How Jesus Uses the Bible

When you read through the Gospels, there’s an interesting thing that you see Jesus doing and not doing. Notice how he handles the Bible himself. Sure, he loves it. Yes, he quotes it - for example when he’s starting his ministry in Nazareth (in Luke 4) or when he uses it to bless John the Baptist (in Matthew 11). And on one occasion he uses scripture in his famous Sermon on the Mount - to re-translate it for the masses in ways that were easily understandable.

But there’s one use that comes up more frequently than the others: he uses the Bible against the Bible thumpers. Here are four different moments in the Gospel of Matthew when he quotes from the Hebrew Scriptures - and notice how he leads off these quotations:

Go and learn what this means… - Matthew 9:12

Haven’t you read… - Matthew 12:3

Haven’t you read… - Matthew 19:4

Have you never read… - Matthew 21:16

Often you sense that Jesus is hoping that the religious folks will actually soften their hearts and turn towards him instead of away. But he’s not afraid to be confrontative. He’s inviting them to see how scripture points in a different direction than the way they think it does - he’s insisting that there’s a different way to interpret things.

But Jesus does not do with any of the ‘sinners’ he confronts. Those people he tells stories, sharing principles from scripture but never quoting it.

This might be a helpful way of thinking about the Bible - it’s public use is primarily for the initiated, for those who lay claim to its authority already. But for the normal people, Jesus seems to support what David Mercier said on Sunday: “For most people, you are the only bible they will ever read.”