For those of us who call ourselves Christian—who consider ourselves to be followers of Jesus—there’s no question that the center point of history is the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. That’s one of the reasons Easter is such a big deal for us!
So, then… Why have we been spending all this time in the Old Testament this year? Haven’t those stories been rendered irrelevant by the coming of Jesus into the world?
That’s a good question. Here are a few reasons why the Old Testament is important for us:
- The Old Testament is our story. I heard one pastor refer to the Old Testament as our “mom and pop” stories. They are the stories that tell us—the people of God—who we are and where we came from.
- It gives us a bigger picture of God. We don’t always understand why God did the things he did in the Old Testament, but it helps us understand that God has been involved in human history since the beginning. God didn’t start getting involved when Jesus came (though the coming of Jesus was certainly a new and deeper way of God getting involved!).
- It sets the life of Jesus in context. Here’s what I mean by that. If we didn’t have the Old Testament, we would have no way of understanding the meaning of Jesus’ death and resurrection. Jesus’ death was the once and for all sacrifice for humanity’s sin—the perfect atonement. But this would mean nothing to us if we had no understanding of the Old Testament’s system of offerings and sacrifices. We would also have no sense of who Jesus was as the Messiah if we didn’t have the Old Testament to shed light on what it means for the Messiah to come. We need the Old Testament in order to understand Jesus.
So, we’re going to keep looking at the Old Testament over the next two months—four weeks in the book of Ecclesiastes and four weeks in the book of Jonah. I’m excited to keep learning and growing as we continue to “kick it old school” for the next couple of months!
