What an awesome reading today from Romans 8. St. Paul talks about us being sons and daughters of God. More on that in a sec. In the Gospel reading from Luke 13, Jesus has the audacity to cure a woman on the sabbath, in the synagogue, no less! The leader of the synagogue takes Jesus to task for this. But Jesus explains how people, sons and daughters of God, must take precedence over rules. Read his comments for yourself!
“For those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received a spirit of adoption, through which we cry, “Abba, Father!” These words of St. Paul should do so much for us. They should comfort us, helping us to remember that we are God’s children. They should embolden us, knowing that there is nothing that we should fear! And they should give us great confidence, knowing that our Father loves us.
Abba! If translated into English, this word might be “Daddy!” As Christians, this sets us apart from all other religions. It gives us the assurance that God is not just some authoritarian taskmaster. He is not just some spirit-being off in some other world. He is the One who wants to hold us in his arms, to wrap us with His love. He wants to bounce us on his knee, smother us with kisses and let us know that He will always be there for us, no matter what. Cry out to him now…Abba!!
Father, we thank you for the spirit of adoption you have given, that we may know that we are your children. May we always stay close to you. Amen.
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Hello Mr Lloyd,
I loved your program today on how we are children of God, but I need to tell you that “Abba” does not mean “daddy.”
German Lutheran New Testament scholar Joachim Jeremias (in his 1971 New Testament Theology) said that “abba” was “the chatter of a small child,” “a children’s word, used in everyday talk” and would seem “disrespectful, indeed unthinkable to the sensibilities of Jesus’ contemporaries to address God with this familiar word” (p. 67).
The majority of Hebrew/Aramaic/Greek scholars immediately disagreed and Jeremias corrected himself. But the “daddy” thing stuck. In the Aramaic language at the time of Jesus, there was absolutely no other word than “Abba” if Jesus wished to speak of or address God as father. It’s an intimate familial term used by children and adults and indicates that God is our intimate Father. The translation of Paul’s words as “abba” being “father” is correct.
I just thought you would want to know, as your take on it was wonderful!!!