Could Jesus Read?

CRWRC Newsroom | December 8, 2009

Could Jesus read? This may seem like a strange question. Most people from Western countries are able to read and write, and take it for granted. But for nearly a billion people around the world, that isn’t the case.

Last summer, when I was visiting the Baptiste area of Haiti, I asked the question to several groups of adults who were graduating from a literacy class that CRWRC supports. To be honest I had never thought about it either. A few days earlier during my devotional time I read in Luke 4 how Jesus was rejected at Nazareth. In the synagogue he took the scroll of the prophet Isaiah and read: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me…” At that moment I realized that Jesus could read.

When I asked the question to the literacy class, different participants tried to answer me. One lady said no without thinking. Her feeling was that Jesus lived so long ago, that surely people didn’t read in those days.

A pastor answered “of course Jesus could read because he was God; he didn’t even have to study it”. I wasn’t sure about that, but didn’t want to start a theological discussion.

One young man stood up and said: “sure Jesus could write; when they brought the adulterous woman to him, he started to write in the sand.” Everybody started to nod, remembering the story. And he added: “if He could write, he could read too.”

After we finished talking about Jesus, I encouraged the participants to continue to use their new skills of reading and writing. “Use it or loose it” doesn’t sound as good in Creole as in English, but they understood the principle. CRWRC has a tradition of giving graduates a Bible as a present. This works in two ways: people can read now and learn from the Word of God, and they can continue to read it daily so that they don’t lose their new skills.

This past year, our youngest son Ardjan graduated from high school. He is going to study aeronautical engineering in the Netherlands. As he got ready to move, I realized that many things I used to take for granted are in fact incredible privileges.

In the context of Haiti, where roughly half of the adults are illiterate, people are proud that they can read and write. It helps to be able to read directions, whether it is a sign in the street or the small print on the bottle with medicine. It has an amazing effect on people’s self esteem when they can write their name under an official document instead of just writing a big X. It also improves people’s income earning potential when they have the skills to read and write.  Better skills means better jobs, and better hope for the future.

Development in the community starts with transforming people.  Thank you for supporting CRWRC in this important work.

To donate a Bible for a literacy graduate in Haiti, click here: US | Canada

- by Ad DeBlaeij, CRWRC-Haiti