ARAMAIC WORD STUDY – AND YOU ARE IN ME – ‘ANATHON BI אנתין בי Aleph Nun Taw Yod Nun Beth Yod

John 14:19-20: “Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also. (20) At that day ye shall know that I [am] in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.

Matthew 28:6: “He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay.”

Many of us baby boomers remember an old hymn we used to sing. We usually sang it on Easter Sunday morning where we had a sunrise service by Lake Michigan. It was usually cold and everyone was half asleep from getting up early to catch the sunrise and then the leader would have us sing one of the most difficult hymns to sing. It had unusually high notes especially when we got to the part, “He lives, He lives.” The seagulls usually joined in and they did sound much better than our early morning screeches we called singing.

Aside from Easter most of us usually do not think much of the resurrection. My mind is on the resurrection here in August because our Torah Portion study this week alludes to the resurrection of the believers. It is interesting that the hymn He Lives by Alfred Ackley who wrote during the Great Depression. As a pastor, he witnessed first hand the sufferings during the Great Depression. He was a seminary student during the pandemic of 1914 and witnessed the suffering during that time. For Him, the resurrection was very important not only to himself but to the lives of his parishioners and he preached on the resurrection of Jesus even if it wasn’t Easter.

Out of those troubled times, he wrote:

He Lives, He Lives

Christ Jesus Lives Today

He walks with me and talks with me

Along life’s narrow way.

He lives, He lives salvation to impart

You ask me how I know He lives

He lives within my heart.

Some thirty-five years later this nation again was going through a crisis. There were riots, as I recall they were worse than what we see today. Students took over universities and forced the president of the university out. The National Guard was called out. Back then the riots were over the Viet Nam War and Civil Rights. Again, Gospel songwriters Bill and Gloria Gaither were inspired to write the song Because He Lives.

Because He lives, I can face tomorrow

Because He lives, All fear is gone

Because I know He holds the future

And life is worth the living just because He lives.

This week’s Torah Portion Study is entitled: Eikev which means because. What the Jewish sages teach us that the word because is often preceded by the word why? Why should we trust God in times of trouble, why does God allow riots, pandemics, unrest? Why should we put our faith in Him? The answer is simple Because He lives. Like in our nation’s past we are again facing troubled times like those that inspired Ackley and Gaither to write their songs on the living Jesus. Like those times, the acknowledgment that Jesus lives is a source of comfort driving away all fear.

In John 14 Jesus is speaking of his coming death and he is warning his disciples of troubled times that were ahead. But He says that the world will not see Him, but his disciples and all those who love Him will see Him. Then he says a rather strange thing: “At that day ye shall know that I [am] in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.” The Greek uses the word in en which means in, on, or with exactly like the preposition Beth in the Aramaic. We could translate it as if we desire. Then we would read this as “I [am] with my Father, and you are with me, and I with you.” That would make more sense in the natural but it would not fit the context. For note that in the prior verse Jesus says that the world will not see him but the disciples will. Commentators take that to mean that they will see Jesus after He is resurrected. However, there were nonbelievers who saw him also. c

I conclude, like many translators that this is talking about Jesus living inside the believer except Jesus says you will see Me. Have you seen Jesus lately? Actually, the word in Aramaic forsee is chaza’ which means to recognize. Jesus is saying we will recognize Him because He lives and if He lives we will live. Ackley concluded his song with: “You ask me how I know He lives, He lives within my heart.” If Jesus lives in your heart, you will chasa’ recognize Him.

Maybe we don’t see Jesus with physical eyes, but He lives inside of us and during these troubled times, we need to constantly remind ourselves that He is alive and He lives within us.

Today I was very troubled, fearful and I could not study for my Torah Portion class I was just to overwhelmed. But I had to prepare for the class anyway, so I forced myself to start studying and I came across the discussion on the resurrection of the righteous or believers. My mind turned to the first resurrection. Yeah, even wearing my baseball cap to remind myself I am always in the presence of God, I still forget. I stopped and meditated on the words of Jesus, “I am in the Father and you are in me and I am in you.” Yes, even in the midst of all this craziness we have the very God of the universe living inside of us. In the words of Thomas a Kemps “Wherever you go there you are.” Where we go God is there. I don’t know about you but just meditating on the fact that God lives inside of me, all my fears suddenly vanished.

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