Language is the making up of words that plays with the mind.
This is about the most philosophical statement that I could make or that I
could handle. There are different words for the same thing / object / action
and each having different meaning. In my limited knowledge about language, the
ancient languages like Greek, Hebrew, Chinese have marvelous and luxurious
WORDS to describe and elaborate things better. While the newer languages have a
lot of limitation and mostly translated (simplified) into one word.
Recently, I learnt in Rhema Course about the word
"See" which is rather ordinary. If we ever attended Easter Services,
we would have read the following verses many times :-
John 20 King James Version (KJV)
The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when
it was yet dark, unto the sepulchre, and seeth the stone taken away from the
sepulchre. Then she runneth, and cometh to Simon Peter, and to the other
disciple, whom Jesus loved, and saith unto them, They have taken away the Lord
out of the sepulchre, and we know not where they have laid him.
Peter therefore went forth, and that other disciple, and
came to the sepulchre. So they ran both together: and the other disciple did
outrun Peter, and came first to the sepulchre. And he stooping down, and
looking in, saw the linen clothes lying; yet went he not in. Then cometh Simon
Peter following him, and went into the sepulchre, and seeth the linen clothes
lie, And the napkin, that was about his head, not lying with the linen clothes,
but wrapped together in a place by itself. Then went in also that other
disciple, which came first to the sepulchre, and he saw, and believed. For as
yet they knew not the scripture, that he must rise again from the dead. Then
the disciples went away again unto their own home.
John 20 Resurrection! (The Message)
1-2 Early in the morning on the first day of the week, while
it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone was
moved away from the entrance. She ran at once to Simon Peter and the other
disciple, the one Jesus loved, breathlessly panting, “They took the Master from
the tomb. We don’t know where they’ve put him.”
3-10 Peter and the other disciple left immediately for the
tomb. They ran, neck and neck. The other disciple got to the tomb first,
outrunning Peter. Stooping to look in, he saw the pieces of linen cloth lying
there, but he didn’t go in. Simon Peter arrived after him, entered the tomb,
observed the linen cloths lying there, and the kerchief used to cover his head
not lying with the linen cloths but separate, neatly folded by itself. Then the
other disciple, the one who had gotten there first, went into the tomb, took
one look at the evidence, and believed. No one yet knew from the Scripture that
he had to rise from the dead. The disciples then went back home.
In this ten verses, we could read that John and Peter went
and saw something at the empty tomb. It was translated in KJV as "Saw,
Seeth, Saw" and in Message as "Saw, Observed, Look". They all
mean they have seen whatever was remain in the tomb. But if we read these passage
with the original Greek word inserted back in, we get something.
John 20:3-8 (NIV UK Version)
3 So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. 4
Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb
first.5 He bent over and looked (blepei, he is looking, he is observing) in at
the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. 6 Then Simon Peter came
along behind him and went straight into the tomb. He saw (theOrei, he is
beholding) the strips of linen lying there, 7 as well as the cloth that had
been wrapped round Jesus’ head. The cloth was still lying in its place,
separate from the linen. 8 Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb
first, also went inside. He saw (eiden, he perceived) and believed.
So what are the difference between Blepei, Theorei and Eiden
?
Blepei - Just seeing with two eyes, take a look.
Theorei - Logically seeing and reasoning, looking at facts
more than truths.
Eiden - Spiritually enlightened kind of seeing with
understanding.
In my own words, this is how the incident happened :-
So, John took a quick look from outside the tomb, he saw its
empty. Peter went in and had a hard look at the physical evidence, thinking
hard and reasoning with his mind "how can this logically be? If stolen,
why they did not take the linen? Where is the body?" Then John went in and
looked with spiritual eyes and he got enlightened and understood it and
believed.
The speaker, Rev Stella Lim, explained that a lot of people
come into the church to "Blepei" (take a look see) at the church,
what is happening. Few would come in and Theorei (looking for facts and
evidence, examined to see if we are real) the church activities and events. But we
really need to come into church and "eiden" (look and seek for the
truths, look with spiritual insights) at what God is doing and what are the
truths.
Likewise, as Christians who grow in the Lord, when we serve
in ministry :-
1) Do we just simply "blepei" see the work as just
work like chores (routinely go in week after week doing the same old thing). By
seeing with two eyes, humanly speaking most ministry works are dull and boring.
There is no joy in serving, probably boredom.
2) Do we "theorei" reason the work as factual
(Does this make economical sense? What is the value of this ministry?). In the
long run, ministry is tiring and we will start to compare and complain. What
about the 80% of the members who do no contribute ? Why am I serving the other
80% ? We may fall out of ministry because of the human reasoning and human
values we give to our work.
3) Do we "eiden" spiritually enlightened with eyes
of Jesus (we see the eternal value of the work and who Jesus came to die for).
When we see what Jesus truly sees and operates as His Spirit moves us, not only
our ministry is blessed, we will have joy in serving in the most mundane tasks
of all. Even when setbacks or negativism happens, it will not change our
perspective of "eiden" for we know whom we serve and why we serve,
purely out of our love to our Master and Lord.
So, in English, we can say, we come and see, saw and have
seen the glory of God but really do we "blepei, theorei or eiden" the full glory of God and what God is really doing ?
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