Concerns, Fears, Doubts? Look to the Bible

6 September 2025  Luke 6:1-5

“Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, he and those who were with him…?” Luke 6:3

Once again, Jesus duels with his enemies, the Scribes and Pharisees, using their weapon of choice.

Of course, it was Jesus’ weapon of choice, too: close reading of the Bible.

Jesus had so much in common with the Scribes and Pharisees. All of them littered their speech with, “It is written…,” and “Have you not read where it says…,” and other such references to Holy Scripture. All of them believed that it was not possible to know or please God apart from diligent study and devotional reading of the Bible. Jesus, the Scribes, and the Pharisees all loved the Bible and lived within its thought world their whole lives.

In this case, the topic was the Sabbath, the practice above all others that defined what it meant to be a Jew. The Scribes and Pharisees thought Jesus and His disciples were violating the Sabbath by picking grain and eating it while walking through a grain field. Jesus counterpunched with a text from I Samuel 21:1-6, an exception made to that provision of the Law. It had to do with David, whom many believed to be the True King of Israel, who at the time was being pursued by King Saul, who meant to kill him. The High Priest Ahimelech was on David’s side, and gave David and his men the Bread of the Presence, which according to tradition could only be eaten by priests. Ahimelech clearly thought that this provision of the law was not as important as the Ten Commandments, and since the True King was in trouble, the rule could be bent a little, the same way Jesus was bending it while walking through a grain field. It was galling to the Scribes and Pharisees that Jesus knew scripture even better than they did, and could deploy it with such unruffled ease. It was even more galling to them that Jesus had figured out that they, like Saul, had it in for the true king, and were trying to find a way to destroy Him. Jesus slipped their punches and landed haymaker uppercuts with such blasé power that the Scribes and Pharisees often were made maddeningly speechless.

Jesus had been doing stuff like that since He was a boy. When He was twelve, He would challenge teachers of the Law in the Temple courts, and “they marveled at His understanding and His answers” (Luke 2:47). They weren’t offended or angry – they figured this boy was “one of them.”

That was the way Jesus learned to deal with His enemies.

Many churches and denominations today are disintegrating because theyhave abandoned the thought world of the Bible, and are trying to find ways to endorse “woke” culture in the hope that “woke” culture will come back to church if they do. “Woke” culture has already replied to such churches, again and again: “If you churches are already so much like us, why do we need to come to church?” An excellent point. Wokeness, not the Bible, is the narrative that many think has the answer for the times, and some churches are trying to be fluent in it.

And the culture is going to hell.

Over 60% of American 19-year-olds have never been on a date. Fewer than 20% have ever been in a romantic relationship. As a result, fewer and feweryoung adults are marrying and having children – according to the Congressional Budget Office, the fertility rate is down to 1.62 children/woman, far below the replacement rate of 2.2. Similar demographic challenges are affecting Russia, China, India, all of South America, and Europe. According to the NEA, mental illness and catastrophic loneliness are at their highest rates ever on college campuses.

There is a lot of hell in full view every day.

Is it any wonder, then, that people like Jordan Peterson – a psychologist and not a theologian – are counterpunching with a fresh look at the Bible (see Peterson’s We Who Wrestle with God). Jesus dealt with His enemies by a close reading of that story, and the result was western civilization. Western civilization is now in trouble. Maybe we should have a closer look, too.