Looking for Jesus in all the Bible

Looking for Jesus in all the Books of the Bible

Written by Dan McDonald

 

            A few days ago, someone posted a photograph of a Bible advertising on its cover how it would help you find Jesus in all the books of the Bible. The person posting the photograph described the blurb as confusing. I understand why Christians tend to pull away from the practice of seeing Christ in all the books of Scripture. All too many have experienced those who proclaimed Christ from the Old Testament Scriptures with all the finesse of a brute using a sledge hammer to force a square peg into a round hole. If someone is to proclaim Christ from the Old Testament Scriptures then care needs to be taken to insure that the proclamation of Christ rises naturally and organically from the themes of the passage. The preaching of Christ from the Old Testament should not violate the themes originally expressed in a passage. But I do believe that it is important to realize that from the very beginning it has been the assertion of the Christian faith and witness that Christ was proclaimed throughout the Scriptures from the books of Moses to the prophets to the Apostolic teaching expressed in the Christian New Testament.

            Is it in our era beginning to be controversial to proclaim Christ from the pages of the Old Testament? It seems to me that we need to go back to when Christians started seeking to find Christ in every book of Holy Scripture. I am not exactly sure when the practice of looking for Jesus in all the books of the Bible began, but I think one early case of Christ being proclaimed from the Old Testament Scriptures must have had an impact on many who sought to proclaim Christ from the Old Testament Scriptures.

            The Romans had built a road between the city that was then and is now Jerusalem and another town known as Moza, which in those days was called Emmaus. Two men were walking down this road. They were discouraged for they had been Jesus’ disciples. He had been crucified. Discouraged they were leaving Jerusalem. A passerby met them and asked them what they were discussing. They told him about how Jesus had been crucified and how they had hoped he would redeem Israel. Then the passerby began to explain to them from the Old Testament, beginning with Moses and progressing all the way through the books of the prophets why it was necessary for the Christ to suffer before entering into his glory. Perhaps they walked along the road shown in the picture below when the road was still new. They walked with the passerby for a while until they stopped to have something to eat. Then the passerby broke off some bread and began to hand it to them.  That is when they realized that this passerby who opened the Scriptures to them to the point that their hearts burned within them while he spoke of such things, was in fact Jesus, the one who had been crucified. He had risen. He was alive. He had opened the Scriptures from Moses through the prophets giving them understanding of how the Christ had fulfilled these Scriptures. (Luke 24:13-35)

           

Ruins of the Roman Road between Jerusalem and Emmaus

Taken from http://globible.com/gallery/easter/35.php

 

            That is when I think the early church began to think it was important to proclaim Jesus from the Old Testament Scriptures. Perhaps they began to think back on other times he had handled the Scriptures. As they thought back to his teaching the Old Testament Scriptures they remembered how differently he handled the Scriptures from other teachers of his time.

            Some of the disciples may have remembered when Jesus spoke a message ever so brief in his hometown of Nazareth. He had been baptized and then had gone into the wilderness, and after fasting and encountering and overcoming the temptations from the evil one he returned to Galilee and began preaching. He came to his hometown of Nazareth. To get the full feel of what happened you may need to know that when Rabbis preached they honored the Scriptures by standing to read the Word of God from the scroll they were given; and then when they preached the meaning of the Word read they sat. This showed reverence for the word of the Scriptures. In at least some circles the sitting as they taught represented one’s being seated in the seat of Moses. Others sat, usually on the floor around the teacher, as there were not many chairs or pews for people to be seated in pre-modern times. Jesus read the scroll standing as he spoke. The words were from Isaiah. He read them as others listened: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed: to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.” Then he closed the book (probably a scroll) and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on him. {Can’t you almost feel the anticipation of the moment? What was Jesus going to say about this passage, what was his teaching on these Scriptures going to be?} It was a one sentence homily. “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” (Luke 4:16-21) He made the Scriptures to be about him.

The Great Isaiah Scroll; a scroll from the Dead Sea Scrolls found at Qumran

 

            Perhaps the disciples remembered his longer sermon, the Sermon on the Mount. They remembered how he began with a number of blessings for the poor, those who mourned, the meek, those hungering and thirsting after righteousness, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, and those who suffered and were persecuted for righteousness’ sake. He then said “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill.” (Matthew 5:17) He then began to try to correct some of the misunderstandings of the Scripture of those who heard him. But his method was stunning. He would quote an Old Testament Scripture and would say “you have heard it said” and describe what religious teachers had sometimes said. Then he would speak against the interpretation by saying, “But I say to you.” Can you imagine how bold that had to seem for a man to correct a misunderstanding of Scripture with merely a fiat statement of “But I say to you.”  When he finished speaking those in the audience were astonished that he spoke with authority, not like the religious leaders. Perhaps the especially astonishing is that he spoke with authority in the sense that he was taking ownership of the Scriptures. This was a man who obeyed the Scriptures with holy reverence but he was also the Son of God come to take the Scriptures back from those who had corrupted it and taking ownership of it he would give it back to those who were hungering and thirsting after the Living God.