Reading the Bible, Knowing Jesus (7)

 

The second conversation that shocked me occurred less than two months ago, it is the most recent of the three. Vickie and I were sitting at our table with a dear family member. While we don’t see him often, for he lives on the other side of the country, nor talk to him with great frequency, we love him and his family deeply.

 

We were talking about reading and understanding the Bible when he said to me, “I’m not an intellectual like you, so it is hard for me to understand the Bible.”

 

My first thought was, “O my, what have I done?” I was completely taken aback.

 

I rose from the table, got a Bible from a bookshelf, placed it in front of him and sat down. Then I said, “Please open it and let’s read it. Open it anywhere.”

 

He opened the Bible at Daniel Chapter 10.

 

Now of all the passages in the Bible, Daniel Chapter 10 was not toward the top of my list to read with him because of its apocalyptic language and imagery, but as Reepicheep counsels, we must take the adventure that Aslan gives us. And so our nephew began reading aloud, and as he read a thought or two he’d stop and reflect on it with Vickie and me. It was a sweet time and before we knew it Neil had taken us through Daniel Chapter 10.

 

Neil saw the essence of the chapter. He didn’t need a commentary, he didn’t need Vickie or me to explain it, he did (I hope) benefit from our encouragement. While we made occasional comments about possibilities of meaning, it was more along the line of a hitting coach suggesting to a batter what pitches to look for with a particular pitcher. A hitting coach cannot face the pitcher, only the player at bat can do that.

 

After Neil had taken us through Daniel Chapter 10, we turned to Matthew and looked at a few passages. Since he was reading Matthew at home this seemed like a good idea – once again, to use another baseball analogy, he was making contact and putting the ball in play.

 

I don’t know what our nephew’s concept of “intellectual” is, perhaps it is more along the line of someone who receives formal education in a particular field, I suppose I should ask him. I do hope that in our time together that he saw that the Bible, by God’s grace, is accessible to us all – that as we come to God’s Word that God’s Word comes to us.

 

When I facilitate a small group, and when I preach, I tend to ask questions rather than give answers. This was also true in my business career, since I wanted my employees to grow, I needed to ask and seldom answer. Some folks respond well to this approach, others hate it. I think that once most people get over their insecurities that they not only begin to grow, but they learn to practice it with others and thereby help them grow.

 

I have learned much from the insights of others, insights which they would not have expressed had I been doing most of the talking. Often in a small group someone will say something that I had never thought of or seen in quite the same way – those times are exciting to me. Furthermore, whether in the Kingdom or in business, I’ve learned that if you give a group of people a problem and then leave them alone, they will usually come up with some great solutions and possibilities.

 

In the first conversation with our husband-and-wife friends, I was challenged by the erroneous idea that you need to exegete the Bible in a certain methodical way in order to understand it. In the second conversation I was challenged by the idea, also false, that you have to be “intellectual” to readily understand Scripture. In the first conversation I was asking myself, “Have I given that impression in my teaching and preaching?” In the second conversation I was asking myself, “How have I given that impression?”

 

The Scriptures are clear that only the Holy Spirit can reveal God’s Word to us (John 16:12 – 15; 1 Corinthians 1:17 – 2:16). Pastors and teachers fall short if they do not instill this in their people. All of our learning and education must go through the Cross of Christ for it to be of lasting benefit. Perhaps all seminary and Bible college students should memorize 1 Corinthians Chapter 2 before they begin their studies. Perhaps all teachers and professors should be required to take an annual refresher seminar on 1 Corinthians 1:17 – 2:16.

 

Perhaps Jesus’ words in John and Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians should be written above the entrance to every seminary and every seminary library. Perhaps every author who seeks to write a commentary ought to read these two passages every day prior to beginning his work.

