We don’t use Jesus as the Rosetta Stone by which to interpret
scripture. We treat scripture as
independent units that do not require Jesus to properly understand. For instance, the Law, that is the Ten
Commandment Law, is treated as fully independent from Jesus. It talks about God in it. But since it does not specify Jesus by name,
we apply a generic “God” into its interpretation and set about deciding what
everything in it means. “Love the Lord
with all your heart” should equally apply to Father, Son, and Holy Ghost with
God interpreted in a generic sense of the word.
But what if this was Jesus as the author of this law referring to His
Father God as the object of who we are to love?
It changes our understanding if thought about this way. Why would it be important to Jesus that we
love His Father so much? Could it be
that Jesus wants us to understand that Father God is every bit as interested in
having an intimate loving relationship is, as our savior is? And when we get generic with our meaning of
who God is in this directive, what do we do with the Holy Spirit? We know there is One. But we understand that part of the Godhead so
little. How do we love what we
understand so little? But a Dad is easy
to understand. And a Savior is even
easier.
My point is not to offer “the understanding” of the Ten
Commandment Law, but it is to examine it once again through the lens of Jesus
Christ. Take for example once again, the
Sabbath Day and what we are supposed to do and not do to honor it. Jesus completely turned over all the
traditions of His day while He was here.
Yet He made it His tradition, His habit, to always go to synagogue and
worship every Sabbath while here on earth.
Was that example? Was that
important? Was that just for our
benefit? The answer might be found in
what He did in the synagogue every time He went – He opened the scriptures and
taught. Not the old traditional views of
scripture. But new ways to see the same
texts people had been listening to since birth.
He opened the eyes and ears of the people to the Bible (or what they had
of it back then) in ways that were literally brand new to them. The priests were often offended. But the people ate it up. Does that sound like church to you these
days? Do you come home talking with your
family about the message where scripture has come alive to you, and showed you
something new you never saw before? Or
have we buried the “sermon” in all the packaging we surround it with, never
once using Jesus to see Old scriptures, but instead talking about Jesus like He
is a completely different topic than anything in the Old Testament, or perhaps
outside of the 4 books of the gospels.
And if Jesus was meant to be the lens by which we interpret
scripture, and we leave Him out of what we do, and what conclusions we draw –
we have become the Pharisees of old; the right church, the right scripture, the
right God – and no understanding of anything.
And lest you think you do not need Jesus to understand scripture take as
a case in point Jesus teaching in the Temple for 3 days when He was only
twelve. Those priests, Pharisees,
Scribes, Sadducees, and leaders were absolutely captivated by every word He
offered, every conclusion He drew, every insight He revealed. This was no 2 hour sermon. This was a live 3 day event. Think about that. Those priests knew He did not belong to any
of them. They probably knew his actual
parents would be searching for Him at that tender age. But they didn’t care. They were so intent listening to this great
mind and great heart, they were like addicts craving more teaching from the
lips of this mere Child. And their minds
were opened. Yet somehow we see this
event as something for someone else. As
if how we study the Bible, is just fine as it is, leaning on the traditions our
churches offer, and looking for no new insights.
But it was not just the priests and leadership who needed
Jesus to show them scriptures when He was 12 years old. Nor was it the people who attended synagogues
who needed His wisdom imparted every single Sabbath day while He was here. Those men and women closest to Jesus, the
ones who knew Him best, and understood Him best, who bore witness to His life –
they still needed to have scripture opened to them. The disciples, despite all that access, and
all that involvement in the very story of Jesus, were actually no better off
than the typical priest or scribe. Even
after the resurrection they still clung to the old versions of how the Bible
was to be interpreted. In their mind,
maybe NOW after everything, the Messiah would finally kick the Romans out of
dodge. But alas, the Romans were still
fully in charge. Even the very ones who
beat Jesus, who pushed a crown of thorns deep in His skull, who nailed Him
naked to a cross and watched Him die.
All of those very Romans were still untouched, unpunished, and weirdly loved
by Jesus. Nothing they expected from
scripture or tradition about Christ the conqueror had come to pass as they
expected it to. The lens of Jesus was to
be applied once more.
Luke picks up the story in chapter 24 of his letter to his friend
about what we believe and why, at the end of the chapter in verse 44 it reads …
“And he
said unto them, These are the words which I
spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled,
which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms,
concerning me. [verse 45] Then opened he their understanding, that they might
understand the scriptures,” Notice
what he does, Jesus opens their understanding.
Before Jesus is applied to scripture our understanding is muted. Without Him and His example, we lose not only
meaning, but love itself. Go back to our
example about Sabbath keeping from the Ten Commandment law; Jesus never put the
day ahead of healing of one in need. He
could have. He could have said to come
back tomorrow, or to meet Him at Peter’s house the next day. Jesus could have done a time-based-healing where
the minute the sun went down, the healing took place, no matter where He was at
that moment in time. The sick would have
still been overjoyed to be healed. They
were sick their whole lives, waiting a few hours more would have been nothing
to them, just a few more hours in pain.
