Interpretation

All of Scripture speaks of Jesus. Once we read about him in the New Testament, we can never read the Old Testament the same way. Tremper Longman III explains in his book, How to Read Proverbs, how meeting the Messiah in the New Testament changes how we read the Old Testament.

Tremper illustrates this point using the popular 1999 movie The Sixth Sense. In this critically acclaimed work, Bruce Willis plays the lead character, a psychologist who is treating a young man being tormented by visions of the dead. Willis treats his patient with compassion, but he understands the visions to be hallucinatory. In the meantime, Willis is struggling with his own problems, including a growing distance between himself and his wife, ever since he was almost killed by an intruder.

As it unfolds, the story makes perfect sense to the audience, but it takes on a new meaning with the revelation at the end that Willis himself is dead. He wasn’t almost killed by the intruder; he was killed. His estrangement from his wife is not psychological; it is spiritual: She is alive and he is dead. This plot twist is a complete surprise, but once it comes, the audience cannot see the first part with the same understanding as they did previously.

Possible Preaching Angle: The way Christ fulfills the Old Testament changes how we understand Old Testament passages

In light of the Super Bowl game, there was a discussion about one crucial word in the game of football that keeps enduring—Hut! An article in The New York Times pondered why this word keeps hanging around:

It is easily the most audible word in any football game, a throaty grunt that may be the sport's most distinguishing sound. Hut!

It starts almost every play, and often one is not enough. And in an increasingly complex game whose signal-calling has evolved into a cacophony of furtive code words—"Black Dirt!" "Big Belly!" "X Wiggle!"—hut, hut, hut endures as the signal to move. But why?

Most football players have no idea why. A pro ball center said, "I guess because it's better than yelling, 'Now,' or 'Go.' Some people have used 'Go' and that's awful. That doesn't sound like football." A former quarterback reckons he shouted "hut" more than 10,000 times during games and practices. "I've been hutting my way through football for 55 years—but I have no clue why."

The article conjectures that "Hut" may come from the military backgrounds of many early pro football players. But that's just a guess.

Possible Preaching Angles: Bible; Doctrine; Doubts; Questions; Interpretation—This is a great way to set up a sermon on any topic of what Christians believe or what the Bible teaches. Perhaps people have been told what to believe without the why or the rationale behind that belief or doctrine.

Have you ever watched a televised poker tournament? Cameras are embedded in the table, allowing you to see the cards held facedown by each player. Poker lingo is tossed around by TV commentators explaining the action. It is fascinating, at least until the novelty of it all wears off. These poker shows—coupled with the availability of various poker websites—have contributed greatly to the enormous popularity that this card game has enjoyed in recent years.

Join a game, and you'll quickly discover that success is not a matter of "being lucky.'' Successful players bring considerable skills to the table. They certainly have intimate knowledge of the various odds for different hands. They also notice numerous nuanced behaviors on the part of other players, such as facial expressions, nervous twitches, and other body language. These "tells'' increase their odds of guessing what kind of cards the other players hold. Such signs can be detected from various physical behaviors, especially subtle pattern changes in eye movement (stares, glances), eyebrow movement, lip movement (bites, licks, twists), breathing (sighs, grunts), sitting adjustments (back, forward, or to the side), hand and finger positioning, chip stacking practices, card-holding techniques, timing of bet placement, feigned attitudes, and myriad other details.

The very best players, those pros who consistently win tournaments, are highly skilled in such microscope looking. They scrutinize: competitors, studying the scene, detail after detail, looking all around.

Possible Preaching Angles: Bible; Meditation—We should bring the same high quality powers of observation into our study of Scripture and knowing God.

Have you ever been singing a popular song only to discover that you're belting out the wrong lyrics? Misunderstanding lyrics is a common mistake that can take on a life of its own as seen with the single by Taylor Swift, "Blank Space." A misunderstood line from the song has taken on a life of its own. Some Swift fans think the song's line "got a long list of ex-lovers" is actually "all the lonely Starbucks lovers" including, apparently, her mom.

Well, now there's a scientific explanation for our goofed-up lyrics. It's called mondegreens. Dr. Mark Liberman, professor of linguistics at the University of Pennsylvania, explains the phenomenon: when you hear a song "you're getting an input signal that is muddled with background music, rhythms, and syllabification, explains making it hard for your brain to interpret everything at once."

Possible Preaching Angle:

It's harmless when it comes to song lyrics, but it may be harmful for our life in Christ. Getting input signals from the Bible or the Holy Spirit that are "muddled with background" noise can be dangerous.

In the late 1980s, the National Park Service noticed that the Lincoln Memorial was slowly crumbling and deteriorating. Why? Part of the problem was from water, both rainwater and cleaning water: Park Service crews were giving "the great marble statue of Abraham Lincoln and adjacent walls and floors a daily scrubbing," according to the Associated Press. But why where they cleaning the Lincoln Memorial so often?

Because of the huge mess left each day by sparrows and starlings. But why were so many sparrows and starlings attracted to the Lincoln Memorial? Because they were drawn by spiders. But why were so many spiders making their home in the Lincoln Memorial?

