interpretation

"Our understanding of Jesus' career is guided by the Scriptures, but so is our understanding of the Scriptures shaped by Jesus' career; the two are mutuallly informing." *

What a wonderful statement of both hermeneutical approach and theological understanding. In the first place it speaks of the revelation that the Scriptures give about Jesus and how he is quite unique. Only he could accomplish the work which he came to do. And we further enlightened to the significance of his mission and ministry by diligently observing what the Scriptures teach of this anointed one.

And then he interpreted the Scriptures to compensate for our lack of understanding. Or to correct our incorrect interpretation. Or both.

The lesson found in this is that nothing is the same after encountering Christ. He has a way of showing things as they way they really are - or the way they should be. And in spite of the many who try to recast him into their own wants and desires, he never remains within the parameters of human expectation. His is a reality far beyond that which our minds can fabricate. And perhaps this is why so many would rather dismiss him than face him as he is. Is it not easier to walk away from a supposed fraud than to admit the shortcomings of your own theology?

". . .I will not call it my philosophy; for I did not make it. God and humanity made it; and it made me." **



*Joel B. Green, "Learning Theological Interpretation from Luke" in Reading Luke: Interpretation, Reflection, Formation (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2005), 70.
** G. K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy (New York: Dodd, Mead and Co., 1908), 13-14.