Ep. 24 - Focus In, Focus Out: A Simple Bible Reading Strategy
Episode Transcript
Ep. 24 - Focus In, Focus Out: A Simple Bible Reading Strategy
[00:00:00] JC Schroeder: Hello friends. In today's episode, we're going to look at a simple Bible reading strategy that can pay huge dividends in unlocking Scripture. That's strategy, it is to focus in and focus out while reading Scripture. And then we'll illustrate that by looking at one particular passage, Mark 9:14-29. All right, let's dive into it. I'm JC Schroeder, and this is Bite Size Seminary.
[00:00:26]
[00:00:26] Introduction
[00:00:26] JC Schroeder: So lately I have been getting into photography a little bit, and I've been having a lot of fun, taking pictures of really all sorts of things. Uh, I have really no idea what I'm doing. I'm just trying to educate myself as much as I can about how to even use my camera. But I'm just having fun and learning as much as I can. Last week, my son and I were [00:01:00] in New York City for ministry. And we had some extra free time and we were able to spend, a, a couple of days being a shameless tourists, or at least I was a shameless tourist. Uh, I was that I was that person that would walk down the street with their camera on their neck and just like stop with a stupid grin on their face. Go click. And that, that was me, the whole time we were in the city.
[00:01:21] And one of the thing that I found was interesting about photography, and about my time there is that you can use different types of lenses or different sorts of approaches to your photography and that can yield different sorts of results. So depending on what type of lens you use, you can get a different shot or perspective, right? So you have a, th this is actually going somewhere, not just diatribe about photography. So trust me, this is going somewhere. So if you use a wider angle lens, this allows you to capture more of the scene. Because it's [00:02:00] wider. Right. And if you use more of a telephoto lens, it zooms you in closer into the, your subject of what you're trying to take a picture of. So depending on what kind of photo or look you want, you can use a different lens or different focal length to achieve that. If you want to be tighter in on something, use a telephoto lens. If you want wider, wide angle lens, right?
[00:02:23] For some of the pictures I wanted, I wanted to get a really close, tight, like, that's all I want to look at is just this one thing. So I took this picture of, I think it's St Patrick's cathedral and just, just the door. It had these beautiful flowers and all different colors. Uh, with the, with a white, uh, stone, uh, of the, of the church is just really beautiful. So I like that's it. I didn't want anything else. I just wanted to focus on that particular aspect. So I, you know, I set it up, set my shot. That's how I want it. And then I had another picture uh, of me and my son, when we are on the top of the [00:03:00] Empire State Building. I didn't want to just get a picture of him. That would've been great, but what I really want to do is I wanted to get him with the city behind him, that way it provides greater context. I mean, this is not just a picture of my son. This is a picture of my son in New York City on top of the Empire State Building. So I backed up a bit and wanting to include more of the scene to give the picture and him context in it.
[00:03:27] Different Focal Lengths While Reading Scripture
[00:03:27] JC Schroeder: And the same thing, the same approach can be used when we're reading Scripture and this can be extremely useful for us as well. You can see different angles of the message that Scripture has based on where we place more of our attention or to carry over the metaphor, see, this is where it's all paying off, which, which lens you, you, so you can focus really deeply in like a telephoto lens. You can focus just on one or two verses and really understand all of the [00:04:00] facets and nuances to those lines. Or on the flip side, you can look more broadly at several chapters or the book as a whole. This is like that wide angle picture like of my son on the Empire State Building. You are, you're capturing the subject with more context. So you're not just looking at one verse one line, one story. You're looking at much broader to see how it all fits together.
[00:04:24] Now both of these approaches, of focusing in and focusing out, are extremely helpful in our reading of Scripture. And we want to employ both aspects not just one or the other. So if we only focus in, just on one verse or a couple of lines, the problem is we risk isolating that verse out of its context and we can give it a meaning that was never intended by God or the original author. We really, when we do this, we lack the overall [00:05:00] dimension of the text, whether it's a story, a letter or something else, if we only focus in on it, we risk destroying the true meaning of that passage.
[00:05:10] Now the opposite is true too. If we only focus out and we're only looking at the big picture, we risk really not understanding a verse well. We were only getting it generally without the particular. So we got the big picture, but we don't really understand how that verse, what that verse means or how that verse fits in with everything else. So it's both sides. If you prioritize only one of them they can have their disadvantages to our reading of Scripture.
