Why Read the Old Testament? (9)

 

Dear Friend,

 

Having pondered Psalm 22:1 – 21, let’s now turn our attention to the second section of Psalm 22, verses 22 – 31, we might call this “the rest of the story.” Let’s keep in mind that when Jesus cries, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” on the Cross, that He is invoking ALL of Psalm 22.

 

While verses 1 – 21 look pretty bleak, there is victory to come; it begins with verse 22:

 

“I will tell of Your name to My brethren; in the midst of the assembly I will praise You.”

 

There is a sense in which we could call Psalm 22:22 the core of the Gospel, for it is the Great Story of Redemption, the Greatest Rescue Story Ever Told. It ushers us into the Holy of Holies of John 17, as well as that Grand Proclamation of Revelation 21:7, “He who overcomes will inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be My son.”

 

I will venture so far as to say that our failure to “see” Psalm 22:22 and the glorious message it proclaims is at the root of our anemic spiritual lives, our failure to witness, and our living beneath the inheritance which we have in our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

To begin, the proclamation that “I will tell of You name to My brethren; in the midst of the assembly I will praise you,” indicates that the Suffering One of verses 1 – 21 will come out of His suffering proclaiming the Name of Yahweh to His brothers and sisters. This is a cry of victory!

 

Then in verse 23 is the exhortation that the People of God, those who fear Him, are to praise Him. Why? “For He has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, nor has He hidden His face from Him; but when He cried to Him for help, He heard.” (Verse 24).

 

In other words, as we read verse 24 we see that verses 1 – 21 are not the entire story, to be sure they are critical to the story, but they are not the entire story. Verse 24 tells us that, despite appearances, the Father did not “hide His face from Him; but when He cried to Him for help, He heard.”

 

The Cross was not the end of the story, for Easter was on its way. But even on the Cross…and we must not miss this…there is victory, for Jesus cries, “Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit,” (Luke 23:46; Ps. 31:5), and “It is finished!” (John 19:30).

 

In Ps. 22:25 we see the Suffering One, now the Victorious One, again with His People – the Great Assembly.

 

Then in verses 26 – 31 we see the fruit of the Suffering One (John 12:24) as the Gospel spreads across the earth and all the families of the peoples worship God, declaring His righteousness – for we see the righteousness of God in God’s accepting the offering of the Suffering One, the Lamb of God.

 

Therefore, when Jesus cries, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me?” He is not only acknowledging and entering into Psalm 22:1 – 21, He is also declaring Psalm 22:22 – 31 as a glorious accomplished reality, as the fruit of the Cross, the fruit of His suffering, the assured outcome of those terrible and unfathomable hours on the Cross. (Hebrews 12:2)

 

But unless we read the Old Testament we will not see this, for we will have nothing to see. Also, if we primarily view the Old Testament as a series of isolated Messianic texts, thereby failing to see that the entire Old Testament is Messianic, we will not “see” Psalm 22, we will only see one verse of the Psalm without true context. We will not “see” that the cry of verse 1 invokes the entire Psalm with its glorious victory…a victory that includes us.

 

As we think about these things, let’s not forget that we are working with Luke 24:26, where Jesus asks, “Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into His glory?”

 

In Psalm 22 we see Christ suffering and entering into His glory.

 

In our next reflection, the Lord willing, I want us to return to Psalm 22:22 – for there are riches beyond measure in Christ in His proclamation.

 

How might Hebrews Chapter 2 help us see these riches?

 

Why Read the Old Testament? (8)

Dear Friend,

 

When Jesus cries, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken me?”, He is not only expressing His immediate Incarnational suffering with its deep and veiled mystery of sacrificial atonement, but He is also proclaiming His resurrection. Not only is He proclaiming His resurrection, but He is proclaiming our sonship in Him and the proclamation of the Gospel to all the peoples of the earth. He is also proclaiming the Eschaton, the gathering up of all things into Himself to the glory of the Father.

 

Isn’t this obvious?

 

This should be as obvious as it would have once been that when I say, “When in the course of human events,” or “We hold these truths to be self – evident, that all men are created equal,” that I am invoking the American Declaration of Independence and its historical context. But of course, neither is obvious today. What have we come to?

 

If I do not read the Old Testament, then when I read Matthew 27:46 and Mark 15:34, the cry of Jesus will be subject to my own thoughts and feelings and I will have only the immediate Biblical context in which to read it.

 

If I isolate certain Old Testament passages as Messianic, reading them primarily with an evidentiary lens, failing to read and see the Old Testament as holistically Messianic – then I will miss the glorious portrayal of the Firstborn Son of God in Jesus’ cry, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” I will fail to see the Son in His glory because I do not know and “see” Psalm 22, I see only one verse.

 

Whether I do not read the Old Testament because I think it irrelevant, or whether I primarily read it in an evidentiary fashion, focusing on isolated texts – I am rejecting the full revelation of Jesus Christ as well as the way that Jesus and the Apostles read and taught the Old Testament, with Jesus being the hermeneutic, the lens through which we see all Scripture, the focal point of all Scripture. Do we forget that Christianity should be Jesus Christ, and that Jesus Christ should certainly be Christianity?

 

Now then, what do you see when you read Psalm 22:1 – 21? What do you see when you read this passage alongside all four depictions of the crucifixion in the Gospels? Please take the time to do this – after all, this is the portrayal of the Crucifixion of our Lord Jesus Christ, is it too much to ask us to enter into the deepest mystery of the cosmos, the central point in the history of humanity, the glory of Divinity?  

