Tell Stories & Review Halacha
We call it SIPUR Y'TZI'AT MITZRAYIM, the story of the Exodus. That's what we are supposed to transmit to our children on Seder night. Did you ever wonder about the fact that the stories are mixed (heavily at times) with explanations of the details of halacha and minhag of Seder night practices?

The official answer for the TAM, the "simple" child", is "G-d took us our of Egypt with a strong hand". That implies the telling of the story, from the text in the Chumash and from Midrashim. But what about the answer to the CHACHAM, the wise child? Tell him, says the Hagada, the laws of Pesach [all the way through, until you tell him] that there is to be no dessert after the Korban Pesach. The wise children get a review of Halacha, in addition to - and often more so than - the account of what happened in Mitzrayim and as we were taken out.

A possible insight to help us understand the necessity and interplay of story and mitzva, comes from the command of the night itself. And you shall tell your child on that day saying - because of THIS that G-d did what He did for me when I went out of Egypt. As the Hagada tells us, we are commanded to tell the story of the Exodus specifically when Matza and Maror are before us. In other words, when we are performing those mitzvot and the other aspects of the Seder - then we tell the story. Then the story has its proper context. Apparently, to "just" tell the story, disconnected from the mitzvot, is not the goal.

Let us look at the famous Mishna of Rabban Gamliel, who told us to examine three things, without which we have not fulfilled our obligation of the night. Pesach, Matza, Maror. One must discuss the mitzvot of the night. But what is the reason given for each? Part of the story. Pesach, because G-d spared us when He was killing the Egyptian firstborns. Story. Matza, because of the haste with which we responded to G-d's taking us out of Egypt. Story. Maror, because of the bitterness of life for the Jews in Egypt. Story. But story in the context of the mitzvot that perpetuate the story.

And if the mitzvot give us the context from which SIPUR Y'TZI'AT MITZRAYIM is to be told, then it is the story of the Exodus that gives us insight into the performance of the mitzvot. These specifically, but all mitzvot in general.

Rabban Gamliel says that one has not fulfilled his obligation without speaking of the mitzvot. What obligation? Telling the story? Yes. Cannot do that without mitzvot. Maybe the other way too. The mitzvot cannot be properly performed without the story.