Seeing the Bible Through a Missional Lens
In the great American adventure movie National Treasure, Nicolas Cage plays the lead role of Benjamin Gates. While in Philadelphia, he finds a pair of glasses or an ocular device hidden in a brick at Independence Hall. This device has three multi-colored lenses through which to look to see the hidden message written on the constitution. Once he looks through all three lenses, he unlocks the code that allows him to find the legendary Templar Treasure.
Gates needed all three lenses to see the code, just as we need three lenses through which to faithfully interpret the Bible—a grammatical-historical lens, a Christological lens, and a missional lens. This third missional lens is one of the most neglected.
Everyone interprets Scripture through a particular lens. We all come to the hermeneutical process with a set of presuppositions that, consciously or subconsciously, govern how we interpret the Bible. Some view the Bible as a user manual for life, others as a way to get right with God, and others as a devotional resource.
The question becomes: Is the lens(es) through which I look at Scripture the correct one(s)? Indeed, no one has the perfect lens through which they look at Scripture. This is not a deconstructionist/Postmodern statement. It is reality. We all are continually growing in our ability and awareness of interpreting the Bible more faithfully.
Hermeneutics 101 teaches us to read the Bible from a grammatical and historical perspective. It is imperative we understand the historical background to the biblical text, take into account the genre we are reading, and learn how to interpret within context. These are significant parts of learning how to interpret the Bible faithfully.
But the process cannot stop there. We then need to add a Christotelic lens to the hermeneutical method. Jesus himself declared that the entire Bible is all about him. In Luke 24.25-27, Jesus states to his disciples,
"How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?" And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself."
And to the religious leaders, he states in John 5.39-40,
"You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life."
Clearly, Jesus understood the entire canon to point to his identity and mission. One can devote their life to studying the Bible as the religious leaders did and miss the whole point! That is, in my vernacular, scary crazy! We miss the point if we do not account for Jesus in our interpretative process. Fundamentally, the Bible is all about Jesus, not us.
“Fundamentally, the Bible is all about Jesus, not us.”
But we are involved in the story of God. We have a role to play because the Creator God has invited us to take up our part in his drama. This is where the third lens, a missional lens, comes into the hermeneutical process. The Bible is not simply pointing us to who Jesus is, but also to what Jesus came to do. The Scriptures are all about both the identity and mission of Jesus. To possess a valid Christotelic hermeneutic requires accounting for God's mission summed up in Jesus through the Spirit of God in his people. Notice what Jesus says a few verses later in Luke 24:
"Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. He told them, "This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.”"
The Bible is not just about Jesus and who he is for us. It is not just about the extravagant grace that justifies us! It is also about the empowering grace to fulfill our mission in the story. As Jesus declared, it is about repentance being preached to the nations. It is about Jesus and his mission! Jesus determines the lens for his disciples to interpret the entire Scriptures. Too often, our Christotelic interpretation does not go beyond mere Old Testament prophecies that Jesus fulfilled in his life. And if it goes beyond that, it usually stops at who Jesus is for us. To be sure, both of these aspects are essential. They do not go far enough. A missional hermeneutic becomes necessary to have a proper understanding of the Bible.
“This missional dimension provides the people of God with a robust understanding of our identity.”
When you add a missional lens to your interpretative process, it changes how you perceive your life. This missional dimension provides the people of God with a robust understanding of our identity. We are not just disciples of Jesus trying to improve our lives with the Bible, nor are we merely consumed with our own salvation and growth in holiness. It teaches us that we are the people of God who have been sent by Jesus to be his witnesses to his resurrection. When our identity falls more in line with the missional dimension of the Bible, we will more faithfully become the church.
Join Scott for “The Bible: A Missional Perspective”, a five-week Learning Community that begins Wednesday, February 9th at 1:00p ET/ 10:00a PT. This Learning Community focuses on incorporating a missional reading of Scripture into the interpretative process to be more faithful teachers of the Bible.