 

Please read and reread Psalm 22:1 – 21, and then carefully read each Gospel account of the Crucifixion – looking at the Psalm and then the Gospel each time. What do you see?

 

How might you explain what you see to others?

 

I am thinking right now of the African – American spiritual, “Where You There When They Crucified My Lord?”

 

As you work through Psalm 22:1 – 21 and the four Gospel passages of the Crucifixion, how would you answer the question?

 

Where you there?

Why Read the Old Testament? (7)

Dear Friend,

 

Now let’s ponder Psalm 22 as it relates to Luke 24:26, “Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into His glory?”

 

When we read Jesus’ cry, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Mt. 27:46; Mk, 15:34), what do we think? What do we see?

 

At one level, we may read this cry as a Messianic fulfillment of Psalm 22. That is, we can say that Psalm 22 is a prophecy of the Messiah’s death by crucifixion. This is like looking at Micah 5:2 and seeing it as a prophecy of the Messiah’s birth in Bethlehem. When we look at passages such as Micah 5:2 and Psalm 22 in this fashion we are looking at them as evidence that Jesus fulfilled Old Testament prophecies and that therefore Jesus must be the Messiah, the Christ.

 

I have seen lists of Old Testament verses that Jesus fulfilled and that are used as evidence that Jesus is the Messiah. Is this the best way to read the Old Testament? Is this even reading the Old Testament, or is it rather using the Old Testament, picking this verse and that verse, or at times using elements of this extended passage or that passage (such as Psalm 22 or Isaiah 53)? How did Jesus and the Apostles read and “see” the Old Testament?

 

Another way to read Jesus’ cry, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” is to read it theologically. We ought to be comfortable with the words “theology” and “theological” because they have to do with how we think about God, how we “see” God, how we read the Word of God, how we share our understanding of God with others and how we receive the understanding of God that others share with us.

 

We all do theology, whether we want to use the word theology or not. Our theology may be slovenly or it may be well formed, it may be thoughtful or it may depend on our changeable feelings, it may be childish or it may reflect maturity – it may be built upon a solid foundation or upon shifting sand.

 

This cry of Jesus on the Cross, in the context of darkness enveloping the land, speaks to us of the mystery of the Atonement, of the sacrifice of the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29, 36; Rev. Chapter 5). Veiled from our view is the holy and terrible transaction of which we read in 2 Corinthians 5:21:

 

“He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him."

 

Yet, there is more to see, more to see theologically, more to see holistically. If we limit our reading of Psalm 22 to the evidentiary (in the usual sense of the word) we have not read the Old Testament as Jesus and the Apostles read it, we have not taught it as they taught it.

 

For when Jesus cries, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” He is invoking not simply Psalm 22:1, He is invoking the entirety of Psalm 22 – He is calling to mind all of Psalm 22 – and if we do not know the entire Psalm we will not experience what Jesus is doing – and if we are content in not knowing the entire Psalm then we will never experience the depth and breath and height of the cry, “My God, My God.”

 

If we only read the Old Testament in an evidentiary fashion, we will not understand what Luke means when he writes, “Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures.” (Luke 24:27). That is, if we isolate certain Old Testament passages as “Messianic” rather than seeing the entire Old Testament as Messianic, we will miss so much of Jesus Christ in both the Old and New Testaments that we will fail to have a Biblical interpretive lens for all Scripture – for that lens is Jesus Christ, always Jesus Christ. Jesus must always be our hermeneutic.

 

Let’s try to illustrate this.

 

If I say, “When in the course of human events,” or “We hold these truths to be self – evident, that all men are created equal,” what am I doing? I am invoking the American Declaration of Independence. In previous generations there would have been a reasonable expectation that my listeners would have known both the text of the document and the historical context of the document. I would not have needed to take the time to read the entire document or to set the historical context of the document, for my audience – from farmers to shopkeepers to doctors to mechanics - would have understood the basics of the Declaration of Independence and the historical context surrounding the document.

 

Similarly, if I say, “We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union,” or “Fourscore and twenty years ago,” or “Yesterday, December 7, 1941,” or “I have a dream,” or “Ask not what your country can do for you,” there would have been a time when the average American would have immediately known that I was invoking the Constitution, the Gettysburg Address, the Day of Infamy speech, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s speech at the Lincoln Memorial, and John Kenney’s inaugural address – and they would have known the historical contexts – they would have known the stories and the substance of the documents.

 

One morning around 2018 I was in an adult Sunday school class that was in the book of Exodus. The passage that morning was Chapter 12, the Passover. The Sunday school curriculum was published by a denomination that professed a high view of Scripture, and this series of lessons was written by a Ph.D. within the denomination. As I read the Sunday school material I was shocked that there was no mention of Jesus as our Passover Lamb (1 Cor. 5:7). I listened to the class discussion, hoping that someone would mention Jesus, expecting that someone would mention Jesus, anticipating that someone would mention Jesus. After all, the leaders of the congregation were in the class. After all, most members of the class had been in the congregation for years and years. After all, the pastors who had preceded me had loved Jesus and the Bible.

 

Finally, when it became apparent that no one saw Jesus and the Gospel in Exodus Chapter 12, I intervened as pastor and reset the lesson – focusing on Jesus. Of course, I suppose we could say that there was a greater lesson to be learned – that we had become so utterly dumb with respect to the Bible that we could no longer see Jesus…but I think that lesson passed us by.

 

Why should we read the Old Testament? So that we may see Jesus as Jesus chooses to reveal Himself.

