The Greek word for the...
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Object:
The Greek word for the deepest, most meaningful experience of time is xairos. Xairos is what we experience in fleeting moments of our lives, never to be re-created, save in memories. Xairos is what a young man feels, as he stands at the head of a church aisle, and awaits his beaming bride. Xairos is the way the clock on the hospital delivery-room wall seems to stand still, as a new mother and father eagerly wait to see if it’s a boy or a girl. Xairos is that simple and austere moment of beauty and of grace, when a family gathers round a deathbed and watches a well-loved life slip away, on that journey from this world to the next. When Paul writes, “Now is the acceptable time ... now is the day of salvation,” the word he’s using for time is xairos, not the more familiar chronos, or clock-time. Paul’s not so much trying to say that, on a certain day at a certain time, God accomplished the work of salvation — although we know that did happen, with Jesus’ death on the cross. What he’s trying to say, rather, is that here and now, in the present, we are capable of realizing — by God’s grace — what good news really means. When that happens, time itself seems to stand still. It takes on a different quality. In such a moment, we know the experience of xairos. Time becomes so rich and so full that its savor overflows our consciousness; “our cup runneth over,” as the psalmist says.
