A More Beautiful Bible

I remember when I first needed glasses.

I was in 6th grade when I noticed I was having trouble seeing the board from the back of the classroom. I asked my mom to take me to the eye doctor and got a prescription. I was also excited at the time because I thought that glasses were cool anyway. I thought they made me look smarter.

We all have lenses through which we see the world around us. And those lenses change how we interact with the world around us. Specifically, I want to talk about how my lenses have changed or shifted around the Bible.

There’s a lot I want to share on this. I have a lot of thoughts pertaining to the Bible. One of my hobbies is reading more scholarly work regarding the Bible. Some of my fun reads last year and this year have to do with interpretive work of the New Testament, ancient cosmology of the ancient Near East, and some Greek study. A lot of my lenses surrounding the Bible have to do with this. And all these things have definitely aided my belief that the Bible is more beautiful than what I was first told. However, for today, I’ll focus on another angle of this.

I was raised in a tradition that said all the typical things about the Bible. Authoritative, God-breathed, Word of God, etc. I have little refuting to do here. There are however some lenses that I was given early on that I think made my interaction with Scripture and with others sort of problematic. The way I saw the Bible being used on a regular basis was as a big, encyclopedic answer book, at the ready to give instruction on anything and everything in life. I saw the Bible being used as a science book, identifying any theory saying anything less than a specific interpretation of a literal 7-day creation was in strong contradiction to Scripture. I saw the Bible being used by my parents and faith community as a tool to refute their political adversaries, claiming that God was on their side of the political spectrum. I saw the Bible used to tear apart any atheist, political opponent, history teacher, scientist, or more.

Part of me wonders if this was inspired by the idea of the Bible as the “sword of the Spirit”. Did my tribe believe it was their job to “cut to the heart” anyone who saw things differently? Was it our job to fight against an opposing group of folks?

For now, my concern is not with the differing interpretive opinions of the traditions I came to know and found a home in. I love the church in all its forms and people groups and there are moments to both celebrate our friends and confront them when they step out of line. But here, I’m concerned with a posturing of my heart.

The most common thread I saw in most of the ways I saw the Bible being used was that they all postured the Bible reader against others. This was a wakeup call for me. I really began to notice this in high school as I observed my stance toward others who didn’t share a similar worldview with me. Even among other Christians, the lenses I was given for Scripture changed how I talked with other Christians, let alone other people. The way I saw the Bible influenced my interactions not just with the Bible itself, but with the world around me.

High school was a deeply formative time for me in a lot of ways, both good and bad. But a deep regret of mine was how I allowed this lens of the Bible, this lens of “us versus them” manifested itself in my interactions with the people around me. Things I said and ways I addressed people were sort of this outpouring of feeling opposition, opposition that may or may not have ever been present. My stance toward the Bible influenced my heart stance toward people. And my lenses made fellow image-bearers of God look like enemies. Redeemable, but regrettable for sure.

I believe Rich Mullins once said, “I don’t think God gave us the Bible so we could say that we were right. I think God gave us the Bible to say that He’s right and the rest of us are just guessing.”

If my opposition and lack of nuance came from my lens of the Bible, then it needed to change. If I was to change how I let the Bible form me, then I needed to see it with new eyes. Viewing the Bible in these old ways made me more punitive, judgmental of others, pompous and arrogant. I needed to see the Bible through the lens of Jesus on the cross. I needed to see the Bible through a lens of love.

Jesus, while on the cross, said over the crowd watching his crucifixion, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” (Lk. 23:34). While his accusers and his actual enemies watched him be tortured and killed, Jesus does not offer a curse. Instead, he expresses compassion over them. His response to hate and bodily harm is forgiveness. The lens through which Jesus saw these people was through a lens of love. Not meeting might with might, but meeting violence with compassion, mercy, and love. I only over-emphasize to show how far I grew from this image. Jesus, who we see is well-acquainted with the Hebrew Scriptures as we read the Gospels, interacted with Scripture in a way that caused him to interact with people differently.

I think the Bible is more beautiful than what I was first told about. I think my first teachers meant well, but it was as if they, like the wedding at Cana, ran out of wine. Where was the good stuff? Where was the sommelier with the better wine? The work of biblical scholars that I have come in contact with has been profoundly helpful and formational in the way I interact with Scripture. The years I spent in the academic setting created in me a larger, grander view of Scripture. But I think it was Brian Zahnd who I heard say that we must let Jesus be our guide or “sponsor” through Scripture.

Letting Jesus guide us through the Bible as a better lens of love has the power to form us into that same posture of love. I think it even has the power to loosen our grip on “flat readings” or interpretive decisions in the Bible when we understand that the Bible itself is a signpost to Jesus (the opening of Hebrews boasts this). My hope is that in approaching the Bible with a lens of love that the Bible can actually be a tool that causes me to love as Jesus does. I hope that a Bible through the lens of love looks more like good news and less like a list of who’s losing. This seems like a more beautiful Bible to me.