I love Julie Andrews’ musicals, primarily I’m thinking of Sound of Music and Mary Poppins. According to Wikipedia, the first time the above word was used was in 1931. But the song was written by Robert and Richard Sherman for the movie Mary Poppins. The word is a compound word which means “above” (super), “beauty” (cali-), “delicate” (fragilistic-), “to atone” (expiali-), and “educable” (-docious). The song reached #36 on the American Film Institute’s top 100 cinematic songs. The word is now defined as “extraordinarily good, wonderful.”
In Ephesians 1:18-19, Paul writes to Christians, “I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might…”
Observe the contents of Paul’s prayer. He wants the “eyes” of Christians’ hearts to be enlightened with the result that:
1) They would know the hope of God’s calling them;
2) They would know the riches of the glory of His inheritance among saints;
3) They would know the surpassing greatness of His power toward Christians.
Specifically in that final verse, observe the pilling-up of words of power: surpassing greatness, power, working, strength, and might. More specifically, I want you to meditate on that word “surpassing greatness.” “Surpassing” translates a Greek participle which means “to surpass” or “to go beyond.” The word is related to our English word “hyperbole,” which of course means an “exaggeration.” So, this phrase means “greatness which goes beyond.”
The idea is related by Paul to the needs of Christians in Ephesians 3:20-21: “Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever.” The word “far more abundantly beyond” has the same prefix in Greek (hyper-) as the participle I discussed above.
God can do exceedingly beyond all that we ask or think through the exceeding greatness of His power.
When you need God’s blessings, remember His exceedingly great power. When you have needs that only God can supply, remember His exceedingly great power. When you doubt what your future holds, remember His exceedingly great power.
In other words, the only way you can describe what God can do is to say: Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!
Paul Holland
