My Favorite Word!

I just adore my husband! He tolerates me soooo well.

And God love him, when I came home last week and said - barely able to contain myself, "Did you know that the word δεῖ is used 18 times in Luke's gospel. And the only time anyone other than Jesus (or the risen Christ or a resurrection angel) uses it, he screws it all up!?!"...when I said that, my husband simply nodded and said something like, "you don't say." Now, some of you who are reading this are probably quite impressed that I stuck a Greek word in my blog (I even managed to get the Greek script to work!), and you may even imagine that I may have a fairly deep knowledge of the Greek language - sorry...I don't. Others of you know that I just have a "thing" for this particular word - δεῖ.

 

It is translated variously as: "it is necessary;" "it must happen;" "ought;" "had to."

 

It is an important word.

It is the word used to express divine necessity. For example: In Luke 2:49, the young boy Jesus says, when his parents are looking for him throughout Jerusalem, "Why is it that you were looking for me? Did you not know that I had to be (δεῖ) in my father's house?"

And in Luke 9:22 Jesus says, "The Son of Man must (δεῖ) suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed and be raised up on the third day."

And again in Luke 24:7, "The Son of Man must (δεῖ) be delivered into sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again."

It is a word that signals the activity of God.

 

So, basically, anytime I see "should" or "ought" or "it is necessary" when I'm reading scripture - especially if it's Jesus talking - I get excited and go grab a Greek New Testament and look it up. And sure enough, it was there this week!

 

Check it out...Luke 13:10-17. This woman in the synagogue is bent over and cannot stand up straight. Jesus sees her and (without her asking) heals her.

 

            Oh...And he does it on the sabbath. You know the sabbath...the day you're not supposed to do anything. Jesus is constantly healing on the sabbath.

 

Anyhow, church leader gets all upset, saying - to the crowd - he never actually speaks to Jesus (Big time "triangulation"), "What are you all doing coming for healing on the sabbath? You know better than that! You ought (δεῖ) to come on another day." That's the one time someone other than Jesus speaks the word (and he messes up, because he is trying to use a "good news" word, in a "bad news" way!).

 

Now, I like to imagine Jesus (because I feel confident that he had a "thing" for this word, too!) saying something to the church leader like, "Oh no you di-in't! That is my word, brother! Let me tell you what ought to happen!" Then he says (13:16), "What is necessary (δεῖ), is that this woman be set free from her bondage on the sabbath!"

 

Because this is what the sabbath is about, right?? It is about freeing, and releasing, and liberating, and delivering from captivity. It is never about what we are NOT to do - but always about what we are freed to do. And the holy thing we, who claim to be "sabbath people" are to do...the divinely necessary thing, is to see and notice and address the needs of those who are bent over and enslaved in any way, and then to work to free them from that bondage because that is the basis//the foundation of sabbath (NB Deut. 5:12ff - "Observe the sabbath day and keep it holy. Remember you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD liberated you; therefore the LORD commanded you to keep the sabbath day." That is, "because you were slaves and know what it is to be liberated, you now liberate others...and the sabbath is the day to pay special attention to that.").

 

Now, some of us are bent over and enslaved by an over-developed sense of legalism (e.g. the synagogue/church leader) - and our inability to see beyond our own narrow scope of vision affects everything we do.

Some are bent over by our own insecurity (we don't think we deserve to stand up straight).

Some are bent over and quite unable to stand up straight because we are weighed down by past grudges or an inability to forgive.

Some are bent over by grief.

Some are bent over by fear or hatred.

 

Eighteen years. That's how long this woman, whom Jesus healed, was bound by her condition. I wonder if she was even aware of it anymore. Makes me wonder how many of us are aware that we are bent over and unable to stand up straight. I wonder how many of us would be surprised to have Jesus call us over and heal us of our narrow perspectives and insecurities and fears. I don't know...It's just a thought.

 

One thing I am sure of, though, is that it is necessary (δεῖ) that we be set free from those things (in fact, it is a divine necessity), so that we can stand up straight and see beyond our narrow scope of vision and free others to free others to free others...every single day - and in that way, live sabbath lives every day!