 

The Lord willing, we’ll continue with Psalm 22 in our next reflection.

 

 

Why Read the Old Testament (6)

 

Dear Friend,

 

As we consider Luke 24:26, “Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into His glory?”

 

How do we see the Messiah’s suffering and glory in Genesis – Deuteronomy and in all the Prophets?

 

As we continue to hold that question in mind, let’s look at Luke 24:44 – 47; here we are in the Upper Room Easter evening:

 

“Now He said to them, ‘These are My words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.’ Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and He said to them ‘Thus it is written, that the Christ would suffer and rise again from the dead the third day, and that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to all the peoples, beginning from Jerusalem.’”

 

Once again, the resurrected Jesus Christ is revealing Himself to His People through what we call the Old Testament.  Note the language of verse 45, “Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.” Also note 24:32, “They said to one another, ‘Were not our hearts burning within us while He was speaking to us on the road, while He was opening the Scriptures to us?’”

 

In Ephesians 1:18 Paul writes, “I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints…”

 

As we ponder Luke Chapter 24, as we consider that “Moses and all the Prophets” and the Psalms reveal the suffering and glory of Jesus Christ, and His rising from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name, our pondering ought to include prayer to our Father that He would open our hearts and minds to “see” Jesus Christ, to always “see” Jesus Christ – because these things cannot be “seen” by the natural man or woman – we need the revelation and unveiling of the Holy Spirit.  

 

And once again, I remind us of 1 Corinthians 1:17 – 2:16, John 16:12 – 15; and Hebrews 11:1 – 6. I know I reference these passages frequently, but it seems to me that if our epistemology is wrong, then our starting place is wrong, and if our starting place is wrong then our trajectory of understanding will be amiss and we will end up in the wrong place – because we will be making the wrong journey. Jesus must always be our starting place, the center of our journey, and our culmination – He must always be our All in all.

 

When we allow anything, any method, any system of interpretation and reading which is not dependent on the Holy Spirit and controlled by the Holy Spirit, to have primacy in our encounter with Scripture, we fall short of the glory of God in Christ Jesus. Unless Jesus Christ opens our hearts and minds and understanding we will not see Him. We may see evidence of Him in a piecemeal fashion, but we will not see Him holistically in Moses and in all the Prophets and the Psalms…nor in the New Testament.

 

Let us recall that Jesus says, “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me.” (John 5:39). “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.” (John 6:63).

 

Well now, how about a question to ponder?

 

When we read “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Matthew 27:46; Mark 15:34), what do we “see”?

 

To help us get started, I’ll suggest that we read this cry of Jesus in its Biblical context, which is Psalm 22.

 

To help us a bit more, I’ll ask if we see the sufferings of Christ, the resurrection, and Christ entering into His glory. Do we see ourselves in Psalm 22?

 

To help us even a bit more, I’ll suggest we read Psalm 22 through and then go back and read it again. We might want to read it in two or three versions just in case there are nuances that one version might miss in our reading – certain words speak to each of us in different ways.

Then let us s-l-o-w-l-y mediate on Psalm 22...allowing the Holy Spirit to draw us to see Jesus...allowing our hearts to be joined to the heart of Jesus. 

 

What is the storyline of Psalm 22?

 

We want to read in expectation that our Father will reveal Himself to us through Jesus Christ as we enter into Psalm 22 and Psalm 22 enters into us.

 

Why Read the Old Testament? (5)

 

I recognize that this series is a bit different from others, in that it requires a fair amount of work. I was reluctant to embark on it, but once the ship left port I've had to be faithful to where the Holy Spirit and the Word are taking us. It is not only challenging for me to write, it is challenging for me to do the work I'm asking you to do. This reflection is an example; I'm picturing myself in the hypothetical congregation (described below) and working through what I might write as a member of that church. 

I might also mention that if you ever have questions or comments that you can either use the comment section on the blog, or email me directly at robertlwithers@gmail.com. 

Much love,

Bob

 

Dear Friend,

 

Now let’s consider Luke 24:26, “Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into His glory?”

 

After asking this, Jesus turns to “Moses and all the prophets” (24:27) to instruct the two disciples on the answer to His question. Once again, I’m going to ask you to think carefully about what is happening here because it is not something we usually think about – and I suppose the reason we don’t think about it is that we don’t read the Old Testament, nor do we really read the New Testament, nor do we preach or teach the Scriptures holistically.

 

I know this is a sweeping statement, an indictment if you will – well, since you are my friend you know how difficult I can be, but I hope you also know that I want the best for the People of God, the Bride of Christ, the Sheep of our Good Shepard…please bear with me.

 

Imagine us showing up at a church service this coming Sunday morning and saying, after reading the Road to Emmaus passage in Luke 24, “This morning we are going to do something a little different. The ushers are passing out clipboards, paper, and pens. Instead of the sermon this morning, we are going to ask you to answer this question:

 

How might Jesus have used Moses to demonstrate that it was necessary for the Messiah [the Christ] ‘to suffer these things and to enter into His glory’?”

 

What kind of responses would we receive? How would folks react? What might be typical?

 

Perhaps the first challenge in this setting is simply the term “Moses,” for as we saw in our previous reflection it is likely that few of us would know what to rightly make of the name “Moses.” But we can clarify this for the congregation by saying that the name Moses means the first five books of the Bible.

 

So now we’ve asked the people to share how Genesis – Deuteronomy demonstrate that it was necessary for the Messiah to “suffer these things” and to “enter into His glory.” We are asking how the Pentateuch speaks to us of Christ’s sufferings and also how it speaks to us of the Christ entering into His glory.

