LIGHT AND HEAVY.
A PERSONAL NOTE.
Hey real quick— a note from me, Swift-footed Markilles. Hey everyone!
My first love is writing, especially about biblical litearature in ways fresh and unexpected. The hardest part of being quarentined with a 7 year old— My son, my only one, the only one I have… :D — has been difficulty finding the time or concentration to make great content for Text and Rock. The whole process usually starts in this blog. I try ideas out here… it is a small stage. One where folks throw the least amount of tomatoes. Hehe… Anyways, against all odds, I have been meaning to write this one, called the Light and the Heavy.
I wanted to get this into typeface… simply because I believe Jesus’ teaching can give you a lot of hope in scary times. I think listening and doing what the Master says is the best way to live an anxiety free life right in this middle of the storm. And so I drank a cup of coffee at 8 and stayed up late to write this one. I hope this mine post, the Light and the Heavy, helps you trust more, listen closer, and embody better the message of the marginal sage from Galilee.
OKAY HERE GOES. THE LIGHT AND THE HEAVY.
You can go far in reading the gospels understanding a technique commonly used by the sages called the light and the heavy. Both rabbinic discourse and New Testament portrayals of Jewish sages invoke the light and the heavy. In Hebrew the term is קל והמר, qal means “the light,” va means “and” homer means “the heavy”. And this is the big idea of קל והמר, qal vahomer, “the light and heavy”: If something is true in this simple or everyday circumstance, how much more so when we consider something that matters, or that has weight. The light and then the heavy.
Sometimes the greek includes it, and other times it is helpful to supply in your mind’s eye, the phrase “If it is true of _______, how much more so _________?” So in the last episode of the Text and Rock show, we watched Jesus explain his reasoning to some ticked off Pharisees in Luke 14 for healing a women on the sabbath who had been bent over for 18 years with a hunched back. Not freakin cool. And he uses a qal vahomer, “light” and then “heavy” to make his point:
15 Then the Lord answered him and said, “You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or donkey from its stall, and lead it to water? 16 Then shouldn’t this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years, be released from this imprisonment on the Sabbath day?”
The flow of thought is something like this: If it is true you untie your animals… how much more should we untie this woman! The animals are the light, the human being is the heavy. The light and then the heavy. If you are extra nerdy, get your greek on. See the imperfect form of δέω “it is necessary” plus the infinitive passive of the aorist verb λύω? You can render it with some extra oomph— should not be necessary for this woman to have been loosened, very close in my mind to “how much more should she have been loosened?” ….Ignore all that if you don’t get your greek on. Hear the Missy Misdameanor Elliot? Get your Greek on…Get your Greek on… Ha!
Okay, here’s one that’s even more explicit. When Jesus teaches in the Sermon on the Mount:
28 Why do you worry about clothing? Think about how the flowers of the field grow; they do not work or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his glory was clothed like one of these! 30 And if this is how God clothes the wild grass, which is here today and tomorrow is tossed into the fire to heat the oven, how much more will he clothe you, you of little faith?
This is a beautiful section of Jesus’ teaching, where he argues for simplicity and peace of mind in scarcity. But see that last line? It’s a קל והמר, a qal vahomer, a “light” and then a “heavy”. IF God clothes the prairie grass, which is here today and tossed in the fire tomorrow, HOW MUCH MORE will he clothe you, you people of little faith? The everyday, common example is the flower, the heavy are people of the land who look shabby and hungry, but immensely belong to and are treasured by God as children.
YOU CAN FIND THESE “LIGHT” THEN “HEAVY” EXAMPLES ALL OVER THE GOSPELS… AND ALL THE WORLD OVER.
And so learning to recognize this line of reasoning will make certain passages of the New Testament pop. Shazaam! You can start to hear the voice of the Master arguing brilliantly that just as small things have a rhyme and a reason, the Master of the House takes care of the heavy. Just as small matters get attention, justice, providence, care, so too the servants of the Father.
Learning to recognize this line of reasoning will also make certain points of your life pop with hope against all odds. As uncertain times roll on in 2020 and scarce times are certainly coming, may the God who takes care of the light and the heavy be with you in the weighty matters just as God is with you in the light matters. קל והמר QAL VA HOMER. The light and the heavy; entrust them both to the good King and then you can live the Kingdom of God right here, right now, in small and everyday ways. We might go as far as to say our light works of righteousness point to the heavy lifting left to the good King.