"We read Scripture looking for Jesus and his Good News."

In his Preface to the Old Testament, Martin Luther describes the Bible as the manger in which the Christ child is laid. “Here [in Scripture] you will find the swaddling cloths and the manger in which Christ lies, and to which the angel points the shepherds. Simple and lowly are these swaddling cloths, but dear is the treasure, Christ, who lies in them.” (from Martin Luther’s Preface to the Old Testament, 1523, Luther’s Works, Vol. 35, pg 236).

Sticking with Luther’s manger analogy, we know that the shepherds worshiped neither the manger nor the straw. They worshiped Jesus, the Holy One laying in the manger’s straw.

So too for us. When looking at the Bible as if it were the manger of Bethlehem, we look past the manger’s legs and wooden frame, because are not looking for a manger. We look past the warm bed of straw, because we are not looking for a warm bed of straw. We look for Jesus, the Holy One laying in the manger. Jesus is our rubric for reading Scripture. Jesus is our interpretive lens.

There are over 30,000 verses in the Bible, and they are not all the same. It is not only faithful, but common sense that we would rank and prioritize some parts of Scripture over others.

• Do we anchor certain ethics in Saint Paul’s preference for celibacy (1 Corinthians 7:8-9), or do we take inspiration from Jesus’ broad promise of abundant life (John 10:10)? [Psst – the answer is Jesus’ broad promise of abundant life.]
• Do we place the only reference in the Bible to “baptism for the dead” (1 Corinthians 15:29) on the same plain as the beautiful poetry about baptism’s marvelous power and promise (Romans 6:3-11) that resonates with other teachings throughout Scripture? [Answer: No, we do not.]
• When it comes to understanding the call to generosity, do we cling to the story about Ananias and Sapphira – who were struck dead upon being confronted about their failure to share their wealth with the church (Acts 5:1-11) – or do we cling to the proverb that the Lord loves a cheerful giver (2 Corinthians 9:7)? [Let’s be cheerful.]

"Even the Devil can quote Scripture."

If the concept of prioritizing some parts of Scripture over others seems iffy, remember that even the Devil can quote Scripture (see Matthew 4). Not all citation of Scripture is faithful. Just throwing Bible verses around doesn’t get us anywhere.

Jesus is Lord over Scripture and over our interpretations of Scripture. When given a choice in how we interpret Scripture or which Scripture verses we’re going to emphasize, we choose Christ’s grace and mercy every single time.

Here’s what it looks like when we don’t choose grace and mercy, but instead lean into the worst possible ways of interpreting Scripture.

In Sunday’s sermon I talked about the dangers of giving too much credence to certain secondary matter – the anti-Jewish language – in the gospels. As stated above, such material is not central to the grace and mercy of Christ, and thus does not carry the same weight. To use Martin Luther’s analogy, this ant-Jewish language is straw, not baby Jesus. Since it is straw, we can notice it but then move on until our eyes gaze upon the Christ child.

Nonetheless, over the centuries Christians have latched onto this material and used it to inspire all kinds of evil against the Jewish people. When Christians read this material in the four gospels and glean from them that “the Pharisees” and “the Jews” cared more about religious law than about life, they come away with the impression that the Jews were heartless. When Christians read that “the Jews” chanted “crucify him” and were plodding against all the good things Jesus was doing, they are led to believe that such people were blood thirsty animals.

And if these people – “the Jews,” according to how we read our holy texts – were heartless animals, do they even deserve to live today? Many of our forebears in the church, mixing blasphemous spiritual authority with the power of the sword, decided that answer was “no, they don’t.” Pogroms, Inquisitions, and Holocausts flow from erroneous readings of Scripture coupled with unchecked lust for power.

Our forefather in the faith, Martin Luther, wrote a hateful diatribe called On the Jews and their Lies. In this treatise Luther called for violence against Jews. Centuries later Martin Luther’s own words were quoted by Nazis to support their terror campaign against Jews in Europe. (I've written about this before, here.)

"The Bible is rich and diverse and complicated and beautiful, and it deserve a serious and faithful method of interpretation. Let the grace and mercy of Christ be our method."

This is why we need to be explicit about how we read Scripture. We must be honest that there is a clear priority to what we read in Scripture and how we interpret it. The Bible is rich and diverse and complicated and beautiful, and it deserve a serious and faithful method of interpretation. Let the grace and mercy of Christ be our method, our lens, our filter for reading Scripture. Anything else risks an inversion of priorities, resulting in calling evil good and good evil (see Isaiah 5:20).

There’s so much more to say about how we interpret the gospels and their authority. In future posts perhaps I’ll talk about how the gospels came to be written in the first place, and how their composition history and process influences how we interpret them. We can talk about language – the gospels are written in Greek, but Jesus and his disciples likely spoke Aramaic or Hebrew. We can talk about the differences between Matthew, Mark, Luke and John – and why those differences matter, but why those differences aren’t deal-breakers, either.

Thank you for reading this far, for investing a few minutes in reflecting with me on Scripture and its interpretation. Look for Christ, friends, in your reading of Scripture and in all things. For Christ is with us, blessing this world with grace and mercy, and showing us a more perfect way of living.

Peace be with you.