i've been thinking lots these days and not writing. something is a stirring inside of me. not sure what to do with all the thoughts i have but perhaps i will put one of them up here.
i've been thinking about how we read the bible lately. about how we put things in there that aren't really there and yet we do it totally subconsciously, and how we can easily miss a little bit of a verse or a small verse because we loose concentration while we read.
okay my example for things we just put in there....is this. the story of the rich young ruler.
"Now a man came up to Jesus and asked, "Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?"
"Why do you ask me about what is good?" Jesus replied. "There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, obey the commandments."
"Which ones?" the man inquired.
Jesus replied, " 'Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother,'[d] and 'love your neighbor as yourself.'[e]"
All these I have kept," the young man said. "What do I still lack?"
Jesus answered, "If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me."
When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth.
Then Jesus said to his disciples, "I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.
Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."
Okay so in this passage we automatically paraphrase it and say "well obviously jesus is saying that it's hard for rich people to get into heaven." but Jesus doesn't say anything about heaven. he talks about how it is hard for rich people to enter the kingdom of God, but Jesus talked about how he was bringing the Kingdom of God, so....perhaps.....
Perhaps jesus is saying that it's hard for people to be apart of what he is doing right now, the kingdom that exists in this world right now and not something in the future. That it's hard for rich people to be apart of what God is doing right now in the world. Now the Rich Young Ruler does talk about Eternal life, so that in our minds points to heaven. But what if Jesus' life was so radically different that the Rich Young Ruler is asking how to get this life that Jesus lives, how to get this fuller life that Jesus teaches about. And Jesus says....well....it's going to be hard to live like me if you are rich, if you aren't interested in the poor.
I feel like this doesn't make any sense, oh dear. I just think we're quick to replace words in verses with what we think is a synonym but actually skews the real intention of the passage. we need to be careful of this.
7 comments:
Yes. I totally agree.
have you been talking to Jonny? cuz we just studied that passage in growth group.
At any rate, I had the same thought as you.
Seriously, I did. Hope that makes you feel better.
I was remembering something I read from Rob Bell in Velvet Elvis about how maybe Jesus isn't about getting us to heaven but about getting heaven to here on earth... right now... through us...
And yeah, I noticed in this passage that it says the kingdom of heaven and I was like, so maybe he didn't mean it was impossible for the rich to go to heaven. Maybe he just meant that it would be very hard for them to help him bring heaven to earth.
Cool. I'm glad we think the same things sometimes Lisa.
Loves.
m.
awesome michelle. that's exciting. i haven't talked to jonny but i will let him know we're thinking along the same lines.
For me, this talk of 'Kingdom of God' calls to mind both heaven and our experience here on Earth. And the fact is, there shouldn't be too much difference since we're supposed to strive for the kind of righteousness that will one day be realized in Heaven, right now. With regard to the Christian life, one thing is sure -- that wealthiness is going to make things difficult for you. The fact is, getting into heaven and living like Christ are two distinct things. But sometimes I think people can fail so badly at the living like Christ part that they've jeopardized the 'getting into heaven' part of it. So we've come full circle. Which ever Jesus was referring to, those two dynamics are interdependant...
That was by long-winded way of agreeing with you.
I'd like to apologize for writing 'by' instead of 'my' in my previous comment.
thanks for your thoughts tomahawk. have you read "The Great Divorce"? C.S Lewis makes a strong point that the choices we make now will continue to be those made into heaven or hell. it's not as if we start choosing differently when we're dead. So if we spend our lives not choosing God on earth, we'll continue to not chose him after we die. So we better choose well now.
I LOVE that book Lisa!!! I'd never really challenged my view of heaven and hell before it... now things are a little less written in stone... I'm not sure if that's good or bad... good for now.
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