BORING!

I can understand why some people might find some aspects of church or religion – even perhaps the Christian religion – BORING! But to my mind the real Jesus of the Bible is endlessly fascinating. We can so easily think we have him sussed, but if we engage with the historical witness about him, he can surprise us time and time again. It’s no wonder he has inspired so much of the best art, music, poetry, well, Western Civilisation, to put it briefly.   

 

I was struck afresh this week by the opening chapters of John’s Gospel. Today many people might think that Jesus would be a party pooper. If he were really the Pale Galilean who makes all things grey, you would be nervous about inviting him to your wedding. People might think that If God turned up to a really good party, he might turn the wine in to water. But Jesus brings wine to the party. And more than 750 bottles of the finest vintage. Helpful to have Jesus on your guest-list!

 

Jesus brings wine to the party. But then he brings a whip to the temple. He overturns the tables of the money lenders and drives out the animals. Imagine the actions of this 30-year-old manual labourer captured on CCTV. We would think him crazy – but we would also find his teaching sublime. It seems Jesus loves fun but hates religious hypocrisy, exclusion and exploitation. This man they would crucify is hard to pin down. No wonder thousands hung on his words and the common people heard him gladly, while the powers that he were fearful and jealous. He’s worth pondering.

 

Likewise, the Bible is inexhaustible and often strikes us in a fresh way. Some parts of the Bible are hard to understand. And some things are not immediately “accessible” to us. In many ways its essential message of salvation from sin by the grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ is simple and clear. But the oldest, cleverest, most godly professor need never come to the end of it. It is like an ocean in which a toddler can paddle and an elephant can swim. The wonderful literary artistry of the Bible seems to me to be one of the strongest arguments for its Divine Inspiration. Many authors over many centuries have produced a strikingly unified work of the most outstanding genius, and their brilliance suggests to me that they might have had some help from the Spirit of God.

 

(And, by the way, it is perhaps just worth saying that “literary artistry” need not mean “made up”. The Bible writers are selective and not writing modern academic history, but since God is the Lord of History maybe things happened in the most amazing way in which the Bible writers wrote them down. That’s to say, maybe it wasn’t the gospel writers who “manipulated history” but the Sovereign God!)

 

I’ve read the Bible a number of times and some parts many times, but things can still seem new.

 

For example, I found myself puzzling over the time markers in the opening chapters of John’s gospel again this week. Does it really matter what day it was? Why would John bother to tell us it was a Tuesday? But remember that John begins with an echo of the first book of the Bible, Genesis: “In the beginning…” And then we have a series of days in chapters one and two, perhaps recalling the days of creation. The Wedding and Cana, which we were thinking about above, is said to be “the third day”, like Easter Sunday, Resurrection Day, when the glorious transforming power of Jesus is displayed in this new creation miracle as water is resurrected as wine. Six stone water jars used for ceremonial washing are employed, but possibly this third day plus the other days in the chapter is also the seventh (or maybe eighth) day of John’s week scheme: the final climatic day of blessing, salvation and rest. Jesus’ work is not just good but very good and everyone is invited to enjoy it. This is a new day of New Creation.

 

Or this week I saw some new details in the miracle of the Transfiguration I’m not sure I’d noticed before. Jesus’ glory is revealed on a mountain and he is seen speaking with Moses and Elijah. The wider context in Mark’s gospel speaks of Jesus “passing by” (6:48) and Moses and Elijah had both seen the glory of God pass by on a mountain. And like Jesus they had also been fed in the wilderness and fed others with miraculous bread.

 

Whether or not these details interest you, Jesus and the Bible are definitely worth a second or second hundredth look. And, for the ten your old boys (or indeed girls) out there, there are some wonderful stories of blood and guts too!