The Reversal

One does not begin with the idea that we have in the New Testament verbal statements that are obscure into what we must introduce the light of understanding; rather, one listens to the Word hopeful that it will shed light on our own situation which is obscure. The Word of God is not interpreted; it interprets.

Fred B Craddock, As One Without Authority, quoted in Eugene Lowry's The Homiletical Plot, p. 71.