Interpretation is All!

How do we learn anything? What does it mean to learn? In Latin, and subsequently in English, a learner is a disciple, one who follows a teaching in the sense of coming to know or discern meaning. It derives from discere, to learn. In Greek, a learner is mathetes, derived from mathein, to learn. It is from this that we get mathematics which is really a certain process or form of learning. In schools and universities we talk about different disciplines meaning different areas of learning. This suggests that discipline in its moral and social sense about behaviour really concerns habits of mind. In that sense discipline is more than a matter of external authority and regulatory compliance and more about self-control and responsibility. That is something worth learning for all of us!

The story of the encounter between two disciples and Jesus on the Road to Emmaus is a wonderful illustration about how we come to learn or to know certain ideas. In this case, the story belongs to the understanding of the Resurrection. The story shows how the learning happens through their engagement with Jesus. They are in perplexity and confusion about the events of the Passion and its aftermath. They are on the road to Emmaus, a little village about seven miles away from Jerusalem. While “they communed together and reasoned,” Jesus comes alongside them, unrecognized by them. That is part of their confusion. Thinking he was dead, they aren’t looking for him.

He enters into conversation with them and draws out of them their perplexity and confusion. They recount to him what had happened concerning Jesus in terms of his crucifixion and burial, the report from certain women about the empty tomb, about the vision of angels, and, subsequently, the confirmation of the fact of the empty tomb by some of the disciples. In other words, they acknowledge what they don’t understand and what perplexes them and confuses them. It is all contrary to what they expected.

It is only at that point of knowing our not-knowing that learning can begin. But how? In what way? The Chapel reading from Luke this week gives us the first form of learning in this story. Jesus names their unknowing: “O foolish ones and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken.” What the prophets have spoken is what is written in the scriptures. “And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.” What things? The things concerning the suffering and the glory of Christ.

Interpretation seeks an understanding, a way of making sense of perplexing and confusing events and ideas. Jesus provides a way of understanding the events of the Passion and Resurrection, giving the disciples a way to grasp their meaning. He does so by way of the Word written, the scriptures, which in this case means the Hebrew Scriptures. In the Christian understanding, Christ is the Logos, the Word, and Son of the Father. Here he interprets from the scriptures the things concerning himself about human redemption. The Word interprets the words about the Word. Wonderful.

Two things stand out here in terms of learning. It has very much to do, first, with our encounter with one another and, secondly, in wrestling with ideas and concepts that are before us but not always immediately grasped and understood. We can’t begin to learn without some sense of our unknowing. Perplexity and confusion are part of the process by which we come to understand better what was not fully grasped before. That, it seems to me, is what happens and is looked for in education in terms of teaching and learning. Jesus draws near to the disciples – literally  ‘learners’ – and draws out of them their perplexity and confusion; only then does he interpret and open out to them an understanding of what had perplexed and confused them.

Our learning comes, in part, through our interactions with one another in conversation and dialogue, and in part, through the encounter with ideas and concepts that are taught and explained. Both aspects of learning illustrated here connect to the educational experience that belongs to academic life. It is at once poignant and significant that what is written and read is not always immediately understood and grasped. It has to be interpreted and explained but that can only happen if our minds are open and willing to grasp what is being explained. That is what being a learner is all about.

Next week we will see the rest of the story and thus ‘learn’ the reaction of the disciples to the interpretation of the scriptures but, even more, a second way of learning will be shown to them and to us. The whole story illustrates some of the ways in which ideas come to birth in us.