 

It is the rare commentary that is unambiguous in its dependence on the Holy Spirit for conveying the Word of God. These are the commentaries that view history, archeology, textual spade work and transmission through Scripture and Christ, allowing the Holy Spirit to bring the “natural” alive, rather than building a foundation on the “natural” and forcing the Bible into the image of natural man. Many commentaries are a mixture and can be confusing to the unaware and wearisome to others (wearisome because the reader must constantly pick bones out of the fish). Some of us have learned to eat fish with bones faster than others; all of us should be careful when we do so.

 

The Holy Spirit either breathed the Bible or not. The Holy Spirit is either the Primary Source of the Bible or not. Yes, for sure God incorporates contemporary images, using them “as-is” or transforming them upward into higher and deeper perspectives – but the Primary Mover must always be the Holy Spirit, not the human author’s contemporary surroundings, understandings, beliefs, practices, intentions, and cultural biases. We must submit all things to Christ and seek Christ in all things. The Bible, by God’s grace, transports us into the eternals in Christ Jesus. We are not to live as earth dwellers.

 

We live in a time of exceptional information, I do not say that it is a time of exceptional knowledge, for to really know something requires, I think, a marriage of the mind and heart with the object to be known – whether in the concrete or the abstract (and the abstract is no longer the abstract to those who know it). Using this measure, we can seldom know anything by using a search engine. 

Employing a search engine and thinking the results by themselves give us knowledge is like purchasing a tomato at a grocery store and thinking that we have grown the tomato. We may gain data from the internet, but we are not likely to gain knowledge or wisdom. We may come home from the grocery store with a tomato, but that is not the same as our neighbor’s tomatoes on his table, for he has nurtured the soil, planted the seeds, cared for the plants, and harvested the tomatoes. Hothouse tomatoes seldom have taste, hothouse data from the internet is the same.

 

Interpretive methodologies may have their place, they may be helpful, but they must not sit on the interpretive (hermeneutical and exegetical) throne – Jesus has reserved that for the Holy Spirit. The wise interpreter submits himself and his approach to the Christ of the Cross and the Cross of Christ, knowing that “knowledge puffs up, but love edifies,” knowing that “the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.”

 

If we remove the Holy Spirit, if we remove the supernatural, if understanding the Bible is open to anyone who can learn hermeneutical and exegetical principles, if 100% of the process of Biblical interpretation can be taught and tested – then what the Bible says about itself is a lie, 1 Corinthians 1:17 – 2:16 is a lie, because it teaches us that “a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually understood” (1 Cor. 2:14).

 

Our “faith is not to rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God” (1 Cor. 2:5).

 

We, who are in Christ, have been given the Holy Spirit “who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God, which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words” (1 Cor. 2:12 – 13).

 

Now, how we negotiate all this is another matter, and whether we can recover from where we are and return to where we ought to be in the Holy Spirit and the Living Word is another matter. How these things are worked out is beyond my vision – I suppose it must be local, always local – yet it may indeed have broader currents. Christ Jesus must always be our North Star; the Cross must always be our portal into the Divine and heavenly.

 

Someone has said that while over the past few decades we may have done a good job of teaching people the Bible (which I question), we have not done a good job at teaching people to know Jesus.

 

There is an irony here, when thinking about the Biblical text and interpretation. The irony is that when we remove the Holy Spirit and supplant Him with our methodologies, that our focus on the text is pretty much the same as those who teach the Bible solely as literature; neither approach requires the Living Christ, neither requires the supernatural, neither requires the Holy Spirit, both are controlled by “man.”

 

As John the Baptist said, “A man can receive nothing unless it has been given him from heaven” (John 3:27).

 

You may have discerned another possible irony, and that is that I may appear to have drifted into the “intellectual” after beginning this reflection insisting that being “intellectual” is not necessary for seeing and understanding the Bible. If thinking about things is being intellectual then I am guilty, but I don’t think so, I think I am simply seeing Scripture as it is written, that I refuse to gloss over passages such as 1 Corinthians 1:17 – 2:16.

