After Pentecost Devotional - Day 24

“So he told them, 'Every student of the Scriptures who becomes a disciple in the kingdom of heaven is like someone who brings out new and old treasures from the storeroom.'” Matthew 13:52

Very often I hear Christians speaking about how the Old Testament no longer applies to our lives, since we are New Testament believers in Jesus. I then hear others proclaiming that only what their grandmothers taught them has validity. Others want to do away with the Bible in its entirety as being ancient, archaic, and passe. Then we read these words of Jesus. Suddenly, none of those positions seem to measure up to what Jesus actually taught his disciples and expects of us.

Jesus seems to have believed there was good to be extracted from both what is old and what is new. He was himself not a slave to the established Old Testament Scriptures, but he honored them as communicating God's message for a broken world. Likewise, he did not accept all new and improved teachings of the philosophers of his own day. Neither did he actually take the time to write out a new set of Scriptures for us to follow as timeless, immutable truths. It seems he took an entirely different tack.

Jesus had just finished speaking to the crowds in parables, stories, narratives that applied the truths of his good news to the day-to-day lives of people. He couched the message of God's acceptance, grace, value, and significance in words and word pictures with which his audience could relate.

Jesus did not bother trying to extrapolate for us all the individual applications of what he taught. Rather, he elaborated on the principles of God's character and the character of those who would belong to God's reign. He expected new application to old truths. He expected new understanding and revelation. He also expected new understandings that would arise from the old words, the old stories, the tried and true old time religion along with the old valued truths. It was not an either/or for him, but a both/and.

The past, present, and future needed to be woven together in ways that would highlight the message he was preaching and apply it to the multi-colored experiences of life across the ages. He wanted us to respect the old, honor the new, and weave a new concept of value for the whole of God's revelation throughout the ages.

For all of this, Jesus tells us that it is the Scriptures that will lay the basis for this discovery and application. There is new understanding to be had, but that new understanding can and should be based on the same Scriptures. They are much richer than many imagine, especially when we learn to read them as theological literature in which theology finds its way into our interactions as human beings.

We don't throw out the old, simply because there is something new. We do not throw out the new because we have and like the old. There is benefit to both. The more important thing is to assess our use of both the old and the new, working to engage both to benefit ourselves and others.

Determine to look anew at what is both old and new, learning value from both.

"Lord, grant me the courage and dedication to seek better understanding of you, regardless of where that may be found."

—©Copyright 2016, Christopher B. Harbin
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