How Would Jesus Read the Bible?
“The LORD has opened his arsenal and brought out the weapons of his wrath, for the Sovereign LORD Almighty has work to do in the land of the Babylonians.”
—Jeremiah 50:25
“Babylon will suddenly fall and be broken. Wail over her! Get balm for her pain; perhaps she can be healed.”
“‘We would have healed Babylon, but she cannot be healed; let us leave her and each go to our own land, for her judgment reaches to the skies, it rises as high as the heavens.”
—Jeremiah 51:8-9
Observation:
Traditionally proper Biblical exegesis, the science and art of Biblical interpretation, has been tasked with trying to figure out the one true meaning of a passage of the Bible by deducing what the original audience would of understood the passage to mean. I think this approach is an impossible task for two reasons. First, it assumes we can actually close the historical and cultural differences in order to actually step into the shoes of an Ancient Near Eastern Mind. Second, it assumes that the original audience was one great mass who thought the same, reasoned the same, understood the same, and so on; the original audience must have been Borg. A friend of mine, Michael Vielsted, said that his approach to Biblical exegesis is to ask, “How would Jesus read this?” I asked my Michael what Jesus he was referring to, historical Jesus or Jesus alive and active today in history? He said Jesus alive and active today in history, which, led me to begin pondering how would Jesus read the Old Testament today.
How would Jesus read today’s passages from Jeremiah? How would Jesus interpret the proposed divine pestilence prescribed by Jeremiah as just vindication? How would Jesus understand Yahweh opening his arsenal and bringing out the big guns of wrath?
I think first Jesus would ask what does it look like to see God pour God’s wrath? Then Jesus would point out that when God’s wrath was poured out on him it was an abandoning humanity to its own brutality and allow humanity to do what it does best, consistently choose death. God’s wrath poured out on Babylon historically looked like God allowing a civilization that consistently chose death to experience the outcome of those choices, or maybe better stated allowed to live in the reality their constant choosing of death had created.
Second I think Jesus would tell us to live the Sermon on the Mount by mourning the loss of, praying for, serving, binding the wounds of, doing everything we can do to bring restoration to our enemies. I think that Jesus would say that the command to choose life means that one mourns death and actively seeks to bring life wherever death is found.
Last I think Jesus would repeat the words that he spoke to Peter in the garden of Gethsemane, “for all who draw the sword will die by the sword.” Which is the reality of choosing death instead of and over life. The only remedy or course of action that could and would result in healing is repentance, that is to say the about face from choosing death to choosing life. The axiom, “live by the sword, die by the sword,” is a misquoting of Jesus that leads one to believe life can ever be found in the sword. One cannot live by the sword; One can only die by the sword.
Application:
Life is subjective; everything must be interpreted and reinterpreted continuously. Even Jesus reinterprets the Hebrew Scriptures over and over again in the gospel narratives. He realized that the people he was talking to had a particular interpretation of the scriptures that he needed to challenge. I am continually challenged to try and read and interact with the Bible from new perspectives that challenge my previous interpretations. The hermeneutical lens of “how would Jesus read the Bible” is a challenge, but I am glad that my friend Michael told me about how he was trying to better understand the Bible because it is critical in deconstructing my previous paradigms of interpretation.
Prayer:
Jesus, help me to see the Bible the way you see it. Help me to read you into the text instead of myself or any other perspective. In Jesus name I pray Amen…
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