Contemplative Bible Reading

John 20:8-9 (New Living Translation)

Then the disciple who had reached the tomb first also went in, and he saw and believed— for until then they still hadn’t understood the Scriptures that said Jesus must rise from the dead.

Jesus has been crucified and buried in the tomb. On the first day of the week various persons discovered that Jesus was no longer dead.

These verses tells us that the Scriptures, i.e., what we call the Old Testament, had foretold that Jesus would die, be buried, and would rise from the dead. The followers, however, didn’t understand what had been written. They didn’t understand that Jesus would rise.

Today, we have all sorts of written words. We have the full Bible in front of us. We have published commentaries containing tens of thousands of words for every word in the Bible—ten thousand words explaining every single word. And then we have all these extra works on the Internet in commentaries and contemplations such as this one.

Do we understand? Do we understand what was written thousands of years ago? It is right in front of us, and we have so much leisure time to read and understand. Do we understand?

Sorry, but my answer is, “Probably not.” The followers of Jesus were pretty smart. Yet they didn’t understand. Am I any smarter, wiser, or more understanding? Probably not. God, please help me in my unbelief.