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
http://www.sermonsearch.com/contributors/104427/ 
My latest books can be found here on amazon

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Gospel Is Not Conservative

Image
Fundamentalism and conservativism are intrinsically averse to change. They are tied with conserving a status quo or moving back to a former era. They seek a safe place, a respite from change and transformation in the world around them. They are threatened by new ideas. They fear that the foundations on which they base their lives will be uprooted, causing their view of reality to fall apart. Growth depends on change. Life requires change. Survival depends on responding to changes in our environment. It requires new ideas. It requires new answers to old questions, as well as new questions with even newer answers. Jesus was by no means conservative. Jesus challenged the status quo. He fought against the groundwork of much of the religious thought around him, as well as the structures erected to empower its values. He called out those who benefited from social, religious, and political power. He demonstrated God's love, forgiveness and grace to those deemed una...
Read more

God in the Hands of Angry Sinners

Image
Jonathan Edwards’ famous sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” set a very poor direction for much of Christianity in the Colonies. His Puritan tradition presented God as an essentially angry deity whose desire was to condemn and torture. Grace or mercy existed simply in regard to how long God waited until calling down judgment upon sinners. That is not good news. It never was. Such is not the message of Jesus whom the gospel writers claim as good news. They echo the words of the celestial messengers declaring Jesus’ birth as good news of great joy to all peoples. Rather than look to Jesus as the clearest example of God’s identity, character, and will, that tradition surrounding Edwards began with an altogether different understanding that could not account for what Jesus actually taught. The Puritan perspective began with angry sinners and projected that upon God. Anger begins with fear, uncertainty, discomfort, and the inability to control one’s environment, ot...
Read more

Our Language of Choice

Image
I woke up this morning and decided to be a woman. I really like the idea of earning less money on the job. I like the idea of being passed over for promotions. I like that I will be held more accountable for the care of my home and familial responsibilities than any of the men around me. I’m looking forward to having my expertise ignored. I like that I’ll more likely be treated as a lower-level assistant to male colleagues than an actual colleague. It should be a good experience to live as more of a target for domestic violence and abuse. It will be so freeing to let go of my bodily autonomy and place it in the hands of men who will not understand me. With so many voices in our society shifting back toward the attitudes of 70 years ago, I am really looking forward to setting aside all trappings of male privilege and power to live as a second class citizen whose voice and opinions are essentially irrelevant. Just look at all the advantages women have! They get t...
Read more