 

If I am using terms and concepts and sharing concerns that are unfamiliar to a reader, I am complementing the reader on his or her ability to think about these important ideas and teachings from the Bible. We do not grow by being constantly fed baby food (Hebrews 5:11 – 6:3; 1 Cor. 3:1 – 2). Much of our small group and Sunday school material might as well be published by the Gerber baby food company.

 

I refuse to treat people as if they are stupid. I refuse to water down the Gospel and the Bible. I refuse to deviate from calling us to total devotion and commitment to Jesus Christ. I refuse to treat adults as children.

 

“For I determined to know nothing about you, except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified” (1 Cor. 2:2). Only the crucified Jesus Christ opens the door to seeing and understanding Scripture.

 

Let us trust the Holy Spirit to reveal Jesus and His Word to us (John 16:12 – 15).

Postscript: I realize that this can be challenging to those of us trained in hermeneutical and exegetical methods (methods of interpretation and communication). It is difficult for me to work through it, and I imagine I’ll die without having fully done so. Aren’t we always striving to see Jesus more clearly? To see His Word more fully? 

Some of my teachers have held “methods” loosely and graciously, giving room for their students to explore and grow as the Holy Spirit works and lives in them, others have been more rigid. All have loved Jesus; all have done their best. This is analogous to being trained to preach by a good teacher. I love Scott Gibson and Haddon Robinson – for who they are in Christ (Haddon is now in the Presence), for the content of their teaching, and for their own preaching.

 

As I have previously shared, I was trained so well by Scott and Haddon that I didn’t need the Holy Spirit. After I’d been pastoring for a few months and preaching every Sunday, I realized that I had so absorbed and bought into Haddon’s methodology, including his exegetical approach (which I incorporated with that of the broader faculty) that I could preach without reliance on the Holy Spirit and that few, if anyone, would notice. 

This frightened me and (I hope) drove me to a dependance on Christ (I hope in some measure, I’m still learning this Way) and helped me to hold all methods loosely. I may return to this subject at some point, we’ll see. When you live in a culture or system, it can be difficult to critique it – especially when it appeals to you.

He's Calling for You

 

 

“Martha went away and called Mary her sister, saying secretly, “The Teacher is here and is calling for you” (John 11:28 NASB).

 

Musings from John the Beloved Apostle:

 

I am often asked, “What was it like to write your account of Jesus?”

 

In response I usually have no response, just as I have no response to the question of what it was like to write the Apocalypse. There are some things that cannot be answered, at least in this life, and, I suppose, if they could be answered it would not be lawful or helpful to do so. Once in a long while I’ll look the questioner in the eye, pause, and then say, “You can only imagine.”

 

Yet, as I am with you today, I do feel like sharing an element of not so much what it was like to write the Gospel, but rather what it is like to live out of the Gospel I have written. One does not write a Gospel and have closure, anymore than one should read a Gospel, or Isaiah, or Job, and have closure. I dare say that anyone who reads Scripture and experiences closure has never read Scripture – for is not reading Scripture to enter into relationship with the Word who was in the Beginning, to live in the Eternal? Ha! Is it not to breathe His Life, to inhale and exhale? Ha!

 

O how I remember, how I still feel His holy breath upon us! How I felt it when I wrote, “He breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit”.” (John 20:22). I felt His breath in the Upper Room, I felt His breath when I wrote those words, I feel His breath as I write these words. May I ask you, do you feel His breath right now?

 

To write is to remember, to relive, to experience, to be there – and it is for Him to be here; with me, with you, with us.

 

And so it was, when I related Lazarus’s death and Jesus raising him from the dead, when I described seeing Martha and Mary in their grief and Jesus in His compassion, when I wrote the words, “She went away and called Mary her sister, saying secretly, ‘The Teacher is here and is calling for you,’” that I thought, “Yes, amen, that is it, that says it all.”

 

Do you see what I mean?

 

Is this not what my life has been all about, since that Day when He called me?

 

There is Martha, conveying to Mary Jesus’ words of calling and His desire for Mary to come to Him.

 

“The Teacher is here,” Martha says.