 

Where do we see the necessity of Christ’s sufferings in Genesis – Deuteronomy?

 

Where do we see Christ entering into His glory in Genesis – Deuteronomy?

 

What will the responses be from our hypothetical congregation? (To be sure we want to do our exercise after the offering!)

 

What would I write were I in the congregation?

 

What would you write?

 

Let’s ponder this and we’ll pick it back up, the Lord willing, in our next reflection.

Why Read the Old Testament? (4)

 

 Dear Friend,

 

We concluded our previous reflection with two questions on Luke 26 – 27:

 

When you read the word “Moses” what do you think of? When Luke writes, “…beginning with Moses…” what do you think of? What does Luke mean?

 

Here’s the next question, when Jesus says, “Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into His glory?” what is behind Jesus’ question? Why is He asking this?

 

Regarding “Moses,” perhaps we think of the man Moses and the things he did. Perhaps we think of the Ten Commandments. Perhaps we think of those elements of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy which regulate the civic and religious life of Israel.

 

What do people think when they read, “Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets…”? Do most people gloss over the word “Moses,” not considering what the name means in this context?

 

Let’s consider these passages:

 

“But regarding the fact that the dead rise again, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the passage about the burning bush…” (Mark 12:26a).

 

“But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them…If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead.’” (Luke 16:29, 31).

 

“We have found Him of whom Moses in the Law and also the Prophets wrote – Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” (John 1:45).

 

“For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me, for he wrote about Me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?” (John 5:46 – 47).

 

“For Moses from ancient generations has in every city those who preach him, since he is read in the synagogues every Sabbath.” (Acts 15:21).

 

“…and he [Paul] was explaining about the kingdom of God and trying to persuade them concerning Jesus, from both the Law of Moses and from the Prophets, from morning until evening.” (Acts 28:23b).

 

In Luke 24:27 the word “Moses” is a term that refers to the first five books of the Bible, what is also known as the Torah (from Hebrew, to teach, to guide), and also known as the Pentateuch (from Greek, essentially meaning “five books”). These are the books that God inspired Moses to write, and they are essentially one book – a unity. This is like the writings of Paul were once collectively termed The Apostle by some in the Early Church.

 

Therefore, when Luke’s first readers read the term “Moses” in 24:27 they instinctively thought of one scroll, of one volume, of a unity. We might say that they though of one book with five main chapters, or sections: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy – and of its content, its testimony, its Message.

 

As I write this I am looking at my bookshelves. I am looking at a one volume edition of the Chronicles of Narnia, all seven tales of Narnia are within this one volume. If I open the book I will see a listing of each of the seven books, beginning with The Magician’s Nephew and concluding with The Last Battle. If I turn to each individual book I will find chapter headings and page numbers.

 

What do I “see” when I look at this one volume? Yes, I see a physical book, but if all I see is a physical book then I have seen nothing. When I look at the volume, or when I think about the volume, I see the Narniad unfold, I see Aslan revealing H/himself throughout the Story – the Story is embedded in me and I am embedded in the Story.

 

Now if you have never loved a Story and if a Story has never loved you, then you may not understand this. Let me try this from another area of life…baseball.

 

One of the greatest World Series games of all time was played on October 21, 1975, between the Cincinnati Reds and the Boston Red Sox. It culminated in a game-winning home run by Carlton Fisk in the bottom of the 12^th inning. The drama behind the home run is amazing, the video of Fisk’s reaction iconic – I’ll leave it to you to explore.

 

In the top of the 11^th inning when Pete Rose came to the plate to bat, he said to Fisk, the Boston catcher, “This is some kind of game, isn’t it?” Fisk replied, “Some kind of game.”

 

Pete Rose and Carlton Fisk were playing a game they loved and a game that loved them, and they both recognized that they were experiencing a “game”, a “story”, that was remarkable. That game, that home run, and that World Series has been with them ever since October 1975, and it has been with their teammates and with countless baseball fans. All certain fans need to do is to see a photo of Fisk trying to “will” the ball to stay fair, or the hear the words, “Fisk’s home run,” and a “story” opens up in the imagination, a narrative unfolds.

 

(Did all of the players on the Reds and Red Sox have the experience that Rose and Fisk had? Did they all share the sense of awe in the game they were playing? What do you think?)

 

Perhaps there is some area of your life, some experience, that you embrace and which embraces you, that can help you relate to what I’m saying.

 

I have a dear friend, Stan, who knows Narnia. I can call Stan right now and we can be in Narnia – we can range from The Magician’s Nephew to The Last Battle and never pick up the actual book. O yes, we may have to get the volume at some point and refresh our memories, or clarify a quotation – but we can have a jolly good time together with Aslan and the Narnians.

 

One of many reasons I so miss my dear friend Bruce Harrison is that we could romp and jump and dance and stop and ponder from Genesis to Revelation and from Colossians to Ezra, seeing the Book as a Whole in Jesus Christ and seeing Jesus Christ in His Book – as naturally as breathing.

 

And so the term “Moses” means more than most of us “see” and experience – and yet this is how Jesus Christ revealed Himself, and reveals Himself!

 

Those well-meaning folks who only see Jesus Christ through evidentiary passages miss the glorious holistic testimony of Moses and the Prophets (more on this to come).

