The Central Siberian Yupik language has 40 terms for snow. Forty! If you grew up in South Texas, you probably only needed one word for snow, and you may only have needed to use that word once every five years.

Different words mean different things to different people. In English, we don’t have one word that describes finding joy in the suffering of others, so we’ve adopted the word schadenfreude. There are many examples of words we’ve adopted from Spanish, French, Italian, Latin, etc. Once you know the meaning of the word, it makes sense to use the original source language.

On the Sept. 8 program, Rev. Shayne Jonker focuses on the powerful Aramaic word ephphatha. The word can be simply translated as “be opened.”

Even though most of the book of Mark was written in Greek, there are a few instances (Mark 5:41; 7:34; 14:36; and 15:34) where Aramaic is used because of the power it would have had on those who understood the language.

For us, we can look at the word ephphatha and recognize its power because of what happens when Jesus spoke it. When Jesus spoke this word, a deaf man could hear.

“And they brought to him a man who was deaf and had a speech impediment, and they begged him to lay his hand on him. And taking him aside from the crowd privately, he put his fingers into his ears, and after spitting touched his tongue. And looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, ‘Ephphatha,’ that is, ‘Be opened.’ And his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly” (Mark 7:32-35 ESV).

For us, God’s Word has the power to cut through the distractions, the disillusionment, the pain, the guilt, and the trauma that has built up in our lives.

Our prayer is that your ears may “be opened” to hear God’s Word so that it may strengthen you daily in your walk of faith.

Ephphatha.