Heart Language

At about three o’clock, Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” which means “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?”…Then Jesus shouted out again, and he released his spirit. (Matthew 27:46, 50)

I have commented on the cry of abandonment in another lesson, and won’t repeat the gist of that here. For this one, I’m concentrating on Jesus’ use of the Aramaic language. What is known as Jewish Palestinian Aramaic was apparently the primary language spoken by Jesus and his disciples. It was the common language of Judea in the first century.

I heard preacher Alistair Begg remind us that Jesus used his heart language from the cross; that’s what came out at that final moment. It wasn’t Hebrew, or Greek, or Latin, all of which were known, spoken and written within the region at that time—but it was in Aramaic, the language of the day, the language of the people. When he quoted Psalm 22:1 (“My God, my God…”) he didn’t quote from the Hebrew text of the Psalms, but quoted it, or translated it, into Aramaic.

Obviously, in my life work, that speaks volumes! Our family has spent decades as part of a large global team involved in a ministry that is working to provide access for people to the message of God’s Word in the language which they understand the best. The stories or testimonies are countless on the effects of hearing God’s Good News in the heart language.

Part of the motivation for such a work is to answer the question, “What language do people reach for when they need to express themselves so deeply and honestly?” One of my colleagues in Bible translation work in the Philippines said that in a public meeting he once attended there, a speaker mentioned a straightforward, heart language scenario. He stated, “English is the national language of the Philippines, and is widely spoken. But in the context of minority language communities, when a Filipino boy tells a Filipino girl ‘I love you’, he doesn’t do so in English, but in his mother tongue.”

Language is such an integral part of our lives, the fabric of who we are. I would venture that we rarely think during any given day, if we are a native English speaker, “I’m speaking English. I’m hearing English.” No, we just listen and speak. It comes from our heart and head, without thinking what language we are using. When we hear a language different from our first language, then we pay attention. But in normal, everyday life for most people, the heart language is on auto pilot, and active throughout the day.

What language do we reach for in important moments? In Jesus’ darkest moment—and I mean, the most painful of the painful, the summa moment, right at the pinnacle of this most torturous event—he cries out in his mother tongue, his heart language. I never before considered that.

“Father, thank you that Jesus felt free to express himself to you, from deep within, in his heart language, during his worst moment.”

Copyright 2019, Freddy Boswell. From the book, Torn Curtain.