 

Those folks who say that they don’t read the Old Testament because they are “New Testament Christians” are a contradiction; because Jesus Christ and the writers of the New Testament saw the unity of Scripture and taught the unified and holistic and unfolding revelation of Christ Jesus through the Law and the Prophets and the Writings.

 

Of course, if we ourselves don’t read Moses and the Prophets then we can’t “see” Luke 24:25 – 27, and we really can’t see much of the other elements of the New Testament – such as Revelation and Hebrews and Galatians…well, I suppose I could include all of the 27 books.

 

The wonderful news is that our kind heavenly Father, our dear Lord Jesus, and our blessed Holy Spirit are waiting to meet us in Moses, in all the Prophets, and in the Writings…as well in the New Testament. We can trust them to meet us and reveal themselves to us…but of course we must open the Book and ask God to open us to the Book.

 

Hebrews 11:6.

Why Read the Old Testament? (3)

 

 Dear Friend,

 

“…all that the prophets have spoken!” (Luke 24:25).

 

“…the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures.” (Luke 24:27).

 

As we move forward in our ponderings, I want to again emphasize that Jesus Christ is revealed in all of the Old Testament. I also want us to wrestle with the idea that to read the Old Testament primarily through an evidentiary lens is to read it amiss, it is to read it out of focus and thereby miss Jesus Christ in most of the Old Testament.

 

If we read the Old Testament primarily in an evidentiary fashion, then it could be argued that we need only read those passages that have been identified as Messianic. However, if we “see” that the entire Old Testament is Messianic, that it all reveals Jesus Christ, then by rejecting, overtly or covertly, the Old Testament, we are rejecting the revelation of Jesus Christ – we are also repudiating the very way that Jesus revealed Himself.

 

If we’ve not thought about this, it may be difficult to see this. Sadly, many, if not most, students in seminary are not taught to “see” Jesus in the Old Testament – and I include seminaries which profess a high regard for the Bible. We are not taught to look for Jesus, instead we are taught to employ primary methods that only require naturalistic intellectual effort – we treat the Biblical text little differently than a lawyer or judge might treat the Constitution. (See 1 Corinthians 1:17 – 2:16; Hebrews 11:1 – 6; and John 15:26; 16:12 – 15 for further insight into how we should be reading and understanding the Scriptures).

 

You may need to be patient with me as we work through this, for again, if we haven’t thought about it, we may not see it right away, even if it is right in front of us in the New Testament. The images in our minds, our preconceptions, are often stronger than what our eyes see and our ears hear. And for those of us who have been academically trained, well – we have the pressure to conform and to keep our jobs and our standing with our peers…we ought not to minimize this pressure and we ought to be charitable about working with one another within it.

 

“‘Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into His glory?’ Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in the Scriptures.” (Luke 24:26 - 27).

 

Now I want to ask you to try something along with me, it is something we may have to work on for a bit. And may I gently say to some who may read this, that there are times we need to read things we may not understand; how else can we grow? Sometimes I receive a note from a reader who says, “I didn’t understand this.” Or “This was too hard to read.”

 

This is why our Sunday school and small group curriculum is usually about as dumb as we can make it; we think if we don’t serve our drinks from sippy cups or blend our food so that infants can eat it that churches and ministries won’t purchase it…and I suppose we’ve arrived at the point where that is true.

 

I’ve been reading the Scriptures for about 60 years and I’m still pumping iron with it, and I still need training partners. I’ve been reading some other authors for about the same length of time, and I’m still working on “getting it” as I read them.

 

It’s one thing for someone to say, “I’ve been thinking for a few days about what you wrote, can you help me out with what you mean?” It’s another thing for someone to say, “I just read what you wrote and it’s too hard to understand.”

 

Preachers and teachers, in fact leaders in general, who give closure to everything don’t help folks grow – they make people dependent on them. Think about it.

 

Okay, back to Luke 24:26 – 27. I want to ask you two things.

 

When you read the word “Moses” what do you think of? When Luke writes, “…beginning with Moses…” what do you think of? What does Luke mean?

 

Here’s the next question, when Jesus says, “Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into His glory?” what is behind Jesus’ question? Why is He asking this?

 

If you asked this in a small group, what responses do you think you’d receive?

 

Please give these two questions some thought…some deep thought.

 

We’ll pick this back up, the Lord willing, in our next reflection. (I need to give you some time to think about this!) Ha!

Much love!

Why Read the Old Testament? (2)

 

 

Dear Friend,

 

Have you ever been so familiar with something that you didn’t see what you were looking at or understand what you were hearing? In business we call this occupational blindness. We are particularly susceptible to this in religious and spiritual matters because we tend to imprint on what we’ve been told and retain those early images, which are not easily modified or replaced.

 

Let’s consider two vignettes on Easter Sunday in the Gospel of Luke, accounts that many of us are familiar with, and therein is our challenge, for we may be so familiar with them that we miss what we see.

 

The first is Luke 24:13 – 35, what we know as the Road to Emmaus. Cleopas and his companion are walking from Jerusalem to Emmaus, and as they walk they talk about the things “which had taken place,” concerning Jesus. Then Jesus approaches them and walks alongside them, “But their eyes were prevented from recognizing Him.”

 

Jesus listens and then asks, “What are you talking about?”

 

Cleopas responds, “Are you the only one around here who doesn’t know what has happened?”

 

Jesus asks, “What things are you talking about?”

 

Then the two travelers tell Jesus about Jesus; about His life, about His death by crucifixion, about their hope that “it was He who was going to redeem Israel,” and about the report, early that morning, from some women who said His body is missing and that they’d seen angels who said Jesus was alive.

