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Opened
Jesus said to his disciples, "These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you – that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled." Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures. Luke 24:44
The sentence – then Jesus opened their minds to understand the scriptures – is a statement of unspeakable value. It expresses on one hand, Christ’s immediate access to the human spirit and, on the other, his absolute power over it.
The verb, “to open” caught my attention. It is an aorist tense (a tense not found in the English language) that means an action that occurred in the past, that influences us today, and will be in the future. Luke wrote this Gospel in Greek. He has an incredible use of the language. Many commentators call Luke “The Physician” because of his use of Greek medical terms that have metaphorical spiritual value. “To open” is one such term.
In English in the 21st century, “open” means many things including a door, a can of soda, willingness to learn, to spread something out, and a sporting event. But Luke’s “open” is very specific. It means how a womb gives birth to a first-born child. Let me repeat that:
***** “Open”
********* as in a womb
************* for the first time.
Giving birth is a life-changing event. There is no tense, really, for it in English. But, in Greek, there is – once one “opens”, life is never the same and it has an impact that extends to this day and beyond. Now, I’m a second born so, on behalf of all those seconds and thirds, etc, we too change the world; it’s just the fact that we were not first. Nevertheless, the apostles, who Jesus “opened” were the first born – the first to understand – in Christ’s Kingdom.
Going further with the opening-womb analogy, the apostles gave consent to have their minds opened. Just like Mary, when the angel Gabriel told her God’s plan was for her first-born to be the Messiah, she said, “Let it be with me according to your word.” And then it was.
The point of this is that giving birth has unspeakable value – past, present and future. And, when Jesus opened the minds of the apostles, they gave birth Christianity – past, present and future. Now that is unspeakable value.
The same Spirit that opened their minds is present and with us today. As such, God sees you as having unspeakable value too.
- Fr. Dave
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