All Models are Wrong; Some are Helpful

some thoughts on the limitations of interpretation

Over the past week, I’ve been watching our weatherman James Spann cover the winter storms that have swept across the Southeast U. S. During his broadcasts, he reminds his audience of the fallibility of the weather models meteorologists use: “All models are wrong; some are helpful.”

Some weather models are helpful in predicting weather patterns, but there is no true way to know what the weather will be like until it happens.

I think this same principle holds true in searching for a system of interpretation. At the end of the day, despite our best efforts, there will always be more exact, more thorough, deeper ways to talk about the Infinite God who is Love.

The peace will always pass understanding, the joy will always be unspeakable, and the love will always be beyond knowledge. And so we have the privilege of having conversations on these topics our whole lives without exhausting their depths.

Take the study of the end times, eschatology, for instance. While there must be some eschatological framework that “gets it right,” if we were part of the lucky few who happen upon it, we still wouldn’t exhaust its depths. Our model would still be “wrong” even though it would be helpful. We just can’t exhaust truth.

This explains why many teachers, such as Bradley Jersak, Brian Zahnd, Baxter Kruger, and others, argue that the best principle of interpretation isn’t a system but a person: Jesus.

Regardless of how long you’ve known your spouse, it will always be the case that they will be a person of infinite depth. You can never fully know them, and it is a joy to be in a relationship in which both parties are continuously opened to being surprised.

Thus, when it comes to our relationship with Jesus, he can’t be limited to a model or a framework or a textbook on hermeneutics. He is alive. And though he is the same yesterday, today, and forever, he is constantly surprising us and calling us into a deeper, more intentional life in the Spirit. We must be opened to being surprised.

In fact, Jesus’s followers warn us to not codify his teachings. To engrave his words upon stones would be to kill them.

…who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. But if the ministry of death, in letters engraved on stones, came with glory, so that the sons of Israel could not look intently at the face of Moses because of the glory of his face, fading as it was, how will the ministry of the Spirit fail to be even more with glory? 2 Corinthians 3:6–8

In one of my classes for this semester, we read a fictional story about a church who took Jesus’s command to go the extra mile literally. Anytime someone asked a member of that community to go a mile, they would always go two. Eventually, Jesus visits the church, and they brag about how faithfully they have stuck to his teaching. Jesus responds, “Why didn’t you go three?”

I grew up in a religious tradition that emphasized rules and order: worship in this specific way, respond to the gospel like this, and observe these commands if you want to be a real Christian. They may have said, “All models are wrong (except for ours); none are helpful (except for ours).”

In defending this system, well-meaning teachers (including myself) would point to the Scriptures. “Just look at Noah! He was told to use a specific wood. Nadab and Abihu died for offering strange fire. Uzzah touched the ark.”

Jesus said, “You have heard it has been said, but I say unto you…” After Moses and Elijah vanished on the Mount of Transfiguration, God said, “This is my beloved Son; listen to him.” Jeremiah and the writer of Hebrews said, “This will not be a covenant like the one I gave them when they came out o Egypt.” Paul said, “The letter kills…the letters engraved on stone are a ministry of death…” Paul said, “For you are not under Law but under grace.”

Yet people persist in arguing for systems and patterns and models and theological structures that must be adhered to if one wishes to be part of the faithful.

And what is the fruit of these things? Have they been helpful?

Well, if division among Christians, families split apart over tertiary issues, and feelings of anxiety, shame, and religious trauma are the goal of Christ, then they have been helpful indeed.

But Jesus also said, “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light” (Matthew 11:28–30 ).

The life offered by fundamentalism, legalism, and traditionalism is ridden with far too much fear, anxiety, and divisiveness to be the easy, light, gentle, humble, and restful way of Jesus.

All models are wrong; some are helpful. Some.

The model we have is not a computer-generated, flaky, possibly wrong model. Instead, we have the life of God as perfectly demonstrated by Jesus. He is the exact image of the Father. If we want to know what God is like, we need only look at the Son.

And the Father’s Son lets his disciples pick grain on the Sabbath and eat without being ceremonially cleansed, he sits at the table with sinners and sends “questionable” women on mission trips, and he loves his enemies.

We know from how he dealt with Peter’s denial of him that Jesus isn’t like the dad who is screaming from the stands at his son’s every mistake on the ball field. He’s like the dad who cheers just as loud during the losses as the wins. With Jesus, we don’t have the freedom to do whatever we want, but we do have the freedom to get back up when we fall knowing that we are perfectly Loved and are in excellent hands. The son whose dad is yelling at him isn’t allowed to strikeout; the son whose dad is cheering him on is allowed to walk back to the dugout with his head held high and look forward to trying again.

Despite what models you were raised with or are clutching tightly today, you are in good hands because Jesus teaches us that God is Love.