Why did Jesus ask, “Have you never read?” (See, for example, Matthew 12:3; 5; 19:4; 21:16, 42; 22:31.)

When He asked that question, typically He was speaking to someone raised in the Jewish community. Sometimes He was even addressing a Jewish leader.

Every week, the Scriptures were opened and taught in the synagogues. Apparently, in Jesus’ day, basic “schooling” required children to learn large portions of the Old Testament by heart. Familiarity with Scripture was not uncommon, even if the people didn’t have their own copies of the “Gideon’s Old Testament” by their bedside.

So, why would Jesus ask those who were familiar with the Word of God whether they had read? Is He putting them down? Making fun of them? Or is He genuinely asking an important question?

In asking this kind of question, I do not think He is being dismissive. He is actually inviting.

It is so easy to be a casual reader of Scripture. Looking at the words on the page–perhaps even reading them out loud–it’s still possible to fail to engage with what is right there in front of us. Sometimes that happens because we are not really interested in what God has recorded for us. Sometimes we skim a passage because we assume our familiarity with that particular portion of Scripture means we don’t really have to read attentively. Sometimes we are casual in our reading because we assume we already have all the pieces we need to understand life with God.

If we open the Scriptures with our conclusions about what we will find already firmly in mind, we will typically only find what we already know. We will default to what is known as “confirmation bias”—reading every passage only to confirm what we have already settled on. And we will miss the opportunity to grow through our reading.

And that is why Jesus’ question should come to us again and again: Have you read? Have you really paid attention to what you saw in the Scriptures?