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Amen
Amen. We usually punctuate our prayers with that simple Hebrew word.
Hebrews 11:1-2
Amen. We usually punctuate our prayers with that simple Hebrew word. Amen. And what the word means is a firm place. In fact, the Hebrew word picture is actually, if you can imagine taking a nail and driving it into a stud, into a firm place, and you can count on that nail holding whatever weight you need to hang on it.
For me, I have to tell you that I am not a handyman. In fact, when my wife and I first moved into our home, one of the first things I tried to do was hang shelving in our garage. And that night, we woke up to the sound of a big crash. Why? I had missed the studs and those screws pulled right out of the drywall when I hung weight on those shelves. For you and I that amen, that picture of driving a nail into a stud, is a beautiful picture for faith. Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. And just like with drywall, there are studs. There are places where you can hang that nail and you can count on it holding weight. There’s other places you can’t really.
Everyone has faith of some kind. Everyone drives that nail into the wall. Maybe their faith is in science and human reason, human logic or the ability to figure things out. Maybe their faith is in something like karma. What goes around comes around and that if I’d be a good person, then good things will come back to me. We hang our faith in all kinds of things. I can hang my faith in family, friends, and loved ones. I can hang my faith in career. But honestly, all these things are things that don’t have the real power to support me. If I drive my faith there, there’s nothing behind there to hold it up. It will crumble away. It will fall. It will come crashing down around me, just like my shelf in my garage.
Jesus is your Amen. I find it so neat that where we always end our prayers with Amen. In fact, Jesus in John, oftentimes before he says something, he says, “Amen, amen. I say to you.” And what is he saying? He’s saying, here’s the stud. Here’s the place where you can hang your faith. You can count on these words always being true. Heaven and earth will disappear. Heaven and earth will crumble away. But my words will remain forever. And it’s in Jesus words, where he wants us to plant our faith. Our Amen.
And you can count on the fact that he can carry it. In fact, those wounds in his hands and in his feet are the proof that we can hang anything on Jesus and he can carry it. He held the sin of the entire world, the entire human race on himself. And he did not fall. Jesus is your Amen. And because Jesus has lived and died and risen from the dead for you, because he bears those wounds in his hands and feet, you and I can pray our prayers. You and I can say the Lord’s Prayer and end with a confident statement. Amen. Here I place my faith. Amen.
