Christians act like interpreting Scripture isn't hard

Christians oftentimes act like interpreting Scripture isn't hard (which isn't true). I think this is because admitting that's it's hard to interpret would be somehow denying its inspired status. Or, in the instances where they do admit that it is hard, they try to keep it a secret, almost as if it's an embarrassment to the faith.

Jews, however, historically have not only admitted that interpreting Scripture is difficult—they embrace it, seeing it as a feature, not a bug. The best things in life rarely come easy; they come with wrestling and work. Understanding Scripture is the same way.

The fact that understanding Scripture takes work—real work—isn't an embarrassment. We shouldn't undersell the toil it takes to interpret the Bible. When we do, we bait and switch people into thinking that if they just read a chapter a day for the rest of their lives, then God, the world, and their place in it will always make it sense. Shocker: it won't.

But when we submit ourselves to a beautiful library of literary masterpieces that hundreds of generations of people have found truth, beauty, justice, and insight from, we may just have a shot at seeing things we've never seen before and clicking the cosmos forward in new ways.