Seems like a good question for everyone who’d claim to be a disciple. After all, a disciple is a learner or a pupil. Jesus Himself said, ‘If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free‘, John 8:31-32. What do you make of that statement? Is just being ‘in the church’ enough?

As Jesus gave us His word, He asked a lot of questions. As a matter of fact, the gospel writers recorded Him asking questions about 255 times. Questions tend to make one think, and if I have ever been convinced of anything, it is that Jesus wants us to think. He gave us our intelligence and no doubt expects us to use it for God’s glory (and our own good).

There was one of those 255 or so questions that Jesus asked multiple times: ‘Have you not read?’. In Matthew’s gospel, He is recorded to have asked, ‘Have you not read?’, five different times. You see it at 12:3, 12:5, 19:4, 21:42 and 22:31.

The question has a built-in implication. Does His question not imply that what He noted from the holy scriptures was something the hearers should have already known? Is there not a lesson for us in the question itself?

The first time Jesus asked the question was when the Pharisees took issue with Jesus and His disciples because they were plucking and eating grain on the Sabbath, Matthew 12:1-5.

Jesus asked them:
Have you not read (emphasis mine) what David did when he became hungry, he and his companions, how he entered the house of God, and they ate the consecrated bread, which was not lawful for him to ear nor for those with him, but for the priests alone?
Or have you not read (emphasis mine) in the Law, that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple break the Sabbath and are innocent?
Not only did Jesus infer that the Pharisees should have known the texts in question, but also that they should have been able to make application to what He and His disciples were doing.

At that same place, Jesus quoted the prophet Hosea, saying:
But if you had known what this means, ‘I DESIRE COMPASSION, AND NOT A SACRIFICE’, you would not have condemned the innocent. Matthew 12:7
Again, Jesus is emphasizing the inherent responsibility of God’s people to not only be familiar with His word, but to have a working understanding of how to apply it as well.

Does He also expect you and me to do the same?

Each of the other occasions is just like this one. Jesus asks, ‘Have you not read?’ with regard to divorce questions, faith questions and questions about the resurrection and life after death.

On what issue would Jesus ask either you or me, ‘Have you not read?’.

Marty Kessler