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Famous Misunderstandings – Do We Understand that Passage?

Often the most famous biblical passages are the most misunderstood. Listen to a wild eyed sports fan yelling John 3:16 at others and you will see what I mean.

Or consider the poor woman at the well. Misunderstanding Woman at the wellShe was abused and discarded by a series of men. With little remaining hope for survival in a man’s world. She takes the only man who will take care of her–only he refuses to commit. Caught in a catch 22 many think she is filled with too much shame to get water with the other women.  People can be awfully cruel once they have decided someone else is worthy of judgment, or beneath their station. Who knows, perhaps she was told she was not allowed to get water with them. She would not have to be told to see the disdain in others’ eyes. Thousands of years later we see her as a sinner, a promiscuous woman, and are glad Jesus forgave even the most sinful. Was she the most sinful in town? Perhaps not. Perhaps the men she testified to were. Often the most famous biblical passages are the most misunderstood.

This is not a rare occurrence unfortunately. Joseph is often preached as a mistakes to successes story. He was braggadocios but ended up wise. The story reads to show he was tempted to play favorites with his full brother, take revenge on his half brothers, and only eventually forgives. More importantly, he enslaves not only people groups but entire nations to Pharaoh’s hand.Joseph Enslaves Egypt Jonah is interpreted as though he finally came around to doing God’s work. In reality, he preached against Ninevah so that it could be restored, not redeemed. The story ends with Jonah in resentment. Yet sermons often talk about his return to ministry, or his surrender to God’s will. Job is the spotless character of suffering in many sermons. Yet God rebukes him before he restores him. Thomas is seen as the primary doubter, though all the disciples doubted until they saw Jesus. Peter is the rock of the church. Yet Paul has to confront him for his racial prejudice.

The list could go on.

Thankfully the normal result is for the preacher to end with something that is “biblical” even though it is not “textual.” In other words, some other passage in scripture would have produced the sermon, just not this one. The moral of the story is for us to be honest and confess our sins, or to forgive our enemy through compassion, empathy, and the grace of God. All true. All good. They just might not be the point of this passage, for this day. When we miss what the passage actually says for what we think it should mean, or has always meant, we miss out on a new word from God.

It can be an intimidating task to preach a famous passage. A well known passages seems to be well worn ground. The path hard packed has yielded all it can yield. The truth is often very far from that initial fear. The next time you are preaching on a passage you already think you know, try a few things to make sure it says to you what it actually means.

  1. Word elimination

This simple exercise often helps preachers see a familiar passage anew for the first time. It is best to have someone give you the directions one step at a time so you do not ruin the process by jumping ahead. That just cannot be done in an article. Even if you know the end, the process can yield great insights.

First, underline the most significant words in the passage you are going to preach on. Make sure you limit yourself to underlining the most important words for the meaning of the text.

Second, circle the next most significant words in the passage you are going to preach through. Again, you are looking for the significant words, leave the common or less significant words alone.

Third, now looking only at the words that remain unmarked, draw meaning from the passage. Often all you are left with are prepositions, indefinite/definite articles, minor modifier (adverbs or adjectives), or names of places/people you were unfamiliar with and do not understand. If you study those words you may come up with very new understandings.

  1. Look for conflict

Often preachers gloss over dissonance and conflict between two parts of their understanding of a passage. This conflict can be the clue to an impartial understanding. For example, if slavery is wrong, why does the hero of the story (Joseph) enslave people? Something has to be questioned. If Moses had “horns” after seeing God (Jerome’s mistranslation that led to Michelangelo’s horned Moses) why did he need a veil? Misunderstanding Moses Was it because he was ugly or fearsome? Why would God make Moses ugly or fearsome? If faith without works is dead, then how can we be saved by faith alone, not by works? How can Paul and James be reconciled? If the woman at the well was extremely sinful, why is she so spiritually curious and responsive? If Paul is beneath Peter, then why does Peter submit to Paul? If Junias was male, why are the earliest manuscripts the female form (Junia?) If Elijah was “just like us” then why was his life so extraordinarily different? If the prodigal son is the really sinful one, why is the older brother the one on the rebuked at the end? And how is the father just?

Looking for the conflict you subconsciously recognize is crucial to giving a passage its own voice. Scriptures do not seem interested in telling us the same thing each and every time we encounter them. “Behold I am doing a new thing” is the tag line for every scripture when we approach it to interpret it. Somehow, the trained student of the word will always bring out both old and new things from the Law.

  1. Trust what is inferred

Many preachers fear stretching scripture so much, they actually limit it to a very small box. The scriptural stories and teachings are written in such  tight way that often what is said is communicated by what is not said. In Genesis 3 we read that the man and the woman were “naked.” Earlier in the story they were naked and “knew no shame.” The omission of “knew no shame” is critical to understanding the story. Now they are ashamed. They hide and cover themselves from each other and from God. What is inferred is important, and it is not a stretch. Hebrew stories communicated by indirect means.

In the story of Joseph the mention of the Lord is common throughout all of Joseph’s most difficult days. He was in prison, “but the Lord was with Joseph.” Not only is God’s presence mentioned, but Joseph also credits God with his insights and accomplishments. After Joseph becomes the second most powerful man in all of Egypt, the Lord is rarely mentioned again. Joseph is now mentioned in connection with Pharaoh and his actions are done for Pharaoh again and again. This inference is not a stretch. It is a key detail in the Hebrew story.

In Acts the repeated prejudice of the Jerusalem disciples can be discerned. At first they will not eat with Gentiles. Peter goes reluctantly to Cornelius’ house. Even at Cornelius’ house his affirmation feels like a left-handed compliment. “Even the gentiles…” Imagine someone saying, “Even white people” or “even Asian Americans…” followed by any statement without offending the receiving group. The widows are cared for with discrimination. The Jerusalem widows are well cared for. The Greek-speaking but still Jewish widows are not. After the disciples choose to focus only on preaching, not on serving, the people to whom they delegate service to the Hellenistic jews. become spiritually powerful. The first martyr? Stephen. A deacon charged with serving the Hellenistic Jews. You could infer God was breaking the church out of its Jewish-only, Jewish-centered roots one slow step at a time. And you would be right. You would also be right in inferring the ministry of the disciples was primarily limited by their prejudice toward outsiders. Paul, not any of the remaining 11 becomes the primary apostle to build the world wide Church. These inferences matter.

It is important to test inferences against the details of the passage and against the broad teachings of scripture. But once you have, do not be afraid to preach from what is implied. Most of all, do not fear preaching the well worn paths of biblical passages. They are well worn for a reason. More importantly, just because someone else traveled the path before does not mean it should not be traveled again. The definition of pilgrimage is to travel a well worn path for spiritual reasons. We are pilgrims when we preach from scripture for every page has been preached countless times before, and will be preached many times again. And still the Word will bring forth something new.

~ © David B Ward, 2018