 

This must have been a sight, to see Cleopas and his companion telling Jesus about Jesus. I wonder what Jesus thought about their account of Himself. I wonder what He thinks when we tell one another about Him. I wonder what He thinks when we tell others about Him. Do we speak as men and women who know Him as our Lord and Friend, or do we speak as if our information is second or third hand?

 

The two travelers are despondent, they have had the shock of their lives. All that they have hoped in has been seemingly destroyed, even though there has been the strange account of the women.

 

Jesus, who is still a stranger to them at this point, does not coddle them. He says, “O foolish [dull, senseless] men and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken!” Jesus is not employing group hug therapy. Jesus is not telling Cleopas and his companion “Don’t worry, be happy.” Jesus is challenging them and chiding them.

 

Their minds are dull, their hearts are slow. What is my heart like today? What is your heart like today? What is the heart of our congregation like? What is our heart like as the People of God? What are our minds like?

 

Recall what Paul said about the people of Jerusalem in Acts 13:27, that they did not recognize Jesus nor the voices of the prophets which are read every Sabbath. The people of Jerusalem had dull minds and slow hearts, all the Scripture they heard week after week had no fruitful effect. In fact, in one sense it was like Pharoah and the miracles of Moses – the more Pharoah saw, the harder his heart became. How else can we account for a people who professed a reverence for Scripture crucifying the One to whom all Scripture testified? The One who was (and Is) Scripture?

 

This is a warning to all of us who profess a high view of the Bible. We can read the Bible and not see Jesus. We can read the Bible and not know Jesus on our journey to Emmaus. It is also a warning to those who think that only part of the Bible applies to us, for as Jesus makes clear – He reveals Himself in what we call the Old Testament. Therefore, to reject the Old Testament is to reject the revelation of Jesus Christ, the unveiling of Jesus. Would we be so foolish?

 

Note that Jesus speaks of “all that the prophets have spoken.” When Jesus speaks to us of what we call the Old Testament, He speaks comprehensively. That is, He speaks of the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings in their totality, as a holistic unity, an integrated whole.

 

When Jesus and the New Testament writers quote and refer to elements of the Old Testament they do so in a holistic fashion. This is also true, I think, when we read the Fathers; they are able to range and romp within the full scope of Scripture, from Genesis to Revelation, because that is the way they read Scripture, that is the way they read the New Testament documents (as an extension of the Old Testament), and that is the way their people have been taught to read and receive the Word of God. This is the Way they think and believe – but it is seldom the way we think and believe. And here is our challenge – our minds are dull and our hearts are slow and we have done this to ourselves.

 

When we read “all that the prophets have spoken!” Or when we read, “Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures” (Luke 24:27). Or “These are My words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled” (Like 24:44), what do we think? What do we picture in our minds?

 

We tend to think of specific evidentiary verses, usually those that point to the birth and crucifixion of Jesus. That is, out of the ocean of the Old Testament, we tend to gravitate toward a key number of verses such as Genesis 3:15, Psalm 22, Isaiah 53, and Micah 5:2. But is this what Jesus is speaking of?

 

Now to be sure, throughout the Gospels we see both the Gospel writers and Jesus referring to specific Old Testament passages to affirm and interpret events and teachings – there are many specific prophecies and promises which Jesus fulfills and is fulfilling. But what we often fail to appreciate is that these specific elements are woven into a broader and deeper fabric of testimony – a fabric that continues to be revealed – and that if we fail to see the tapestry as a whole, that we will fail to “see” the individual elements in their Divine and holistic setting.

 

“All that the prophets have spoken” speak to us of Jesus Christ. We filter out the import of what Jesus is saying. We think He means something other than what He is saying. We think He means that within “all that the prophets have spoken” we will find some prophecies about Him, and this means that we can ignore everything else in the Old Testament – this is not only untrue, it is dangerous and opposes what Jesus taught and how the New Testament writers read the Old Testament and wrote the New Testament documents.

 

If we do not see Jesus Christ, the Son of God, in all that the prophets have spoken, the deficiency is our fault, it does not lie in Scripture nor in the will of God.

 

But of course, how can we possibly see Jesus in all that the prophets have spoken if we do not read all that the prophets have spoken?

 

To be continued…

 

Why Read the Old Testament? (1)

This is the result of a recent chat with a dear friend.

 

Dear Friend,

 

As I’ve pondered our recent conversation, I want to affirm your faithfulness to Scripture and our Lord Jesus. I so rejoice that you find fellowship with our Lord Jesus in His Word – from Genesis to Revelation. On the other hand, I am sorry that you continue to find resistance to reading the Bible among professing Christians, and that some professing Christians tell you that there is no reason to read the Old Testament.

 

I am reminded of something that Eugene Peterson wrote to the effect that if we tell people what is in the Bible that they won’t need to read the Bible. A measure of his point was that if we aren’t emphasizing that we must read and eat the Book, and if we are not demonstrating how to eat the Book, but rather are focusing on telling others what is in the book – that people will think that they need not read the Book because they know what is in the book – even though they haven’t read it.

 

As you, and others, have testified, there is no substitute for reading the Bible, for eating the Book…the entire Book. Martin Luther was concerned that so many books were being published that a time would come when people stopped reading the Bible. If he could only see us now what would he say? We would rather be entertained and distracted than live – and this includes being religiously entertained. We would rather have our sovereign selves catered to than submit ourselves to the True and Living God. There is lead in the water and we don’t know it…even though we are dying.

