More than telling us exactly what to see in the
Scriptures, Jesus taught us how to see, what to emphasize, and also what could
be de-emphasized or ignored. Beyond fundamentalism or literalism, Jesus
practiced a form that the Jewish people called midrash, consistently using
questions to keep spiritual meanings open, often reflecting on a text or
returning people’s questions with more questions. It is a real shame that we
did not imitate Jesus in this approach. It could have saved us from so many
centuries of righteousness, religious violence, and even single-issue voting.
Rather than seeking always certain and unchanging
answers, the Jewish practice of midrash allows many possibilities, many levels
of faith-filled meaning—meaning that is relevant and applicable to you, the
reader, and puts you in the subject’s shoes to build empathy, understanding,
and relationship. It lets the passage first challenge you before it challenges
anyone else. To use the text in a spiritual way—as Jesus did—is to allow it to
convert you, to change you, to grow you up as you respond: What does this ask
of me? How might this apply to my life, to my family, to my church, to my
neighborhood, to my country?
While biblical messages often proceed from historical
incidents, the actual message does not depend upon communicating those events
with perfect factual accuracy. Spiritual writers are not primarily journalists.
Hebrew rabbis and scholars sometimes use the approach of midrash to reflect on
a story and communicate all of its underlying message. Scripture can be
understood on at least four levels: literal meaning, deep meaning, comparative
meaning, and hidden meaning.
The literal level of meaning doesn’t get to the root and,
in fact, is the least helpful to the soul and the most dangerous for history.
Deep meaning offers symbolic or allegorical applications. Comparative study
combines different texts to explore an entirely new meaning. Finally, in
traditional Jewish exegesis, hidden meaning gets at the Mystery itself. Midrash
allows and encourages each listener to grow with a text and not to settle for
mere literalism, which, of itself, bears little spiritual fruit. It is just a
starting point.
Whatever is received is received according to the manner
of the receiver. [1] This statement from Aquinas was drilled into me during
seminary. People at different levels of maturity will interpret the same text
in different ways. There is no one right way to interpret sacred texts. How you
see is what you see; the who that you bring to your reading of the Scriptures
matters. Who are you when you read the Bible? Defensive, offensive,
power-hungry, righteous? Or humble, receptive, and honest? Surely, this is why
we need to pray before reading a sacred text!
Jesus consistently ignored or even denied exclusionary,
punitive, and triumphalist texts in his own inspired Hebrew Bible in favor of
passages that emphasized inclusion, mercy, and honesty. For example,
referencing two passages from Exodus (21:24) and Leviticus (24:20), Jesus
suggested the opposite: “You have heard it said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for
tooth.’ But I tell you . . . turn the other cheek” (see Matthew 5:38-39). He
read the Scriptures in a spiritual, selective, and questioning way. Jesus had a
deeper and wider eye that knew which passages were creating a path for God and
which passages were merely cultural, self-serving, and legalistic additions.
From daily
devotions by Richard Rohr
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