Sunday, January 13, 2008
Jumping on Jesus
Do we in Sydney have a problem? Has our preaching on the Old Testament left behind the original setting, culture, geography and meaning for those to whom it was originally written? Are we too quick to 'jump to Jesus'? It could mean that our Old Testament preaching in Sydney becomes all too predictable and boring! I totally agree that 'all Scripture points to Jesus', but what does this mean? Is it every sentence, every paragraph, every chapter or just the vibe of the thing? (The answer is another post altogether!) The question is one of methodology or hermeneutics (that is how we interpret the Bible). Biblical Theology is a hermeneutical tool and the man leading this charge is Graeme Goldsworthy. I was fortunate enough to do Hermeunitics subject with Graeme at Moore College and when asked whether he would go to Jesus for every sermon on say a series on Exodus he said, 'No'. However Graeme was quick to say that too often his work has led people to go too quickly to Jesus' death and resurrection or to focus on his work, not his person. The Scriptures testify to ALL of Jesus' life. I'm not saying that all preachers jump all over Jesus too quickly this but there are certainly some people out there who believe we have a slavish desire to go to Jesus and fail to explain the text in a rich and meaningful way - and I think they have a point! What do you think.....
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4 comments:
hey mate - I am reading!
Nice post.
I was thinking, maybe some preachers are concerned about not talking enough about Jesus becaue they want to set themselves apart from dodgy, Jesus-less preaching?
Hey Guthers,
Thanks for your comments. We certainly don't want preachers to not talk about Jesus, but we do want preachers to talk about Jesus in an appropriate way from the passage.
I think there is scope for a preacher to not mention Jesus in a talk and thus have a 'Jesus-less' talk (say if you are doing Exodus over 8weeks not every talk need show how Biblical Theology takes us to Jesus) however this should not be the norm. I guess my plea is for more work to be done on the first step of understanding the passage in its original context.
Check out this diagram and notes by Andrew Reid on the subject it is very good.
http://www.treasurenewandold.org/assets/articles/HermeneuticalModel001.pdf
Dave
I think that's a good plea dave. It's a fine line though, and in a sense, I'm glad the default position of most preachers is to talk more about Jesus.
I'm looking forward to one day hearing you preach some OT gold and seeing how you do it!
That is the real test isn't it...watching me have a go!! It is always easier to critique rather than demonstrate how.
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