Yesterday, I had two very interesting conversations after church services, which set off the following thoughts. (What follows is not something I said to either person, although it might have been helpful if I had done).
Red Letters
Many English Bibles print the words of Jesus in red.
I can hear you yawning at the back. Yes, I know how unhelpful that is. I'm aware that the whole Bible is the word of God. I'm aware that red lettering is harder to read than black lettering, so it's counter productive. I've made those points myself on many occasions. It's not what I'm saying today.
There's an understandable reason for this. Firstly, the 4 gospels are the climax of the Bible. The whole Old Testament leads up to the events that took place (roughly) between 4
Furthermore, what makes the 4 gospels so important is the appearance of the person of Jesus - God's eternal Son, second person of the Trinity - as a real human being. One clergyman used to be asked by school children if he'd ever seen God. He replied that he could have, if he'd been on time. That's true.
Therefore, when Jesus himself speaks or acts, we must take notice. If we're looking for the actual words of God, surely the words Jesus speaks in the 4 gospels are the best example. Hebrews 1:1-2 says as much. So print them in red. Highlight them. Draw attention to them.
I want to show you where this logic breaks down. I've got three things to say, the third of which is really where this is heading - but first, two other observations.
1. What about the other direct words of God?
There are other places in the Bible where direct words from God are recorded. The ten commandments are the obvious ones. It seems large parts of the Mosaic law were directly dictated. Some parts of the prophets were. Some biblical narrative contain prophetic speech that seems to have been given directly by God to the prophet (for example, Nathan's reply to David in 2 Samuel 7:4-16, where the narrator even highlights (verse 17) that Nathan passed on the message word-for-word.)
Why don't those same Bibles print those words in red?
Turn it around for a moment. Some incidents in the gospels don't contain any of Jesus' direct speech. Should we read those passages less often? Because they include the birth and infancy narratives, if anything we read them more often!
2. Central event / central to our understanding?
The gospel events are the central events in the Bible, as I've just explained. But I would argue that the other 62 books of the Bible are central to understanding those events.
If we didn't have the Old Testament, we wouldn't understand the gospels. As David Helm said when I recently heard him speak, if Seth had been the Messiah, dying for our sins, we'd have no understanding of God's kingdom, of God's character, of God's moral standards, of God's purposes for the world. The categories we need to understand the gospels (Messiah / Christ, people of God, Son of God, good / evil) would not have been given to us. The figures of speech we meet would be incomprehensible (seeds, storms, vineyards, fig trees, darkness, light, etc.) We wouldn't even be able to look up the two greatest commandments in their original context.
The rest of the New Testament is spelling out how the Christian church should live in the light of the events that just took place. We are told how to understand the gospel (the first half of most of the epistles), and how to live it out (the second half of most of the epistles).
Christ taught and lived that the Old Testament was the word of God. He authorised his apostles to speak on his behalf, so making provision for a New Testament that is equally Scripture. The 4 gospels describe the central events. But if we want to know what they mean, or how they impact our lives, we need to read the other 62 books of the Bible. That's why they're there. We won't understand the gospels unless we spend lots of time in the rest of the Bible.
3. Red Words - spoken to someone else
Which brings me to the most important thing to say.
All 66 books of the Bible are the Word of God. We listen to what the writers teach us through their writings. We allow the Bible to show us how to apply this across cultural differences. As we do so, we're hearing what God says to us today.
But what of the words of Jesus in the 4 Gospels? Do we accord them special status, as the actual "words of God"?
No, we do not. When you read the story of the rich young man in Mark 10:17-31, you find some words of Jesus. He speaks to the man in verses 18-19 and 21. He speaks to his disciples in verses 23, 24-25, 27 and 29-31. But none of those words were spoken to us. The words "Go, sell all that you have and give to the poor" were spoken to that man, not to us.
Few people today would read those words, and treat it as a direct word to them. They don't want it to be, so they read Mark 10 to find clues as to why this was what needed to be said to this particular individual. That's the start of the right exercise.
The correct question to ask is: What is Mark saying to his readers in Mark 10:17-31? Mark is the inspired author. What Mark says, God says. Mark is recording this incident in the life of Jesus to teach his readers something. It's a message that demands a response. Ultimatlely, this is what God teaches, and the response that God requires.
So it's not that the red words are the ones where you find God's most direct word to you. They are words spoken by God incarnate, but they are words spoken to someone else. There is a word of God for you there - it's what the gospel-writer is saying to you by recording the events (including the words Jesus spoke).
By the way, I do recommend colouring in the words of Jesus. Use red if you like. Get a copy of the Bible text, and highlight each speaker's words in a different colour. It makes it a whole lot easier to see what's going on in portions of dialogue. It helps especially in John's Gospel, but even shorter dialogues like Mark 10:17-31 become much clearer when you can see the exchange of words.
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