“You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about Me, yet you refuse to come to Me that you may have life!”
– Jesus, to the Jewish leaders (John 5:39-40)
In a heated discussion with the Jewish religious leaders of His day, Jesus remarked sadly that though His opponents were well-versed in the Scriptures, they had missed the main point. The Old Testament had been pointing to Jesus! The leaders knew the Scriptures backwards and forwards, yet they had missed the signs pointing to the most important chapter in the Story that God was writing – the chapter that had been foreshadowed by the prophets and Bible writers for thousands of years.
Even today, we can get so wrapped up in searching the Scriptures that we miss what God is trying to teach us. Consider today’s would-be prophets who scour over the prophecies of Revelation trying to pull out clues about the European Union or the next major ecological catastrophe. Caught up in the thrill, the writers lose sight of Revelation’s main message of encouragement and hope. Other pastors and teachers get bogged down into the exegetical depths of a passage and begin to argue the intricacies of a Greek word until the main point of the chapter is buried underneath a pile of grammar books.
Reacting against such extremes, it would be easy to take quotes like this one from Jesus and use them against profound Bible study. We could laugh off the theologians who devote themselves to understanding correctly the Scriptures, and rail against them for “missing the point” that we discovered upon our first reading. But this would be violating the message of these verses. Jesus does not criticize the Jewish leaders for their meticulous attention to detail. He regrets that their Bible study has not led them to experience the life that He offers.
We must be careful to avoid both extremes – the dry, existential study of God’s word that leads us into the desert – or superficial study of God’s word that will lead us into waters too shallow to swim in and find true refreshment. When poring over the Scriptures, our minds should always be turned to Jesus – seeing how His Holy Spirit can give us life through the inspired Word of God.
written by Trevin Wax © 2007 Kingdom People blog