But that lesson is the lesson we needed to learn, both then
and now. Jesus never waits to love us,
or meet our highest needs, He does what He does right here, right now, we need
not wait a second longer. And Sabbath is
not more important to Him than your pain, He treasures His time with you, and
will not let you spend it suffering for the sake of tradition and
misunderstanding about how a Sabbath law should be kept. Our salvation is the priority, Sabbath is a
tool to help us see that, not a wall to keep us in pain, even pain we created
for ourselves. Without the lens of Jesus
Christ, it is easy to make Sabbath arbitrary, cold, unfeeling or
unsympathetic. But with the life story
of Jesus as it pertains to Sabbath, we begin to see the joy of learning, of
loving, and of making care of each other the highest form of worship there may
ever be.
Luke continues in verse 46 saying … “And said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and
to rise from the dead the third day: [verse 47] And
that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all
nations, beginning at Jerusalem. [verse 48] And
ye are witnesses of these things.”
The life of Christ was to be one of suffering for our sins, to conquer
us through transforming love, not to conquer the Roman kingdom by force or
other means. The life of Christ would
die willing for us, to save us from ourselves.
The Romans were not the threat.
They could kill the body, but could not touch the soul who
believes. No political power can ever
rob you of your belief in Jesus. They
may be able to kill you for your belief, but they cannot take it from you. Only you can give up or let go what you
believe in. Other people are not the
true threat to your salvation. You
are. So Jesus offers you a way to ground
your faith in Him, and a way to see your sin driven from you by His power,
through His means on His timeline. The
repentance and remission of sins. Not
just to feel bad about them. But to see
them driven from you. For you to be made
free from them. And all those many
disciples both men and women in attendance in that upper room were witnesses to
all of this.
Jesus then moves the focus of scripture from the past to the
present and the future. Luke concludes
picking up in verse 49 saying … “And, behold, I send
the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until
ye be endued with power from on high. [verse
50] And
he led them out as far as to Bethany, and he lifted up his hands, and blessed
them. [verse 51] And it came to pass, while he blessed them, he was parted
from them, and carried up into heaven. [verse 52] And they worshipped him,
and returned to Jerusalem with great joy: [verse 53] And were continually
in the temple, praising and blessing God. Amen.” The disciples needed the power of the Father
God in order to strengthen them for the ministry each of them would live and
die for in the near future. To be
faithful to the end was part of what was given each of them. But here Jesus shows them what scripture
could not, a point of view of what was happening right then, and what was to
come. Luke records it in his
letter. We have it from what has become
the gospel of Luke.
Just because Jesus is in this book, does not mean we will
understand even this gospel, without asking Jesus for understanding, following
where He leads our minds, and letting Him reveal it to us. And by applying what we learn of Jesus here,
to other passages and stories in the Bible, we begin to see scripture more
consistently. Stories in the Old
Testament we once thought of in destructive terms, flip on their heads, as we
begin to see each story is one of salvation, or of God’s desperate attempts to
give us salvation. There were only 8
people in the Ark of Noah, but it would have housed many more if they but would
accept it. And if many more than that
were convicted, perhaps the flood itself might have never come. When God came to Noah, it was to save
Noah. And in the process of that saving,
120 years went by, with Noah preaching to people from all over the world, who
came to see this “Noah’s folly”. Those
people were exposed to the powerful preaching of Noah, endowed with the Holy Spirit
to add fire and conviction to his words.
But still the hearts of evil clung to evil, and chose death. Not for lack of knowing the truth, but for
lack of wanting “that truth”. The flood
did not happen in 2 hours, or 2 days. It
was delayed 120 years. The progress of
the building of the Ark was slow but measurable. Jesus was bent on saving us, and only
destroying evil. But we would not let go
of evil.
Whether we see the flood of Noah as world wide destruction,
or as a desperate attempt at our salvation by a God steeped in love is a matter
of whether you apply the lens of Jesus Christ to this story in scripture. You know how Jesus loved based on everything
else you have read. Did you think that
love only happened then for mankind? Did
you think Jesus only came to save the people in His own time? No, Jesus has loved us since He created
us. Jesus has been desperate to save us
since then if only we would let Him. But
as in the days of Noah, when man was sure there would be no end to his evil and
his potential to do even greater evil, so in our day, an end is coming. The final destruction of this world is meant
to be a final destruction of those who simply prefer evil and will not give it
up. Yet the story is not about those who
are lost, it is about those who were saved from this fate, through Jesus. To really understand it all, we must seek
Jesus to show us, and to open our minds to it.
It is the only way to really see.
