Whether one likes President Kennedy or not, few would deny that he was one of the seminal personalities of postwar history. He was the leader of the most powerful nation in the world and, by implication, of what some would call the Free World, at a time when international tensions had probably never been higher. Those who remember the Cuban Missile Crisis and the abortive Bay of Pigs invasion will know how tense relations were at the time between East and West, to the point that many feared that the outbreak of nuclear war was imminent.
Probably the most poignant symbol of this strained relationship was the Berlin Wall. Located in the heart of East Germany, many kilometers behind the Iron Curtain, post-war Berlin was at the time divided into four military zones, administered respectively by France, the United States, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union. The Russian sector was effectively an integral part of communist East Germany, but the French, British, and American sectors formed a kind of Western oasis in the heart of communist Eastern Europe, and this became jointly known as West Berlin.
Concerned about the number of citizens crossing into West Berlin from East and, in many cases, traveling from there to Western Europe itself, the East German authorities built a massive barbed wire fence around all of West Berlin to prevent any movement of people to that part of the city. Over time, the barbed wire was replaced by concrete, with machine gun posts set up at strategic points. This became known, famous (or infamous), as the Berlin Wall.
Not without reason, the people of West Berlin felt under siege. There had been a blockade that the Western powers had eased by airlifting food and supplies. In June 1963, President Kennedy felt compelled to fly to West Berlin, in person, to demonstrate his, and the Free World’s, solidarity with the beleaguered citizens of West Berlin.
ICH BIN EIN BERLIN
When he was there he gave a famous speech, heard by some 450,000 people, a speech that would go down in history and be talked about for many years. Before the people of West Berlin, the most powerful man in the world shouted the immortal words “Ich Bin Ein Berliner!”
Ironically, in more recent times we have witnessed an interesting parallel in the words “Je Suis Charlie” – “I am Charlie” – an expression of solidarity with the victims of the horrendous massacre at the offices of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo. “Ich Bin Ein Berliner”, literally translated word for word, meant “I am a Berliner”. It was a way of saying “I am with you”, “what you are enduring, we are all enduring”, “I feel your pain”.
That simple catchphrase, “Ich Bin Ein Berliner,” was greeted with scenes of ecstasy and amazement from the crowds that gathered around it. Especially since, despite the fact that “Ich Bin Ein Berliner” translated literally meant “I am a Berliner” (or a citizen of Berlin), what the most powerful man in the world had said, in the local vernacular, was ” I’m a jelly donut!”
The German language, like any other, has its own subtleties, which do not always pass the logical test of translation. “A Berliner”, for people in many parts of Germany, is a donut filled with delicious sweet jam. What a German would have said would be “Ich Bin Berliner” – literally translated “I am a Berliner” or “I am a citizen of Berlin”. In English it doesn’t make perfect sense, but in German it’s the difference between an American president offering leadership to the suffering masses of West Berlin and a man declaring to a frightened world that he is Teutonic pie.
A USEFUL ANECDOTE
To be fair, some authorities dispute this story. In particular, there is some disagreement as to whether the precise words used by Kennedy were correct. But either way it is a useful anecdote that helps to illustrate a point, and that point is that if the President of the United States of America, informed and well advised as he should have been and speaking a European language not dissimilar to his own, he can make such a mistake (one little word) that it so radically changes the meaning of what he has said – how much greater are the pitfalls we encounter when we read the Bible and try to be sure what God is trying to say! all?
When we finish our readings in Church, we sometimes say “the Word of God” to remind us that the Bible is indeed his word. The Scriptures contain essential truths, they are not in themselves a Pick’N’Mix from which we can decide which ones we accept and which ones we don’t. But, despite the Word of God, they are physically written by human hands, based on the understanding of the writer, thousands of years ago, by people whose mother tongue was one most of us are not familiar with, in the context of the times. in which they lived, in a land that is not ours.