Because of midges, "small winged insects that breed in the muddy flats of the nearby Potomac River." Midges swarm into the air at dusk for mating, and when they did, they were drawn by the huge lights illuminating the memorial. The midges would smash into the limestone walls, and their protein remains drew the spiders, which drew the sparrows and starlings, which caused the mess, which caused the Park Service crews to clean every day, which brought extra water, which caused erosion.

Why was the Lincoln Memorial eroding? Because of the tiny midge. But you wouldn't find that out until you asked "Why?" four times.

Possible Preaching Angles: (1) Bible Study; Wisdom—You could use this story to illustrate the need to dig into the biblical text, asking questions first. (2) Sin; Confession—You could also use this story to illustrate the destructive power of sin and temptation. By allowing "small" sins and temptations (the "midges" of our lives) in our heart, we create the context for spiritual erosion. (3) Communication; Understanding; Misunderstanding—It also shows the need to ask good questions before we think we understand someone or someone's point of view.

Here are some common unhelpful ways to read and study God's Word:

• The Xanax Approach. Feel anxious? Read Philippians 4:6. Feel tired? Read Matthew 11:28. The Xanax Approach treats the Bible as if it exists to make us feel better. Bible study is about finding comfort for my issues. The problem with this approach is that I ask how the Bible can serve me, rather than how I can serve the God it proclaims.
• The Pinball Approach. Lacking a reference or any guidance on what to read, I read whatever Scripture verse I happen to turn to next, ricocheting from one passage to the next. But the Pinball Approach gives no thought to the culture, history, authorship, or original intent of the passage.
• The Magic 8 Ball Approach. Remember the Magic 8 Ball? You just shake it and wait until it provides a clear answer to your most difficult questions. But the Bible isn't magical and its primary function is to transform us rather than to answer our most pressing questions.
• The Personal Shopper Approach. We don't actually study the Bible; rather, we shop around for Bible teachers or preachers who suit our tastes. This isn't all bad, but it can prevent us from taking ownership of Scripture. Much like the Pinball Approach, we ricochet from teacher to teacher and topic to topic without getting the tools to study God's Word for ourselves.
• The Jack Sprat Approach. In the English nursery rhyme, the character Jack Sprat "could eat no fat." We take this approach when we're picky eaters who refuse to digest certain parts of the Bible. But all Scripture is God-breathed and profitable. We need a balanced diet to grow into maturity.

To help explain the challenges people in the West face reading the Bible, authors E. Randolph Richards and Brandon J. O'Brien refer to a social experiment in "The Forgotten Famine" by Mark Allan Powell.

Powell had twelve students in a seminary class read the story of the prodigal son from Luke's Gospel, then close their Bibles and retell the story as faithfully as possible to a partner. None of the twelve American seminary students mentioned the famine in Luke 15:14, which precipitates the son's eventual return. Powell then had one hundred people participate in the same experiment and the results revealed that only six of the one hundred mentioned the famine. The "famine-forgetters," as Powell called them, had only one thing in common: they were from the United States.

Later Powell tried the experiment in St. Petersburg, Russia. He gathered fifty participants to read and retell the prodigal son story. This time an overwhelming forty-two of the fifty participants mentioned the famine. Why? Just seventy years before, 670,000 people died of starvation after a Nazi German siege of the capital city began a three-year famine. Famine was very much a part of the history and imagination of the Russian participants.

Possible Preaching Angles: (1) Interpretation; Bible study—Our experiences and cultural perspectives will not change the meaning of the text, but they will alter what we see in the text. As we interpret the text, it's important to keep in mind our hidden assumptions and biases. (2) Cross-cultural Ministry—This story shows the need for careful listening and communicating across cultural lines in the body of Christ; (3) Poverty—This example shows how experiences of poverty have a profound impact on people—even years later.

One day an old man was casually walking along a country lane with his dog and his mule. Suddenly a speeding pick-up truck careened around the corner, knocking the man, his mule, and his dog into the ditch.

The old man decided to sue the driver of the truck, seeking to recoup the cost of the damages. While the old man was on the stand, the counsel for the defense cross-examined the man by asking a simple question: "I want you to answer 'yes' or 'no' to the following question: Did you or did you not say at the time of the accident that you were 'perfectly fine'"?

And the man said, "Well, me and my dog and my mule were walking along the road … " And the counsel for defense said, "Stop, stop, I asked you, tell me 'yes' or 'no', did you say you were 'perfectly fine' at the time of the accident?"

"Well, me and my dog and my mule were walking along the road and … " The defense attorney appealed to the judge. "Your honor," he said, "the man is not answering the question. Would you please insist that he answer the question?" The judge said, "Well, he obviously wants to tell us something. Let him speak."

So the man said, "Well, me and my dog and my mule were walking along the road and this truck came around the corner far too fast, knocked us into the ditch. The driver stopped, got out of his truck, saw my dog was badly injured, went back to his truck, got his rifle, and he shot it. Then he saw that my mule had broken his leg so he shot it. Then he said, 'How are you?' And I said, 'I'm perfectly fine.'"

Possible Preaching Angles: (1) Communication; Listening—In order to understand someone (a friend, spouse, non-Christian), we need to listen carefully to what they have to say. (2) Worldview; Assumptions; Presuppositions—We all have assumptions, perspectives, or a worldview about reality. That worldview determines how we view and interpret the events of our life. (3) Bible Study; Interpretation—It also shows how we need to understand the context before we can rightly study and interpret the Bible.