The story behind the story

Usually with every story there is another story behind it.

I love the Detroit Tigers and it was sad to see them fall apart at the end of last season.

Yet with every team and every player there is a story behind the story.

Last year Brandon Inge batted .230 with 27 home runs.

You would think this is a typical Brandon Inge year, but there was more to it than that.

Inge hurt his knee halfway through the season when he was batting between .260-.285.

After that it went downhill quick, at the time he was approaching 20 home runs and the rest of the way hit about seven.

If you looked at his numbers before the knee problem's you would see a completely different player.

Soon as the season ended, Inge had double knee surgery.

He is just know getting to the point where he might be able to play in games over the next week.

Just like there was a story behind Inge's .230 batting average.

There was a story behind a lot of things we experience or do.

There are stories behind…

Why fast food wasn't fast.

Why it took so long to check out at the grocery store.

Why we got a C on the test instead of a B.

There are stories behind the stories.

Jesus often taught in one of these methods where he told a story, but there was another meaning beside the story.

They are called parables.

Jesus tells this parable about a man who planted a vineyard.

He rented the land to be farmed.

Yet when it came time to collect, the people hurt whoever he sent.

This happened time and time again.

Finally the owner sent his son.

The people killed the son so they could possibly have his inheritance.

So what was the owner to do?

He went back and killed everyone and gave the land to others.

There was a hidden meaning behind this.

Jesus was directly referring to himself and the religious leaders.

He knew he was going to die by their hands.

He was letting them know there was going to be major consequences for killing him, they would pay.

This ticked the people off because they knew this hidden meaning.

This is how they responded in Mark 12:12…

"Then they looked for a way to arrest him because they knew he had spoken the parable against them. But they were afraid of the crowd; so they left him and went away."

These people we ticked at Jesus because they knew the hidden meaning but they were afraid to do anything in front of the people.

The people didn't know why the leader would have had him arrested and there could have been major consequences.

Sometimes there is a story behind the story.

We don't always know the story behind the story we could respond in a bad way.

Someone could show up late for work because they were just in a car accident.

Someone could have struggle on a school assignment or test because they had a close relative pass away.

A football team could have lost a major game, but we didn't know they had food poisoning the night before and felt awful.

There are a lot of things we don't understand.

Just like there are a lot of things people don't understand about us.

This is why Jesus gave us grace.

He showed us grace by dying on the cross for our mistakes our sins.

If someone was willing to do that for us today, how can we show other people the same grace?

We don't always know the story behind the story, but we can still be gracious no matter what.

Do you need that grace from Jesus?

Who can you show grace too?

Have a great day.