our superlative culture

Today in the One Year Bible, we read from Mark 10:13-31. Jesus says something odd. A man comes and calls Him "good teacher", and He replies, "Why do you call me good? Only God is good." That's a strange thing to say for several reasons.

First, God called His creation good. He called us humans VERY good. So we know that thinking of people and animals and nature's beauty as "good" is not a bad thing. We SHOULD think of them as good.

Second, Jesus is God. So it's strange that He would tell someone not to call Him good, but only God, when He Himself was God. If this makes you doubt whether He knew He was God, don't forget John 8:58, where Jesus says, "Before Abraham was, I am!"

So what DID Jesus mean? Well, He was responding to the practice at the time of calling Rabbis by superlative names. He also told us not to call anyone "father" or "teacher". None of these teachings are to be taken literally, at face value. He didn't mean "Don't use the word 'good' unless you're talking about God. And don't use the words 'father' or 'teacher' any more at all!" He was addressing a problem in the culture, which we still see today, of robbing words of their meaning by overusing them. If you call everyone 'awesome', what does awesome mean? If you call all teachers 'good', then what word is left for good teachers? He went on to tell us to let our yes be yes, and our no be no. Stop making everything hyperbole.

Does that mean we should stop using the word awesome? Of course not. But we should be more careful with our words, so that when we DO use them, they carry more weight and make a greater impact on the listener.

God, thanks for teaching us the importance of words.