DO YOU UNDERSTAND?

Monday: October 5, 2020

Luke 10:26 He said to him, “What is written in the law? How do you understand it?”

The script for movies and plays usually look like a manual, with a combination of dialogues and instruction. To any non-theatre person therefore, reading such a document will be exhausting and uninteresting because they will make little sense. It may appear inconsistent and all over the place. But for an actor or actress who is able to interpret this appropriately, the script becomes more than a confusing document but a story that can be told for an audience.

Thus, there are many many words that make no sense unless one is successful in interpreting them to gain understanding. Without the latter, the reading of words would generally have no a significant impact and this includes the word of God, the scriptures. In asking the scribe the question He did, Jesus sought to take a step beyond just reading ‘how do you understand what you have read?’

The encounter between Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch is identical to the context of today’s Gospel because while the eunuch read the book of Isaiah, Philip asked “do you understand what you are reading? ‘To this he responded, No, unless someone interprets it to me. (Acts 8:30-31). It was the understanding which followed this that led to his desire to be baptised.

Beloved, without understanding, words have little value- instruction, encouragement, even warnings; will fall on deaf ears and make no impact if they are not understood’. It’s therefore not just about the what you read, do you understand it?

#sly