Here is a children’s sermon message that illustrates a point: Pastor: “What has four legs, scampers around on tree limbs, and has a big bushy tail?” No answer from the children. A clue is offered, “It likes nuts!” Finally after a lengthy period of silence one small boy tentatively raises his hand and says: “I know the answer is Jesus Christ, but it sure sounds like a squirrel to me.”
Preconceived notions on full display in a children’s sermon. Despite information to the contrary, the small boy was trying to see Jesus Christ in that information. How much like us. We have a fixed meaning for a word or a passage, so don’t try to change me!
There are times when I am surprised by good people who read meanings into scripture passages that seems out of context or, that simply runs counter to how I would interpret the passage. Not that I’m a theologian or anything, but how can they possibly come to that conclusion? It’s clear to me!
Some of that misunderstanding stems from the history of how scripture has been passed down to us. When we dig into the meaning of certain passages, even to the point of researching Hebrew, or Greek or Latin, we are confronted with multiple definitions of the same word. What is one to do when the conflict between my understanding and your understanding is based on differing, but factual, definitions?
Take for example the word love. In the Greek there are four meanings of the word: Philo, or companionable love. Agape, or God’s love for his creation. Storge, or an abiding feeling of well-being or happiness caused by something or somebody close to you. And then there is Eros, or erotic love, passionate love.
To complicate matters, in Latin there is a word, Ludus, which could mean a form of love. This word has multiple meanings, including school, sport, and stage productions containing comedy. My favorite meaning of this word is “play” or playfulness. This, to me, is love that carries within it a sense of humor that is shared with another.
So, the way God’s word has come down to us is not as simple as it may appear. Jesus spoke in parables, stories that carried a moral or a deeper meaning. If we treated all details in the stories as literal, we run the risk of missing the true meaning that Jesus intended.
For example, the story of Jesus and the rich young ruler which appears in Matthew, Mark and Luke. In the story, Jesus is asked by the young man: “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus’s answer ends with this: “One thing you lack, go and sell all you posses and give it to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven: and come follow me.”
In the story, the rich young ruler was saddened by these words, and he went away grieving, for he was one who owned much property. Did Jesus literally mean for the young man to make himself a pauper? Or, was Jesus pointing out to the young man that he worshiped his wealth and it was this worship of his wealth that he needed to leave behind in order to follow and worship Christ?
Here is another slant on the subject. It is possible that we focus on reading Scripture, and getting it right, when we should be letting the scripture read us. What I mean by that is, that we take the meaning of the scripture into ourselves and in the thoughtful digesting of that passage it changes us. Even though he wrote Bible commentaries, Martin Luther argued against the use of commentaries because he thought they removed God’s personal message to the individual reader, to us. Reading, with an open mind to meaning, would be a good approach to scripture study. (I’m still going to use my commentaries! Sorry, Marty.)
We would find it hard to even contemplate the possibility of God having limitations. But, it is our limitations in the reading and understanding of His word. It is not just multiple meanings of words that can lead us astray, it is our assumptions or cultural dictates that assigns meaning which often confuse us. When we believe that we are created in God’s own image what does that mean? Does that mean that God looks like physical human beings? I think not. For me, God is spirit and therefore at our very core, we are Spirit.
Anyway, that’s what I think.
For What It’s Worth.
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