Seems like every generation the question comes up as to whether or not Jesus is still relevant. After all, he did live a long, long time ago in a land far, far away from most of us. What did he know about life in the 21st Century?

He never even traveled outside of a pretty small region of the world, so can Jesus tell us anything about social networking or living in the age of global terrorism? He had less education than many of us, so what can he really teach us?

Well, if these are the questions you think need answering, you’ll probably find very little that is initially satisfying in the things Jesus taught.

But if we’re willing to begin with his teaching, try our best to understand it and allow it to shape our lives, then we may find enormous, cosmic-level help. Eventually, we may find that even good and healthy responses to the questions asked above.

What we will definitely discover is that Jesus came to show us reality, and the reality he showed us is God’s love — a love that we cannot twist to mean anything we like — a love that uncompromisingly takes the shape of a human life lived by a particular person a long, long time ago in a land far, far away — and a life and love that remain present and powerful here and now, too.

So, what Jesus taught remains as relevant today as it was 2,000 years ago because love is always relevant.

I’ve said that the gospel in a word is Jesus and the story of Jesus and all the stories about Jesus. But, as Christie’s comment to yesterday’s post reveals, this brings up a whole host of questions about the story of Jesus as it appears in the New Testament.

How much do we really know about what Jesus actually said and did? Are the Gospels an accurate record of the historical Jesus, or are they accounts of what the early church wished Jesus had said and done?

There’s historical and literary research and argument in order to prove something one way or another about the accuracy of these ancient texts, and those efforts are commendable. But I’d like you to do a different kind of research and proving.

I’d like to ask you to consider whether or not the story makes sense to you. Does it reveal something you haven’t seen before? Is it a reality you’d like to live in?

If so, then you can prove the truth of the gospel in your life not by historical investigation or philosophical argument but by participating in the love of God made real through Jesus Christ. That’s actually possible because, although the story of the gospel begins thousands of years ago, it continues today. The reality which is the good news of Jesus Christ is an everlasting story; it’s eternal life through God’s Son.

Over the next several weeks, let’s explore together this story of Jesus as the story of God’s love for us. I won’t retell the story — I wouldn’t dare — there’s no substitute for the real story. Instead, I’ll try to draw your attention to certain features within the story in the New Testament and highlight ways I see that story continuing among us today.

Peace, peace, peace, peace. The gospel in a word is peace. Peace that passeth understanding. Peace, peace, peace.

Joy, joy, joy, joy. The gospel in a word is joy. Joy that something something something. Joy, joy, joy.

Love, love, love, love. The gospel in a word is love. Love thy neighbor something something. Love, love, love.

Anyone else remember singing that song? It was all the rage during my formative years in church — those good, old “worship training” days. Camp days. Youth rally days. Hopefully, you remember the lyrics better than I do!

I do remember the feeling evoked. To me it was the idea that the gospel was simple and yet somehow not. It was mysterious and straightforward at the same time. It was peace. But it was also joy. And it was also love.

Truth be told, the gospel is Jesus. And, as much as Jesus is peace, the gospel is peace. Same with joy. Same with peace.

But there is more to Jesus than just understanding his character. Jesus, like everyone else, has a story, and if we fail to grasp his story, we’ll miss a good deal of what it is he came to show us.

So, we could say that the gospel isn’t just Jesus — it’s also the story of Jesus. And, just as we dare not replace Jesus with any other person, we dare not replace his story with any other story.

This, obviously, means many things.

The story of Jesus is not just a story of love or forgiveness or sacrifice. Many stories demonstrate these virtues. The story of Jesus is about those things (and much more) as they could only be exemplified by this one unique person: Jesus.

Moreover, all these other fantastic stories contained in the Bible cannot be taken in isolation. They must, rather, be understood as part of Jesus’ story, too. In fact, in some way, Jesus must be seen as the point of these other stories.

There’s a paradox in here. As much as we may want to reduce the gospel to one word, we are forced to admit that the gospel in a word is Jesus and his story and all the stories about Jesus.

As I said the other day, John 3:16 is a summary of the story. The problem is that people who have memorized that summary often think that they now know the whole story.

But they don’t.

The gospel is such that we don’t just need the summary. In fact, the story itself is the whole point. So, we need to learn the story. More than that, we need to learn the story so well that we begin to live the story.

I have three little girls, and they do this sort of thing all the time. They read a fantastic fairy tale and become so taken with it that they live it out — assigning everyone in our home a role.

I’m not suggesting that the gospel is a fairy tale (though Frederick Buechner does this & he does it really well — still, he’s talking about a whole different context and that’s another story — nevermind — anyway…). Far from it. If the gospel were a fairy tale, then living it out would just be a stubborn refusal to grow up and live in the “real world”.

Rather, the gospel story actually reveals what the “real world” really is. It even goes so far as to show us how to really live in the really real world. It challenges us to consider that other “realities” are half-truths and distortions — perhaps even outright lies. The story of the gospel presents us with a reality we dared not imagine existed. It is more real, more truthful than our wildest dreams.

Learning this story and living this story is what we might call “growing up”. And growing up means learning and living this story more completely every day.

A few years ago, I asked someone if they knew the verse John 3:16. She said, “Of course. It’s the verse about love.”

I figured, Good for her! I should have let her finish.

“You know, ‘Love is patient. Love is kind.’ All that stuff that love is.”

For those of you who don’t have it memorized, John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

The verse my friend was referring to is actually from 1 Corinthians 13.

John 3:16 is the centerpiece of the good news about Jesus Christ, and there’s good reason why this is probably the most popular and most memorized verse in Christendom. But we should remember one really important thing:

John 3:16 is a summary of a story.

Now, sometimes a summary of a story is all we need. Our culture prides itself on being oriented towards the bottom line, and we like stories that can be summarized quickly and neatly. Get to the point! Give us the bullet list and save us the details or rhetorical flourishes.

But sometimes your soul needs more than a summary. Sometimes your soul needs the story. Sometimes the story is the point.

Imagine your English professor standing before you on the first day of class and saying, “Boy meets girl. Boy and girl fall in love. Parents hate each other and object to their relationship. Boy and girl disobey parents. Girl fakes death. Boy drinks poison. Girl kills herself. The end. Now you don’t have to read Romeo and Juliet.”

Sometimes having the summary of the story just isn’t the same.

And so it is with the good news of Jesus Christ. We don’t need the summary; we need the story. We need more than John 3:16; we need Genesis and Revelation. We need the grand, sweeping narrative to come alive, draw us in, take our hearts and minds captive and provide us with a new lens through which to interpret life.

That is, after all, what a good story does. And this is, after all, the greatest story ever.