Reading the Bible, Knowing Jesus (5)

 

Are you a tourist, a traveler, or a pilgrim?

 

I heard that G. K. Chesterton observed that “Travelers see what they see, tourists see what they came to see.” When you read the Bible, are you a tourist or a traveler? Is the Word of God changing your life and transforming you into the image of Jesus Christ (Romans 8:29), or are you pretty much the same person you were a year ago, five years ago, ten years ago, a lifetime ago?

 

Do we shape Paul’s letter to the Romans into our image, including our image as Baptists, Pentecostals, Lutherans, Roman Catholics, and Presbyterians, or does Romans shape us into the image of Jesus Christ? Do we read our confessions and statements of faith and doctrinal distinctives through the lens and filter of the Bible and the Person of Jesus, or do we form the Bible into our particular mold and “see” the Bible through our lens of doctrine, and tradition and practice?

 

In other words, when we read the Bible do we see what we came to see, or do we see what is actually there? What will always be actually there is Jesus Christ, it will not be our doctrinal traditions, it will not be our modes of expression, it will not be neat and tidy.

 

Our doctrinal statements do not generally encourage questions and allow ambiguity, they are meant to create uniformity in thought and practice; the Word of God keeps us off balance and yet at the same time, in Christ, creates a security and confidence in Jesus Christ that leads us into heavenly places and beckons us into a glorious eternity in Him.

 

One of the beauties of the Nicene Creed, unlike most other confessions of faith, is that if we actually believe it, we walk through a door of endless possibilities in our relationship with the Trinity and with one another. Most confessions confine us. They may not have been intended to imprison us, but they are used to imprison us. That is, their authors may not have intended them to inhibit our relationship with Christ, but in practice that is what they do, that is what they are used for by others.

 

As a Body, we are meant to have unity in diversity and diversity in unity. (1 Corinthians 12; Romans 12; Ephesians 4). The only way this is possible in when Jesus Christ is our Head, when all things flow from Him to us, and from us to Him (Ephesians 4:15 – 16). This means that Jesus Christ must be in control, that we must work and live “without a safety net.” This is not a pleasant thought for us, there are too many things can go wrong, too much mess to clean up – we like tidy theological houses, tidy congregations, we want to be predicable.

 

All of this contributes to our propensity to live as tourists, when we read the Bible we read what we came to see, we do not read what is actually there.

 

Travel writer and tour guide Rick Steeves talks about tourists, travelers, and pilgrims.

 

“The tourist typically seeks relaxation, entertainment, and escape from the routines of daily life through superficiality and, sometimes, frivolity. They prioritize fun over deeper connection and may depend on curated tours or package vacations to see the best beaches, landmarks, and restaurants that get overexposed not just in guidebooks, but on travel blogs and on social media feeds.” Rick Steeves.

 

The Bible-reading tourist enjoys a Sunday school class or a small group and then moves on with life. He may especially enjoy a video series, or perhaps a series on prophecy and the End-times because they can be entertaining and give a sense of being “in the know.” For the tourist, reading the Bible (or material that is supposed to represent the Bibe, like small group or Sunday school studies) is like visiting one tourist spot after another, you never remain long in one place. Looking back you may recall a nice experience here or there, maybe a good meal, some beautiful scenery, or even some people you meant. Over time all the spots tend to blend together, and while you may collect stickers to put on the back of your car indicating all the places you’ve been, you’ve been to them all as a tourist – you are still the same person you were when you took your first trip.

 

Many of our churches are tourist destinations, focused on entertainment, on experience for the sake of experience (and of course for the sake of getting return tourists). In fact, many pastors speak of “the Sunday morning experience.” When one church falls flat, a tourist will visit another church.

 

“Travelers, by contrast, are in search of more thoughtful experiences. Most travelers I know, they're proud to be known as a traveler as opposed to a tourist: 'I'm more thoughtful — I'm not just here to shop and get a selfie’…it is the traveler's goal to become a "temporary local" and experience real people, real food, and real culture.” Rick Steeves.

 

It seems to me that Bible-reading travelers do their homework prior to meeting with the saints, whether in Sunday school, a small group, or in congregational gatherings. They read the Bible text and other material, if the pastor is preaching a series, they read the text of the coming Sunday and ponder it. They read the Bible text, they pray about it, they read it again; they may read it in various translations, they read other Bible passages that relate to the text. They ask themselves questions, they seek to see Jesus, and they seek to know how to respond obediently to the text.

 

These people tend to appreciate working through a book of the Bible rather than hopping, skipping, and jumping all over the Bible. They instinctively know that you can’t bounce around in the Bible and learn much, they know that their lives cannot be molded with such an approach. These people do not want to be entertained; they are usually not in a hurry. They want to meet the people of the Bible, they want to meet the Bible, they want to drink in the Bible, they want to walk with Abraham, Moses, David, Paul, Deborah, Huldah…and of course, most of all, with Jesus.

 

Many of these folks can tell you about a study they participated in years ago, say in Jeremiah or the Gospel of Matthew, or Romans. They can do this because they didn’t go there to see preconceived images or popular destinations, they went there as travelers, they went to live in Romans, Matthew, and Jeremiah – to live in the text, to live with the people, to walk with Jesus through those books. Furthermore, they return again and again to renew their relationships – they return to meet old friends and to make new ones.

 

"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.

 

What do you think a pilgrim looks like when reading the Bible?

 

We’ll reflect on being a pilgrim with our Bible reading in our next reflection in this series…the Lord willing.