Seeing Through the "Jesus Lens": Beyond Sweetness and Light

There's a popular interpretation method called the "Jesus lens." But before we dive in, let's clarify: a hermeneutic is a perspective or framework through which we analyze something. Just like a CSI agent and a doctor view a crime scene differently, their respective hermeneutics shape their interpretations.

Now, many biblical hermeneutics exist, and I personally favor viewing the Bible as a unified story pointing to Jesus. This "biblical-historical-theological lens" keeps things in context and avoids cherry-picking.

However, the "Jesus lens" often gets reduced to a simplistic formula: Jesus would love, forgive, and understand. While true in essence, this flattens the complex portrait of Jesus in the Bible.

Remember when, in this past week's reading, Jesus confronts the Pharisees about ritual washing? His disciples later ask if he knows he offended them. This is crucial: a Jesus lens that never ruffles feathers is likely not the real Jesus. It's probably a sanitized version we've molded in our own image.

That's why reading the actual Bible is vital. It's easy to carry around a plastic Jesus in our hearts, but grappling with the true Jesus – the Word made flesh, a consuming fire, fully human and divine – is another story. The Jesus of the Bible blesses children, guides the adulterous woman to repentance, but also calls out hypocrisy and challenges powerful authorities. He even warns about the consequences of ungenerosity and unforgiveness.

Jesus is far more than our sanitized versions. So, have you truly met him – the complex, challenging, and ultimately transformative Jesus of the Bible?

With You;
Pastor Tim