Day 1: Read

I was walking in the village of Oxford when I stepped on this stone cross set into the street. It marks the spot where Thomas Cranmer and two other bishops were burned alive by Queen Mary in the English Reformation for “heretical teachings,” which, in fact, were orthodox teachings they had rediscovered by reading the first English translation of the Bible, paid for in blood by another martyr, William Tyndale.

Tyndale was fluent in both Greek and Hebrew, and he came to the conclusion that every follower of Jesus should be able to read Scripture in their own language.

But that was actually illegal in 16th-century England. The powers that be — both in the government and the church — thought Scripture was too dangerous to be put into the hands of ordinary people.

So, Tyndale escaped to Germany and smuggled 18,000 Bibles back across the channel into England. Followers of Jesus would hold secret meetings in homes, where they would read the Bible out loud, many of them hearing it for the first time.

Eventually, Tyndale was captured and burned at the stake. But this raises the question: What was it about people reading the Bible that terrified the political powers of the day so much they were willing to censor, or even ban and burn every copy they could find?

And yet, here we are today, many years later, and let’s be honest: Many of us have two or three Bibles lying around our homes, but don’t even read them.

We don’t burn Bibles anymore; we just ignore them.

What are we missing? What did they see that we don’t?

Jesus’ view of Scripture was incredibly high. If we’re going to apprentice under Jesus, we need to come to see Scripture through his eyes.

To that end, turn in your Bibles to Matthew 5. In context, this is from the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount.

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” (Matthew 5v17)

Apparently, Jesus was saying and doing things that were so radical, some people thought he had come to disobey the Bible. But he says, “I have come to fulfill them.”

Now, the word “fulfill” is a twist. In Greek, it’s the word plerosia, which is used all throughout the book of Matthew for a prophecy from the Hebrew Scriptures coming to pass in Jesus.

Jesus sees the entire story of the Bible as all leading to him.

Then he says this: “For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.” (Matthew 5v18)

Jesus is saying that the Bible, down to its smallest details, will hold true until everything is “accomplished.”

“Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5v19)

For Jesus, there is a reciprocal relationship between the place of Scripture in our lives and the level of our formation into Kingdom people.

This is why we read the Bible; Not because we have an odd penchant for ancient literature, but because we have come to love and follow Jesus, and, at an intuitive level, we know that following Jesus and immersing our minds in the library of Scripture are inseparable.

As apprentices of Jesus, we organize our whole lives around three basic goals:

To be with Jesus,

To become like him,

And to do as he did.

And Scripture is essential to each goal.

But here’s the key! This will require us to read Scripture very differently from how we read a young adult novel or a school textbook, or a news op-ed. We have to learn how to read Scripture not just for information, but for formation.

And the first step is just to begin reading Scripture daily as an apprentice of Jesus.

And as you read, remember: Your rabbi, the author himself, is in the room with you.

This is why reading the Bible as a spiritual discipline is more about posture than technique.

Don’t get me wrong, technique is important, and we’ll talk about different methods that people use to read Scripture — all that matters.

But what matters even more is to come with the right heart, the heart of an apprentice of Jesus.

So this week, every day as you open your Bible: Slow down, breathe, and pray for Jesus to meet you on the page.