Jesus Taught us to Read and Discuss
44 Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” 45 Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, 46 and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, 47 and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. 48 You are witnesses of these things. 49 And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.”
When Jesus explained the scriptures to the disciples, He did it in a way that the disciples would also be able to explain it to others. Not only did He teach them what to teach, but He taught them how to teach by His own example. In doing that, He established that none of us is in this alone.
Jesus went off and prayed alone many times. It was enough of a habit that when the disciples didn’t know where Jesus went, they would check His overnight prayer spots. There is a phrase in the account of the passion that Jesus went to pray on the mount of olives ‘like He always did.’
But when Jesus talked about the scriptures, He was always with a group. Granted, they didn’t have pocket Bibles or the little Gideon’s Bibles to pack around in their pockets. If you wanted to read the scriptures, you had to have a scroll. BUT considering every adult man was required, as he entered adulthood, to write his own copy of the Torah, there would be some around. In addition, it was considered rude to read quietly, so whenever somebody read from a scroll, they would be reading out loud. (Remember the Ethiopian eunuch in Acts?)
It’s only been in the last 40 or so years that the supermarket has been flooded with Bibles (you can get them cheap at Ollie’s!). It’s only been the last 100 years that people have been reading the Bible in such isolation. Benedictine monks take turns and when your turn comes up, you fast from dinner and read the Bible out loud while everyone else eats quietly.
Talk about what you read, even if it’s a Facebook discussion. Talk about your questions and work them out together. Pray that the Holy Spirit would show your friends the truth of what they read and that they would tell you. It’s in a community that we are the Body of Christ, and as the Body of Christ, we are the Church.
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