LOOK AT JESUS AND YOU WILL UNDERSTAND THE WORD…
LOOK AT JESUS AND YOU WILL UNDERSTAND THE WORD…
In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe.
Hebrews 1.1-2
“The Word became flesh…”, that being the case, the Incarnation becomes our only and possible hermeneutic key to understand the Word, myself, others and reality. And it is the Spirit who reveals Jesus as the Word and the Word in Jesus.
In reading of the Bible, the great temptation is to make the Scriptures pass as Word. The Scriptures are illuminated as the Word only when those who seek it have, as their sole motivation, an encounter with the Word of God. Or when the God of the Word speaks beforehand, to the heart!
And to conquer such a great temptation, I propose the following practical orientations:
1. The Bible should be read existentially as having its spirit fullfilled in Christ. He came to fulfill everything. Did he fulfill it? Yes! It is acomplished! But he fulfilled it in a legal-to-the-senses way? No! The proof is that the fulfillment of the Word in Jesus was exactly what the masters of the Law in His days called transgression. Therefore, there is a spirit even in the Law. Jesus fulfilled this spirit, not its materializations!
2. One should read the “speeches” of Jesus and not only work on (when it is done) the exegesis of the text. Rather, one should ask: what is the meaning of this teaching of Jesus for Jesus? And the answer is only one: see how He dealt with life, with people, with the facts! If we compare one thing to another, we are liberated from the construction of two irreconcilable beings: the Jesus that lived full of love and grace, and the Jesus that taught things that only the authorized interpreters are able to “detect”.
3. In this way, then, one should never reach a textual interpretation that does not coincide with the behavior and attitude of Jesus in relation to the question, according to the Gospel. I compare everything to the spirit of Jesus, according to the Gospel.
4. Only in this way is Jesus not made schizophrenic before our senses: what He said, He lived; and what He lived, is what He said.
The Bible is the Book.
The Scripture is the Text.
The Word IS!
“Scripture” without God is only a religious text, open to all sorts of manipulations!
It is only in Grace that the reading of the Bible holds the Word for the human heart. Without the illumination of the Spirit, the Bible is only the most fascinating of all best-sellers.
Caio Fábio
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Text adapted by Francisco Pacheco
Translation: Joel Costa Jr. (Jota)
Text revision by Thiago Fuschini