 

Well, enough of that, for now. Let’s ponder why we should read the Old Testament.

 

We read the Old Testament to meet Jesus Christ, to touch Him, to be touched by Him, to be drawn ever deeper into relationship with Him. The Scriptures are a place of communion with the Trinity and with one another – and all Scripture points to, and reveals, Jesus Christ. Whether I am reading Leviticus or Malachi or Proverbs or Colossians, I expect to see Jesus. When I am pondering Psalms, I am eagerly listening for the Voice of Jesus.

 

“You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me; and you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life.” (John 5:39 – 40).

 

Now of course “the Scriptures” that Jesus is referring to is what we term the Old Testament, what was known as the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings or Psalms (we’ll look at this in a forthcoming reflection – Luke 24:44).

 

What is Jesus saying about the Old Testament? Please give this some thought before you answer. Read the context of the statement, and ponder what Jesus is saying – what is His point?

 

If we think that Jesus is referring to passages such as Isaiah 53 or Psalm 22 or Micah 5:2, we have missed the mark. That is, if we think that the Old Testament’s testimony of Jesus Christ is primarily to be found in passages regarding His birth and crucifixion, if we think the nature of this testimony is primarily evidentiary (in the sense of events taking place), then we have missed the message of the Old Testament. This is not to say that the evidentiary is not included in the testimony, of course it is – we see this over and over again in the Gospels and beyond; but it is to say that the Old Testament testifies of the Son of God in a manner that envelops and transcends the evidentiary elements of time and space and folds us into the Divine from ages past to ages future. (Consider that Proverbs Chapter 8 was a key passage for the Fathers in pondering the Divinity of Jesus Christ and the Trinity).

 

Now I realize that this may be a new thought to many folks in our day and age, but it is anything but a new thought historically, in fact, it is the way Christians used to think as a matter of course, it is the way Christians, including the writers of the New Testament, read the Old Testament – it was the natural way to read the Old Testament because it was the way Jesus and the Holy Spirit taught us to read. It is only in the past 250 years or so that we have lost the natural way to read the Old Testament, and indeed the New Testament as well – for to read one section of the Bible humanistically and naturalistically is to read the other section of the Bible humanistically and naturalistically.

 

Hopefully this will become clear as we ponder reading the Old Testament. To return to John 5:39 – 40, what does Jesus mean in this passage? What can we learn from this passage? How can we better see Jesus in and through this passage?

 

Jesus’s audience, the religious folks, were reading the Old Testament because they thought that “in them you have eternal life.” Yet, regardless of how well the religious folks knew the Bible of their time, what we term the Old Testament, now matter how well they could quote the Bible, no matter how well they knew interpretations of the Bible; somehow, someway, they were not reading, seeing, and hearing the Bible – they were missing the Bible, they did not know what they thought they knew.

 

Jesus says, “these [the Scriptures] testify about Me; and you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life.” They were searching the Scriptures because they thought that would give them eternal life, and yet they were missing the very Eternal Life that the Scriptures were speaking of and revealing.

 

In 5:37 – 38 Jesus says, “And the Father who sent Me, He has testified of Me. You have neither heard His voice at any time nor seen His form. You do not have His word abiding in you, for you do not believe Him whom He sent.”

 

They have been searching the Scriptures, reading the Scriptures, pondering in some fashion the Scriptures, and yet the Word of the Father is not abiding in them.

 

This is along the line of what Paul said in the synagogue of Pisidian Antioch, “For those who live in Jerusalem, and their rulers, recognizing neither Him [Jesus] nor the voices of the prophets which are read every Sabbath, fulfilled these by condemning Him.” (Acts 13:27). Even though people heard the Scriptures read every Sabbath, they did not recognize the voices of the prophets! We can read and yet not see, we can listen and yet not hear.

 

We are called to meet Jesus Christ in the Old Testament; to see Him, to touch Him, to have the Word of the Father (Jesus) abide in us, to see the form of God, the image of God (Jesus) in the Old Testament.

 

Peter writes that God has given us “His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the Divine Nature” (2 Peter 1:4). These promises that Peter was speaking of were most certainly found and centered within the Old Testament – for obviously the New Testament was still in the process of formation. In other words, by partaking of what we call the Old Testament Peter tells us that we become partakers of the Divine Nature.

 

So my friend, the people who tell you that they do not read the Old Testament are, in effect, telling you that partaking of the Divine Nature does not interest them. They are telling you that the testimony of Jesus Christ, the unveiling of Jesus Christ, is of no concern to them.

 

In addition to this, sadly those who do read the Old Testament, but who read it humanistically and naturalistically, and this includes using historical – critical and historical – grammatical methods as primary and controlling methods, are also missing the unveiling of Jesus Christ in much of what they read – for Jesus must always be our interpretive lens, the Holy Spirit must always be our teacher…as individuals and as God’s People. If we are not seeing Christ Jesus and hearing His Voice, then we are reading and hearing and teaching amiss.

 

Now I imagine that few of us are accustomed to reading the Old Testament in expectation of meeting Jesus Christ, of touching Him and of being touched by Him. Well, it is never too late to begin, and as you know, once we begin, the journey takes on a life of its own.

 

To be continued…

 

What Price? (3)

 

Do we all have a price at which we can be bought? In a society which has been monetized, is everyone for sale?

 

It does seem as if the highest levels of our government, in all three branches, are fueled and influenced (if not worse than influenced) by money and gifts. I recall being a member of a PAC for my firm on the state level and considering a piece of legislation. Our executive director told us, “Of course, if you want state senator so-and-so to consider this, you’ll need to make a contribution to his reelection campaign.”

