Exegesis that Makes Me Nervous

Sometimes the text of Scripture is pretty simple. Too simple, in fact. So it seems that some commentators and preachers begin to look for something to beef up the biblical record. The problem is that it is not always firmly rooted in the text. And this makes me nervous.

Consider this example from a commentary on Mark addressing Mark’s account of the feeding of the five thousand:

Mark next vividly describes the orderly seating of the crowds on the green grass. Is he just creating a vivid narrative? Is he preserving historical reminiscences, passive proofs that the account is factually reliable? Or is he dropping hints as to the secret meaning of the feeding?  Interpreters have suggested that there are subtle clues here:

1. Green grass is possible in this desert place only in early spring, thus around Passover time. That may mean that the feeding foreshadows the Lord’s Supper and Jesus’ death as the Passover lamb.
2. Green grass echoes Psalm 23:2; “He makes me lie down in green pastures.” Mark is still portraying Jesus as the Good Shepherd.
3. Green grass is not characteristic of a desert. The greening of the desert is evidence that God is fulfilling end-time promises (cf. Isa. 49:9–10; 51:3). That in turn makes the meal a foretaste of the end-time feast that God prepares. NRSV says the people sit, but the Greek says they recline, the posture of a feast, not a normal meal.

Timothy J. Geddert, Mark, Believers church Bible commentary (Scottdale, Pa.: Herald Press, 2001), 148-49.

What if the “green grass” simply means that the grass was green? It may indicate something about the time of the year, as his mentioned in point 1. But foreshadowing? Psalm 23? Eschatology? It simply isn’t in the text.

The fact is that nothing in this “exegesis” is actually rooted in the text. There is simply no textual reason to suggest this understanding. It preaches really well, but it abandons the preacher’s only authority – what the text actually says. And that makes me nervous.

It’s hard to imagine Mark’s audience hearing “green grass” and thinking of Psalm 23 or end-time promises. It’s easier to imagine them hearing “green grass” and thinking of ground cover of a particular color that was the seat upon which people sat.

If you want to talk about Jesus as the Shepherd, why not go back to v. 34 where the text addresses that. (Perhaps the most poignant point about the Good Shepherd metaphor in this passage is that Jesus taught shepherdless people. He didn’t do great miracles to win their confidence and belief. He opened his mouth and taught them many things. The miracles only come later. That should inform those who want to minister like Jesus did. But I digress.) Or go to John 10.

If you want to talk about Psalm 23 and green grass, then go to Psalm 23 and talk about it. If you want to talk about eschatology, the Bible says a lot (much more than some people think and much less than other people think), so go to where the Bible says it and talk about it.

But don’t abandon this text because you are familiar with other texts. If you are going to appeal to people to understand God from the text of Scripture and to live a certain way because of the text of Scripture, then preach the text of Scripture. There is plenty there. We do not need to find more.

Explaining the text this way may cut a 40 minute sermon to 20 minutes, but I’m told that’s not necessarily a bad thing. It has the added benefit of not only rooting your message in what God said here, but also showing your congregation how they can study the text for themselves.

And then when people are called to live a certain way in response to the King, they can point to the words and say, “This is why.”

Please God ...

I am sitting outside working in the park, watching cars drive by, watching people walk by, hearing the fire trucks and rescue truck go by a couple of times, planning our Sunday worship service, and enjoying a little cooler weather (83) under a cloudy sky with a light breeze blowing. It sounds busy now that I read it, but it's mostly passive.

I see this table I am sitting at has a carving in it … well, more of a scratching in the rubber coating on the steel frame. It must be pretty new. I have not seen it before.

I assume that means, “Please God let it be better” but you can’t exactly refill the rubber coating and re-scratch it.

It makes we wonder what “it” is.

I think the world has millions of people who want the ubiquitous “it” to be better, and a lot of those people live around us. We see them every day. We work with them, ride the bus with them, drive past them, order dinner from them, wave to them.

But they have no idea how to make “it” better. And we don't tell them.

So they pray to God, from the darkness of their soul, and hope somehow it all works out for them.

But they have no idea how God can make it better because they do not know what broke it to begin with.

And I am reminded that we are the ones commissioned by God to tell them what broke it (sin) and how God makes it better (Jesus).

This is the same table where earlier this afternoon I had a 45 minute conversation with a lady who was making a bracelet out of colored string. We worked our way to the gospel and how a person might get to heaven.

This lady spoke of how she has told her friends that there is life after death. She tells me that in the past several years she has found old friends and tried to resolve old issues. She spoke of how she needed to return to a certain church she used to attend and resolve some disputes (her words) that caused her to leave there.

She said she hoped when she died that God would see her good efforts and have mercy on her for them and consider her worthy to get into heaven.

She’s living with her daughter now a few blocks away but she is hoping to get a place out on East Jefferson near the river because it’s so peaceful there. But I sensed from her words that the peace she talks of has nothing to do with the peace Jesus bought for at Calvary.

I showed her some verses about how heaven is a free gift, and how you can't buy it with good works. Not even really good works. You can't make an good omelet if you include one bad egg.

I explained to her how Jesus was good for us (because we can't be) and how he died in place of us (so that we don't have to). I talked to her about total trust in Jesus, kind of like getting on an airplane. You can't reserve some trust for anything else, even if it's a good thing (like the ground). You gotta put it all on Jesus.

A million things now come to mind that I wish I had said. But I didn’t think of it then.

It makes me wish I was a little quicker on my feet. But then I would probably trust my mental quickness rather than the Spirit of God. Next time, I will have another gospel encounter under my belt that will help me to be more clear, and hopefully the Spirit will use my inadequacies this time and my memory next time.

But I will need to be bold enough to speak up and speak out.

And wise enough to listen carefully and listen quietly.

And I have to remember not to win arguments, but to preach Jesus.

So on Sunday I will preach. Hopefully she will be there with her grandchildren. She said she would be.

And hopefully she, along with others, will understand that Jesus is the reason that we can pray to God to make it better because Jesus is the one who fixed the problem that broke it to begin with.

Is the Internet Trustworthy?

The internet is filled with information. But can you trust it?

Nancy Jean Vyhmeister, in Quality Research Papers for Students of Religion and Theology (Zondervan, 2008) gives the following helpful list for evaluation of internet resources.

1. What is the purpose of this website? Entertainment? Information? Research?
2. Who sponsors the site? A credible organization, such as a university? A seller/marketer? A professional society? An advocacy group? An individual?
3. When was the material written?
4. Who is the author? A professional? A student? Just somebody interested in the topic?
5. What are the author’s qualifications, either academic or professional? Author or amateur?
6. Is this material available elsewhere, either on the web or in a printed source?
7. What is the tone of the article? “I know it all”? “You are stupid if you do not agree with me?” “This is an observation I have made.” Does this sound like someone searching for the truth or simply pushing an idea?
8. What company does this piece keep? (hyperlinks, sources cited [journals, recognized scholars, no one])
9. How do you think your professors will rate this information?
10. Never stop asking questions.

While the internet is a wild place, filled with all types of information, careful evaluation is necessary. Remember, the fact that someone can say something does not mean it is true. Free blog sites are available to anyone who wants one. And bad information sometimes comes with it.

The internet can be incredibly useful. It also can be incredibly wrong.

Careful evaluation will help us to know which it is for any given site.

Finally Some Truth

“I am selfish and I just want my life back.”

Someone actually said this is why they left their spouse and their child.

Of course, it is the reason many people leave their spouse and children.

It’s just that most people don’t say it.

Quotable

Birds that are trying to fly into the wind are just landing and walking.

— British Open commentator on
the windy conditions in the second round.