[00:05:43] And sometimes we even have Bible studies where it takes years to get through the Letter to the Romans. This is great to spend that much time in a, in a fantastic text like that, but maybe the whole is lost in looking at the individual parts. So you're just getting into so much [00:06:00] detail that you are really missing out what's going on all of this together as a letter that was meant to be read in one sitting. Or on the flip side, if you have just one pass through on the book of Romans or you only have one sermon on the book of Romans, you don't really have enough time to dive into those individual issues to see the turn of a phrase or something like that. So you really need that focus in and that focus out. Both are important. I would even say critical to our reading of Scripture.
[00:06:36] An Illustration from Mark 9:14-29
[00:06:36] JC Schroeder: Now I want to illustrate this just a little bit by looking at a particular passage from the Gospel of Mark, Mark 9:14-29. Here, I want to illustrate both features of this focusing in, and focusing out. And I'd really do love this story. This is a fantastic story of the heart of Jesus and his power and his [00:07:00] compassion that he has in his ministry.
[00:07:03] Now, if you're not familiar with this passage, in the story, a father with a son who is demon possessed comes to Jesus in order for his son to be healed. That's the premise of the story. But the story begins where Mark begins to tell the story is in verse 14 when he says, and when they that's Jesus and Peter, James and John, came to the disciples, the other, nine, they saw a great crowd among them. And the scribes arguing with them, the other disciples. And Jesus sees this argument going on and he asked what's going on. What's the argument about? And this is where the father interjects and says my son, I brought him here. He's suffering from this demon possession. I brought him to be healed, but your disciples were not able.
[00:07:52] Now, if we were to focus in just on these first couple of verses, I think we can glean a whole lot from [00:08:00] what is being implicitly told in this story here. So we already have a couple of key points. The disciples are arguing with the scribes. And this man, his son has been suffering for a long time. We'll learn later in the story from childhood, from this demon possession. And he brought his son to be healed. The disciples can't do it. So, if we focus in and look at some of the details, perhaps something we use kind of are, uh, read between the lines, use our imagination. We look at those details carefully. It seems as if this man has traveled a long way. We don't know how far, but it's probably not just in the next town over. He's probably traveled some ways, probably heard of Jesus, his ability to heal, to heal people with demon possession. He, he and his family and his son have suffered, uh, in taking care of their son with no health care coverage, with no uh, sort of a remedy for this, this demon frequently [00:09:00] will try to kill his son. And just think about how awful that would be for his son and for this man and for his family.
[00:09:07] They hear of Jesus and he goes and takes his son all the way to this point. They finally get to where Jesus is or Jesus is supposed to be. And Jesus is not there. And so he says maybe you disciples, you're his followers. Can you heal my son? And then maybe Andrew steps forward. Is this alright? I cast you out. All right, Thomas uh, you give it a try. But they're not able to do it. None of the disciples are able to cast out this demon. And perhaps, and we're using a little bit of imagination, but we're also looking at the details, this is driven by the text. Perhaps the scribes are seeing this and begin to mock a bit. What's a matter? You're not good enough disciple? Can't cast out any demons today? Where's your master now? Come on. I thought you were a good disciple. [00:10:00] And so then this argument begins to happen and the issue of the disciples of blessing and bringing this healing to Israel, and helping this father and his son, they are pushed to the side.
[00:10:15] And so now Jesus, he sees this. And is wondering what's the argument and the father interjects again. So we can kind of get this a better feel for the passage. Now, the next thing that happens in the story is Jesus says, oh, faithless generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him to me. And we might think that Jesus' response here is one of, like deriding this father of like, don't you have enough faith, but I think he's pointing that back to the disciples. In that they are the ones who are faithless. They are the ones who are not trusting in God instead this father is the one who is looking to Jesus. And as we see [00:11:00] that in the next scene in the next couple of lines, it talks about, how the this, boy comes forward. The demon convulses him. Jesus says, how long has this been happening? I absolutely loved that line. Because he knows he's going to heal this, this little boy. But he inquires to know of how long he and this family has been suffering. I just loved that just picture of his compassion.