A simple example will suffice – the word “fulfill”. Often in the New Testament we hear that Jesus did this or that in order to “fulfill” the words of the Holy Scriptures, which came down to us from the Old Testament many years before. The Greek word for “fulfil” is plerosai. But according to Greek scholars, this is a difficult word to accurately and precisely translate into English. When we are told that Jesus came to fulfill something, it could mean that he came to fulfill it. It could mean bringing out the full meaning of it (i.e., the Holy Scriptures). It could mean bringing a thing to its intended conclusion. Or it could mean emphasizing that the Scriptures identify him as the Messiah and therefore, for this reason, are fulfilled in his work. This word has four slightly different meanings.
JESUS EXPLAINS THE “WHY”
Jesus spent most of his time explaining to his disciples what the true meaning of the Scriptures really was. He did not have to introduce or acquaint his followers with the words of his prophets. They were already familiar with them, it is assumed. At no time did he say that the Scriptures (what we generally know as the Old Testament) were wrong. What he did, so often, was put them in context, in a way that his followers, being simple souls like us, could understand. Instead of simply singing the law to us, Jesus explained “why.”
He put Saturday in context. He taught us that the laws were there for us, not just to be observed in their own right for no particular reason. God created the world and gave us laws because he wanted us to live in goodness and harmony. Jesus implored us to love our neighbor and told us that when we serve our neighbor we serve him. Lord, when did we see you hungry and we fed you, or thirsty and we gave you drink, stranger and we took you home, or naked and we clothed you? When did we see you sick or in jail and come to visit you? ?” “I tell you this, everything you did for one of my brothers here, humble as he was, you did for me.”
Love is the basis of the Christian faith. “There are three things that last forever: faith, hope and love; but the greatest of them all is love. Or as Mark says: “Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than this.”
THE GREATEST KNOWLEDGE OF ALL
Why love? Because that’s the kind of world God wants it to be. There is no scholarly, intellectual, scientific or academic reason why this should be so. Yet it is clear, through every word and deed, that what enlightens us through the Bible, through God’s message, is that God’s design for this world is that we love our fellow men, and Let’s treat each other with respect and dignity. That is much, much more important, in the general scheme of things, than whether you would rescue your ox from a ditch on a Saturday.
How often do we hear non-Christians say that the Bible is contradictory? That in one place it seems to say one thing and then in another it seems to tell us something completely different? In particular, that the words of Jesus in the New Testament sometimes seem totally contrary to those of earlier writings, to those of the first prophets? Jesus is careful not to contradict the teachings of Scripture, but who is to deny that the way he interprets them for us sometimes seems to differ significantly from the way we encounter them in the Old Testament?
Many scholars have spent their entire lives painstakingly dissecting biblical texts, closely studying cultures, and sometimes even learning the languages in which they were written, to remove any perceived irregularities and make sense of it all. It is very difficult, perhaps impossible, to understand today’s issues without having some knowledge of the events in history that inform current positions. There can be no doubt that an understanding of the geography, the people and the times in which the Bible takes place, probably even more so a familiarity with the language, would give us a much better idea of what it all says. all.
But the greatest knowledge of all is perhaps a basic and fundamental understanding of the spirit of God’s word. Why should we love our neighbor, why should we love God, why should we be honest and decent in our dealings with others, why did Jesus tell us that when we give our neighbor human beings we give him.
UNDERSTAND GOD’S PURPOSE
One can understand all the linguistic subtleties of the world, all the cultural nuances and literary idiosyncrasies. One can recite and sing all the laws, all the quotes out of context, with the appropriate scripture references, idiotic style, until one’s heart is happy, but until one understands why, then there is no understanding of what Jesus is saying. is trying. to tell us.
When President Kennedy stood before the people of West Berlin and delivered his immortal words, maybe there was some fundamentalist in the audience who really thought he was a jelly donut because, after all, that’s what he had said. Perhaps there was no room for interpretation, no chance that its meaning had gotten a bit lost in translation. They were the words he had spoken. he had told himself. The president is a jelly donut.
We as Christians must do our best to try to understand God’s purpose. Sometimes we can’t. Sometimes it seems like we shouldn’t. But trying to make sense of God’s word in addition to simply reading and repeating it can be a very liberating experience.