 

Isn’t this what my life has been all about? To say to those around me, no...not to merely say, but to proclaim, to insist, that the Teacher is here! Right here, right now! The Word has become flesh and lives among us, He who was in the beginning, that is, He who is the Beginning, He has come, He is coming, He is here – O for people to know that He is here, here for them.

 

Martha speaks the calling of Jesus to Mary. “He is calling for you.”

 

Hasn’t this been my Message? Haven’t I learned from dear, dear Martha? O reader, there is more to Martha than meets the eye. Yes, yes, she may have her times when she is busy serving (John 12:2; Luke 10:40), but her serving also includes speaking the Word and heart of Jesus to others. Can you think of a more sacred charge than to say to those around us, “The Teacher is here and is calling for you”?

 

In the midst of her own grief, Martha speaks the presence and call of Jesus to Mary. This is, I know, a hard thing. It is a hard thing to go out of our own sorrow and pain and share joy and hope and peace and the call of Jesus with others. How well I recall when James, my sweet brother, was murdered by Herod (Acts 12:2).

 

At that very same time my beloved friend Peter was thrown into prison, indeed many of our brothers and sisters were persecuted, it was chaos around us. Yet, the peace of the Lamb was with us, the Teacher walked among us, and Voice of our Good Sheperd spoke to us…and I knew I must continue to encourage the sheep of our Lord Jesus, pray for Peter, and rejoice that my brother James had proven faithful to our Lord and His saints. I recalled Martha going to Mary as I was living through that particular trial, I recalled her words to Mary, “The Teacher is here and is calling for you.”

 

Out of her own grief, Martha spoke words of hope to grieving Mary.

When Martha came to Mary their house was a cacophony of wailing and crying…it was chaos. Yet, Martha spoke and Mary heard. I have learned that no matter the chaos around us, no matter the noise, no matter the hopelessness, no matter the distractions, that if we will be the Voice of our Teacher, if we will be His Presence, if we will call others to Him, that His sheep will hear and respond.

 

Sadly, as I was reminded when I penned the Apocalypse, we often blend in with the chaos, make alliances with the world and the dragon, and fail to call others to our Lord Jesus.  

 

When Martha came for Mary, there was an empty place at their table. As the sisters would learn, in Jesus Christ there is never an empty place, for He is the Resurrection and the Life and when we believe in Him we never die…I reminded myself of that when I lost my brother James…a temporary parting you might call it…but since he remains with me it isn’t even that…one of those things you can’t explain, and if you could it wouldn’t be lawful to do so.

 

O the memories I had when I recorded my Gospel, how I relived what I wrote, how I learned from Martha and Mary…and how I am still learning from them, from Jesus, from Peter, from James…learning to say to others, “The Teacher is here and is calling for you.”

 

Whom can you share those words with today?

 

With whom can you be the Presence of Christ?

 

To whom shall you say, “The Teacher is here and is calling for you”?

Reading the Bible, Knowing Jesus (6)

 

 

Now let’s consider what it means to read the Bible as a pilgrim.

 

"A pilgrim learns about themselves, and you learn about yourself by leaving your home and looking at it from a distance, you try to get closer to God through your travels.” Rick Steeves.

 

I have asked over the years, “Does a fish know that it lives in an aquarium?” This question has been asked in many forms over the centuries, asking it can be quite the journey, a pilgrimage. Can we answer the question without leaving the aquarium?

 

It is a challenge to “leave your home and look at it from a distance.” Generally, this is discouraged by the folks at home (in the aquarium).  Whether it is a family, a business concern, a religious tradition that exalts its practices and doctrinal distinctives, an academic institution, a political or social movement…whatever the system may be, traveling a distance and looking back to gain understanding is typically considered a threat to the system, and threats are either subjugated and brought back to be good little boys and girls, ostracized, or just plain destroyed.

 

Jesus was constantly asking His hears to travel and look back, travel farther and look back, travel even farther and look back again. “An hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father…God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth” (John 4:21, 24).