 

Our government is a reflection upon us, it is a mirror of who we are as a people, representative of our way of life. Our government is often for sale because we are often for sale. Our institutions, whether business or health care or educational or religious or sports, we seem to have a price for everything…but are we really all for sale? Could my friend’s friend have been right? Does everyone have a price?

 

The prophet Amos speaks of those in Israel “who turn justice into wormwood, and cast righteousness down to earth…and they abhor him who speaks with integrity…You who distress the righteous and accept bribes and turn aside the poor…” (See Amos Chapter 5).

 

Isaiah says concerning the faithful person, “He who walks righteously and speaks with sincerity, he who rejects unjust gain and shakes his hands so that they hold no bribe; he who stops his ears from hearing about bloodshed and shuts his eyes from looking upon evil…” (Isaiah 33:15).

 

Jim Thompson is a pastor in Chesterfield, VA. Jim’s church is small in numbers, but it is great in integrity. It is great in integrity and in faithfulness to Jesus because of Jim. I have admired Jim for many years.

 

Because Jim’s church is small, there was a time when an infusion of cash would have been quite welcomed. During this time Jim was approached by a woman who wanted to meet with him to discuss a large donation to the church. At the meeting she made it clear that the donation was contingent on Jim agreeing to teach certain things, things which were not centered on the Christ of the Cross.

 

Jim’s response was, “I’ve been bought once, and it was with the blood of Jesus, and I ain’t going to be bought again.”

 

A few years after this happened, I was approached by a woman who wanted to meet with me about a substantial donation to our church in Becket, MA. I asked one of our matriarchs, Elizabeth Furlong, to be with me at the meeting – Elizabeth was a key ministry partner with me in our parish.

 

The woman who met with us told us that her donation was contingent on us introducing some teachings to the church which were not centered on the Christ of the Cross. I looked at the woman and said, “Well, as a friend of mine once said, we’ve been bought with the blood of Jesus and we are not going to be bought again.” That was the end of the meeting. I wonder if the woman found a pastor and a church that were for sale?

 

Paul tells us that we “have been bought with a price” (1 Cor. 6:20). He told the Ephesian elders that Christ purchased “the church of God” with “His own blood” (Acts 20:28). Peter writes that we have been redeemed with “precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ” (1 Peter 1:18 – 19).

 

The song of the heavens includes, “You were slain, and purchased for God with Your blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation.” (Rev. 5:9).

 

If we have been purchased by Jesus, then we no longer belong to ourselves, we are the property of Another. And frankly, if we decide to sell ourselves after Jesus has purchased us, then we not only prostitute ourselves, but we prostitute the Body of Christ, the Church of God…and there is probably already enough of that, we don’t need to add to it.

 

There is no sphere of life in which we belong to ourselves, there is no place or circumstance where those whom Christ has purchased can say, “I am my own, I can do what I want.”

 

Which brings me back to my thoughts when my friend was sharing about his other friend who thinks that everyone has a price.

 

I thought, “Well, there are people who can’t be bought, and the people who can’t be bought are those who have been purchased by the blood of the Lamb.”

 

This seems like a perfect conclusion, but I want to share a bit more.

 

Is this how we live?

 

If we don’t intentionally live as men and women who no longer belong to themselves but belong to Jesus, then the likelihood that we will sell ourselves is increased. In fact, we may already be selling ourselves and don’t know it. Or we may know it and make excuses for it – everyone does it, I’m doing it for my family, it’s the only way to get ahead – we are pretty good at justifying our sin and disobedience.

 

Jesus is clear that we are to lose our lives for Him, denying ourselves, daily taking up our cross and following Him, faithfully witnessing to Him as our way of life (Mark 8:34 – 38). It is essential that our days are lived in this conscious commitment to Jesus Christ, that from the time we awake to the time we return to bed, that we follow Jesus, always follow Jesus – loving Him and loving others in obedience to Him and in koinonia with Him.

 

It is essential that we are not bought with little things or with big things, for if we are not faithful in little things then we will most certainly be unfaithful in big things – we will not have the track record and habit of obedience to turn away from the pressure of compromise and the selling of ourselves. We are no match for the insidiousness of the world, the flesh, and the devil – Jesus Christ must always be our refuge and we must live in the knowledge that we belong to Him; not to ourselves and not to the world.

 

We can sell ourselves in any number of ways. We do it when we engage in gossip, whether we are speaking or listening to it. We do it when we lie in word or deed or go along with those who do; this includes falsifying records. We sell ourselves when we do not practice fairness and equity with coworkers, customers, and clients. Pastors and church leaders sell themselves when they cater to cliques and pay attention to some folks and not to others. Pastors sell themselves when they avoid passages of Scripture so as not to offend people, and they sell themselves when they do not call their people to accountability to God’s Word. When our advertising and marketing are not honest, we sell ourselves. When our pricing in business is not fair, we sell ourselves. When our pay scales are not equitable, we sell ourselves. When we discriminate, we sell ourselves.

But you see, when we live as men and women who belong to Jesus we cannot do any of these things, we cannot sell ourselves, because we belong to Another. We are safe in Christ and others are safe with us, others will always be safe with us, for we are in Christ and Christ is in us.

 

Can you say, do you say, in your daily life, along with Jim Thompson, “I’ve been bought once, and it was with the blood of Jesus, and I ain’t going to be bought again”?