urgent call for Cross centered Writers
What makes an event great is not only that it happens but that it was documented and told to others. A generation without storytellers is a generation without a heritage for the future.
Growing up in the village as a missionary child I learned in Sunday school that Jesus Christ was conceived and given birth to by a virgin. He lived and loved children. He healed the sick. He did several miracles including feeding many people through fishes and loaves of bread provided by a small lad. I also learned that he was betrayed by one Judah’s Iscariot.
Roman soldiers arrested him and crucified him by drilling nails into his hands, legs, forehead and he died a painful death. But he resurrected after three days and then ascended to heaven. I can still recall vividly the picture we were shown of his ascension and how the disciples were looking up and he told us to expect his coming. These stories were real for me and are still real today.
Today as an adult. As I reflect on the death of Christ this year, I ask myself a question how did the story of Jesus Christ get to us? Who were those responsible for documenting or telling this story in this manner that has spanned a generation and has continued to bring many to the light of Christ including little minds like me years ago?
What was their motivation? How did their stories play a role in letting the world know about a man called Jesus Christ? What role can I play to pass on this story to the coming generation?
As I reflect, I discovered that storytellers played that role. On the day Jesus Christ was crucified. On the day he resurrected and the life he lived after. Others watched the event happened and did nothing. As far as they were concerned it was a normal event of the time. But the storytellers and scribes watched the event of their time and documented it for the next generation to hear what happened in their time.
For some of them, it was their regular day-to-day job while for some of them it was God’s Spirit that inspired them to write what happened while Jesus Christ walked this part of eternity and was crucified for the sins of the world. For others, it was a normal family and cultural tradition of passing on the message to their children who will, in turn, pass it on to others.
Today whenever the Bible is read and the story of Jesus Christ is told lives are transformed, hope restored; lives envisioned and destinies aligned. All thanks to the storytellers at Golgotha.
As a result of this discovery, I concluded that as great as the life, crucifixion, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ was it would have been forgotten like any other if not for the great work done by storytellers and scribes. They served as God’s channel for preserving the story. They serve as God’s channel for passing on the story to the next generation. They were preachers to their times and prophets to coming generations.
Today we are celebrating easter and the redemption that Jesus Christ brought for us because storytellers pass on what they saw. We could read what happened to Jesus Christ because some people created the time to observe God’s amazing work in their time; documented what God was doing and pass it onto the next generation. We could celebrate the death of Christ because different generations of Christian writers committed themselves to pass on the truth about Christ’s death and resurrection for the next generation.
Dear Christian, as you celebrate the death of Jesus Christ on the cross today what effort are you making to ensure that the undiluted message is heard by people in your generation and generations to come? The world is busy creating content and telling a narrative that is making the cross of Jesus Christ insignificant or of no effect. Take a look at the movie and music industries around the world. They are intentional about silencing the message of the cross.
Most scriptwriters in Hollywood, Bollywood, Nollywood, kannywood, or whatever will always show you that when people have a problem, they visit either a traditional helper or seek help from other sources and not from God and the redeeming work of Christ. It is time for a new generation of the storyteller to arise and retell the story of the cross of Christ and what happened at Golgotha on that good Friday. So, as you celebrate good Friday today make up your mind to tell a story about what the cross of Christ has done in your life.
The world today has been shaped by storyteller and writers and the world of tomorrow will be shaped by writers and storytellers. If you fail to tell the story of God’s amazing work in your life and world you deprive the next generation an opportunity to read what the cross of Christ did in your life.
Today I call on you to:
- Preserve the cross and the work of Christ in your generation by writing and telling the story of what God has done in your life;
- Pass on the impact of the Cross of Christ in your life by telling it to those around you and writing it for the next generation;
- Promote the cross of Christ and its essence by telling your generation and writing it for the next generation;
- Preach the cross of Christ through storytelling and writing to the next generation as Paul did;
- Persuade people to embrace the cross of Christ through storytelling and writing;
- Pain picture of the cross of Christ with words in whatever form until this generation understands its place;
- Present the cross of Christ in your stories and writing in a manner that is relevant to your generation.
It is not enough to read what happened at Golgotha and leave it there. We must share with the world the impact of that work in our lives today and their need for it.
He died to make us holy, we must write to set others free. A generation of Christians that ignore storytelling and writing about the event at Golgotha is a generation that is frustrating the work of the Kingdom.
It is time to write. It is time to tell the story. It is time to pass on to the next generation the impact of Christ’s work in our life and generation.
If we don’t write the story of the cross of Christ, a generation will write a story that will replace it. So, by all means tell the story of the cross.
Hankuri Tawus Gaya
2nd April, 2021