 

When Paul looked back at his impeccable Jewish pedigree, he wrote, “Whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ…I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ” (Phil. 3:7 – 8).

 

When we read the Bible as a pilgrim, we learn to read the Bible not through the lens of our religious tradition but rather learn to see our religious tradition through our reading of the Bible. In America, we have the additional challenge of learning to see our syncretistic Christianity through the Bible, seeing ourselves as Biblical pilgrims – passing through the United States just as we are passing through the world.

 

When we read as a pilgrims we read as an aliens, as people whose eyes are heavenward (Col. 3:1 – 4; Heb. 11:8 – 16; 1 Peter 2:4 – 12).

 

We ask the Holy Spirit to teach us about Jesus and about ourselves, with the Word of God piercing into the depths of our beings (Heb. 4:12 – 13). As we come to realize how intimately God knows us, we cry, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me and know my anxious thoughts; and see if there be any hurtful way in me, and led me in the Everlasting Way” (Psalm 139:23 – 24).

 

The greater the distance between us and home, the more we realize that home is not home, the more we realize that our Home is that City where the Father and the Lamb are the Light (Rev. 21:22 – 23; 22:5). Now this can be a problem, for few people want to hear this, speak this, know this, or practice this. We think the light is in our tradition, our doctrinal distinctives, the history of our movement. In America we think the light is in our syncretistic version of Christianity with its creation myth along with its justification for conquest, war, and extermination – and selling the souls of men (Rev. 18:13).

 

The farther we travel as pilgrims, the deeper God speaks to us about ourselves and where we’ve come from, and as we look back from a distance there may be things we are thankful for, things we regret, things we see in a new perspective, and things we dare no longer touch.

 

Pilgrimage is not encouraged; questions are seldom welcomed. Mystery is not acknowledged, and loose ends are quickly tied up or cut off. What do we fear? If Jesus Christ is truly the Head of the Body and we are under His authority, if He is indeed our Good Shepherd, then we can trust Him to care for us all on pilgrimage – we do not need all the answers, but we sure do need Jesus.

 

I seldom meet Christians on pilgrimage. I meet lots of Christians who care more about fitting in with their religious system but don’t think about fitting in with Jesus, about being conformed to His image. I have seldom heard a question asked in Sunday school or in a small group that was searching and penetrating and which had the potential to be life changing. True questions are not encouraged, on the contrary, it is more important to articulate the “correct answers” and to read the Bible in the image of our traditions, than to actually attempt to touch the hem of His garment and behold the Face of the Lamb.

 

We should not be surprised at this, it is our human condition, our center of gravity – it is a challenge to gain perspective, and it is most certainly a challenge to go against the grain of society and our associations. Perhaps this is particularly true when we are in religious and political environments, environments in which conformity is prized and insisted upon.

 

When we do sew a new piece of cloth on an old garment, or pour new wine into old wineskins, we soon have problems and find our actions quite unappreciated.

 

Ultimately, a pilgrim becomes a pilgrim – at least that is a possibility. What I mean is that the pilgrim may cross a point of no return in which his (or her) identity ceases to be that home county which he has left, and becomes rooted in that heavenly country which draws him with ever increasing desire.

 

The pilgrim realizes that the Jerusalem here on earth is in bondage; whether it is a city in the Middle East, or a flavor of doctrine, doctrinal distinctive, or particular practices – the possibilities are myriad, they all fall aside as the pilgrim beholds the Lamb. The pilgrim learns to live as a faithful citizen of heaven anticipating that blessed hope of eternal transformation (Phil. 3:20 – 21).

 

The city from which we departed appears dimmer and dimmer, indeed, without realizing it we cease to look back, it fades from our minds…as the glorious City of the Father and the Lamb descends from above into our hearts and minds, filling our souls, quickening our spirits, uniting us to the Bridegroom, opening its gates and calling us home – and we are pilgrims no longer.

 

“If they had been mindful of that country from which they went out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; for He has prepared a City for them” (Hebrews 11:15 - 16).