09252021 – Mark9.38-50
HYPERBOLE is NOT a word that is easily tossed around every day.
Most of us have heard of Hyperbole, but the day that it was explained in ninth grade English Class, we were too busy passing notes, or sending a text, or drawing doodles in our notebooks or on our hands or arms or were playing with our hair.
Hyperbole is actually a “figure of speech.”
Yawn! Stretch! Who cares, right?
Yeah, we slept or “day-dreamed our way” through that part of the class, too!
Blah, blah, blah…it was probably a student-teacher! (Blame them!)
Hyperbole is to EXAGGERATE or to AMPLIFY something FOR EFFECT.
For effect…
You are making a point.
You are making something BIGGER THAN LIFE – on purpose. Bigger than it really TRULY IS…or WAS.
You are for all intents and purposes EXAGGERATING.
NOT LYING, mind you, but rather making a point.
“Aramaic hyperbole or exaggeration” is a real BIBLICAL thing. IT IS “A THING” a real thing!
I tell the confirmands, “ALL the people of Jerusalem, and ALL the people of Judea went out to see John the Baptizer” – is a case of Biblical exaggeration.
No one was minding their shop. No one was working. No one was in the outhouse. No one was feeding the animals. No one was giving birth. No one was sick or dying…they ALL WENT OUT TO SEE John the Baptizer.
That is hyperbole.
That is exaggeration. ARAMAIC HYPERBOLE!
It is making the point that all kinds of people went out to see John. BUT CERTAINLY not EVERYONE, not ALL THE PEOPLE. And most people understood that…
Now, when we talk about ARAMAIC EXAGGERATION or HYPERBOLE, we are talking a “whole different animal.”
You see the point is – “THEY” (meaning Jesus’ counterparts) understood ALL THIS.
THEY KNEW it was “A CULTURAL THING.” It was a part of WHO THEY ARE. You were NOT fabricating…you were making “a specific point FOR a desired effect or result.”
It WAS permissible! It was acceptable! It happened all the time.
You were simply overstating, overemphasizing and you were doing a little sensationalizing. Kind of like the magazines as you check out your groceries…Exaggerated…
It was an over dramatization. You were making things “bigger than life” – intentionally SO.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with heightening, escalating, increasing, the intensity of an event. It gets your point across.
WOW, this really happened. YIKES, this must have been really important. This had to be SO LIT, SO EPIC, I should have been there. Dang, and I missed it.
And that is, EXACTLT what we have before us today. Aramaic Hyperbole or exaggeration.
No big deal, really.
It is not to be taken LITERALLY. It is more like a parable. It is a TEACHING.
Jesus is talking about PREVENTION not PUNISHMENT.
Jesus was schooled in “THE DEUTERONOMIC SCHOOL OF LIFE.” If you are good, God will bless you. If you are bad, (just like Karma,) God is going to get you.
So, AVOID the bad. CLING to the good. Do what you have to do – but do not get caught in the position where you have to SIN. Avoid the bad stuff. Avoid getting caught up in stuff that leads you away from God.
HANG with GOD and HE WILL HANG WITH YOU! It is that simple.
If you do sin, cut off those extremities that caused you to sin. No big deal. God loves you, and always has…and you are MORE THAN WELCOME in his heavenly kingdom…
Its far better than the alternative!
This HYPERBOLE. THIS is EXAGGERATION at its finest.
People knew that everybody sins and falls short of the glory of God, but you DO NOT maim yourself for life…that would be stupid!
You do not purposefully cut off your extremities…why that…would be ludicrous. That would be stupid. That would be MORE THAN SILLY.
The point is – avoid evil at all costs. Avoid evil like the plague. Run in the opposite direction.
God EXPECTS BETTER from you! He expects good “to flow out of you.” He loves you. DO NOT LOSE THE SPIRIT THAT IS WITHIN YOU.
And above all be at peace, with yourself and with all others.
Amen