Friday, December 11, 2015

Use of Language Before the Resurrection of Jesus

                                                           Jesus started his public ministry with the proclamation : "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Matthew, 3:17). This is identical to the call of his fore-runner John the Baptist to those who gathered to hear him (Matthew, 3:2). Yet, do they have exactly the same meaning? In the case of the Baptist, when people volunteered to reform themselves through external acts of repentance and mercy, John seems to have been satisfied with the result of his preaching. He was justified in that feeling as John was only preparing the way for the one who was coming after him, the expected Messiah. John himself did not know who was the Messiah until Jesus came to be baptized along with others whom John was baptizing in the river Jordan  The message of Jesus using the very same words of John went much deeper demanding an inner conversion of mind and heart out of which other acts of repentance and mercy were welcome. Here we see how meaning flows out of words, even identical ones, out of the language-games arising out of the life-forms of people lived in specific situations. For, the mission of John demanded only preparation of people for the one who was coming and needed only to make people ready to receive the real message that was still coming. The real message was nothing short of complete transformation of our self so that we may see things through the eyes of God Himself in order to be re-created in His image and likeness. For this purpose Jesus himself went before us as model and mediator through his life, death on the cross, resurrection, ascension and sitting at the right hand of God. The proclamation of Jesus, therefore, of the kingdom of heaven drew meaning out of this form of life of Jesus himself that was not available to John when he announced the coming of the kingdom before Jesus entered the scene. This contrast between the use of language by John and Jesus is an indication of the workings of our language as far as the meaning intended to be conveyed is concerned.
                                                             In conversation with Nicodemus, a Pharisee and a member of the Jewish Council, Jesus revealed that he was eminently qualified to teach us the things of heaven. Jesus told him that no one ever went up into heaven except the one who came down from heaven, the Son of Man whose home is in heaven (John, 3:13). That was why Jesus was able to use language analogically in his parables, similes, examples, questions and answers and in general in all his teachings and turn out to be a genuine teacher. It is evident from the predicament of Nicodemus that even such a great and famous teacher like himself could not be a match for Jesus whose knowledge of matters divine did not originate from here on earth. Jesus saw from his encounter with Nicodemus that speaking about things of heaven with people who could not even understand the things of earth, and that too by a famous teacher like Nicodemus, was completely pointless if he were to teach the ordinary people. Thus Jesus chose the ordinary language of the people to express truths of the kingdom of heaven in such a way that people who did not harden their hearts would understand his teachings, while the others would be completely clueless of what he taught. Openness to the Word of God is the only condition for us to understand what is required for eternal salvation as God Himself would lead such a person to his or her ultimate destiny. Those who think that faith in God is a challenge to our capacity to reason and power of choice may calmly consider which of the options is more reasonable: to be open to all possibilities or to restrict oneself to certain pre-determined fields of our interest blocking out all other options in our life!  Both the grace of God and the freedom of men and women are jointly at work in those who open themselves up to higher realities without closing in on themselves and their ways of thinking.
                                                           The parables of Jesus are specimens of ingenious ways of speaking about divine realities in human terms, easily accessible to those who are willing to lend their ears to the message conveyed. There are a few parables meant for understanding by the Apostles and close disciples of Jesus and hidden from the general public as it was the former who needed a deeper understanding of the mysteries of the kingdom in view of heir future mission. The remaining parables were meant for everyone as they were more direct and easy to grasp with minimum chance of misunderstandings. Accordingly Jesus chose language appropriate to each category of people to convey the right message. As we have seen earlier about the requirement of meaningful use of language, Jesus connected even the most profound mysteries of the kingdom with the everyday situations of life of ordinary people. We might say that the references to his resurrection in his public ministry and those of his public ministry after his resurrection were meant by Jesus to ground the supreme truth of his new life in the Spirit on the level of our actual situations in life. By means of the ordinary language and the language-games flowing from it Jesus spoke meaningfully of divine realities incomprehensible to the wise and the learned, but open to the simple and humble of heart!           

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