[00:11:25] And then the father says, if there's anything you can do, please have compassion on us. And Jesus says, if you can, all things are possible for one who believes. And then I love this line by the father, he says, I believe help my unbelief. And Jesus then heals this boy. But I love that line. I believe, help my unbelief. So you have this like tension, this contrast between the disciples' lack of faith and the doubts in this father's heart, the frustration, [00:12:00] the desperation, but the belief that he believes in Jesus, but he knows of the inadequacies of his heart. He knows of his doubts and his worries, but he still confesses his belief in Jesus and rest in him to heal his son.
[00:12:17] So, there's some interesting things there that we can highlight, that we can observe, that come to the front for us as we are reading closely and focusing in. Now, if we focus out a bit, we can get further insights into this particular story as well. The first one is the scene that's directly in front of, prior to this particular story.
[00:12:42] And that is when Jesus is transfigured before his disciples, Peter, James and John on this mountain. They see Elijah. They see Moses. And it's just a wonderful spiritual encounter that they have in seeing Jesus in part of his visible glory.[00:13:00] And as they are coming down the mountain, as they were turned to the other disciples, that's when the scene with the father and the boy happened. So it's directly after that scene where Jesus has shown his kingly, spiritual glory. And then, the disciples' lack of faith in him is contrasted.
[00:13:21] Further, Jesus has begun to talk about how he's going to Jerusalem to suffer, to die, and be raised from the dead. So those themes and ideas of Christ's suffering and Christ's glory are hanging over this scene with the disciples. He's seeking to dis to teach his disciples of who he is and what he is going to be doing, and what is going to happen to him. But his disciples, aren't getting it. And if we look a little bit farther out, into the Gospel of Mark, we see of how, Mark describes and portrays [00:14:00] the disciples is almost always negative. There's a couple of passages throughout the Gospel of Mark, where the disciples are portrayed positively. They have good qualities. They follow Jesus, Peter confesses Jesus in Mark 8. But like, that's it, most of the time that Mark tells us about the disciples, they're doing something kind of dumb. They're putting their foot in their mouth.
[00:14:22] And what Mark does throughout his Gospel, this is where the focus out is so helpful, is that he's portraying them negatively as the negative examples of discipleship. Here's what not to do as a disciple. And he plays that off throughout the story of Jesus in Mark with other minor characters that seem to pop in and out of the story like this man and his son. And what Mark does is he doesn't want us to look at the disciples as the models of discipleship. These are the really good followers of Jesus. He [00:15:00] highlights, they, they messed up a lot and we have a lot to learn from their failures. But then he uses these minor characters as here's what we should look at. Here's what true faith really looks like. So in this particular passage in Mark 9, with the story of the father and the son, Mark wants us to see the disciples, their lack of faith, and the reality of the faith of the father, even in the midst of doubts, even in the midst of desperation, he still has faith. And that's the model that he wants for us to have as well. Not to be like the faithless disciples, but to be like this father.
[00:15:41] A Challenge
[00:15:41] JC Schroeder: So I really love this passage. I'm sorry, that was a little long winded. But hopefully that illustrates to you, and from my, my weird mind of how we can have the benefits of zooming in focusing in on a passage and focusing out. And how all of those features [00:16:00] can help give us a rich understanding of what this passage is trying to communicate to us.
[00:16:06] Now it may be helpful for us to think about, if you favor one or the other in your reading of Scripture. Like, do you, do you only focus in or do you only focus out? It's important for us to think about how we actually read Scripture? Are we just really nitpicky and stay in one verse? That's that's fantastic. That's great. But not to the exclusion of focusing out. And then I also just want to challenge you, is to try something new. Try the one you don't normally do. So if you typically only focus out, meditate just on one verse. Fixate your mind on that one passage. And if you're a person that only focuses in, well, sit down and read the whole Gospel of Mark or whatever book you're reading in one sitting or in two sittings. Spend some time focusing on that focus out feature. So you need both focus [00:17:00] in, focus out. And both can richly help our reading of Scripture.
[00:17:04] So that's all the time that we have for today. Thank you so much for listening. Remember, you can find more episodes and can sign up to have episodes emailed directly to you at bitesizeseminary.com. You can also connect with me on Facebook and Twitter. All of the links are in the show notes or on my website. And thank you so much. And I'll see you next time.