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Christian culture teaches Jesus followers to have painfully misguided expectations when they engage the biblical text. Christians seem to believe the Bible is written to all people and not for all people. They think it’s exhaustive in answering all of our important questions. They presume everything they read is supposed to be prescriptive instead of largely descriptive. They imagine Scripture is a compendium of prooftexts that collectively serve as an encyclopedia of culturally transcendent answers. They don’t feel it’s important to work hard at biblical interpretation.
This problem is especially severe when it comes to complicated topics like marriage and sex. Instead of allowing ourselves to empathetically enter this sweeping story of redemption, we try to stand outside the text from our own cultural–historical vantage point and ask, “What does the Bible say about premarital sex?” and “Is masturbation wrong?” We’re fixated on whether anal sex is sinful and what Scripture says about having sex with the lights on. Ugh. You can’t do that. It doesn’t work. If you want to understand Narnia, you have to enter it through the wardrobe.
The biblical expectations set by Christian culture need to be discerningly rebooted. The single most important change we need to make clear is this: the Bible is not the fourth member of the Trinity. The Word (Logos) that we worship is Jesus, not Scripture. The Bible points us to Jesus, not the other way around. Jesus followers need to practice a Christocentric hermeneutic of consciously and carefully reading the story through the lens of Christ’s character. If we’re doing it right, Scripture will always point us in the direction of love, grace, truth, wisdom, and restoration.
Some might be thinking, ‘Bullshit. How can a girl’s mandatory marriage to her rapist point us to anything good?!?’ Valid objection. First of all, sit with that. Let yourself feel it. I believe that disgust and outrage is a key part of how the indwelling Spirit holistically works through the text. Also, use the brain God gave you to reason. We’re talking about a brutal Ancient Near Eastern world with no social safety net. There’s no denying that “solution” is jacked up, but in that setting? It was probably better than the alternative. Like in Argo, this evil may’ve been their best bad idea.
The original beatniks felt a lot of outrage. They thought society sucked and objected to what they saw as unhealthy, repressive views about sex. I’m by no means blessing or encouraging all the Beat Generation thought, felt, believed, said, and did in the sexual realm. Yes, I have my reservations. I do resonate with most of their critiques, though. After years of intensive research about marriage and sex in Scripture, I often want to tell Christian culture, “Almost none of your stuff comes from the Bible and you’ve completely forgotten Jesus. Go home. You’re drunk.”
