“Huh…?”

A few days ago, I stumbled upon an interesting report from the world of psycholinguistics. It had to do with “universal words.”

It turns out that “mommy,” or something rather like it, appears in many languages around the world. This is what my grandchildren call their mother here in Minneapolis. In Ecuador or Mexico, they might call her “mamá.” In French-speaking Congo, they might say “mère” and in the Philippines, “nanay.” It is all pretty close. But linguists do not consider the common expression universal, exactly. And “papa” doesn’t qualify, either. There is simply too much variety, as it turns out, from tribe to tribe and tongue to tongue.

There are a few words, however, that are more reliably “universal” across languages and cultures. One of the most widely acknowledged, believe it or not, is that trusty old standby, “huh?” You have used the expression yourself, I do not doubt, since you were a child.

This is a word that appears almost everywhere and with very little variation. Everywhere it means the same thing, more or less: “You’ve got me… I haven’t an idea… There may be an answer somewhere – but you won’t be finding it with me.”

Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics have recently reported this interesting finding. They describe “strikingly similar versions [of “huh”] in 10 languages across five continents” (Minneapolis Star-Tribune, November 17, 2013; p.A12). Norwegians say “huh.” Indians say “हुह”. The Chinese say “呵呵”. Filipinos say “huh.” Kenyans say “huh,” too. And they say something similar in Bangladesh, Romania, Peru, and Mongolia, as well – almost everywhere.

This finding from the field of psycholinguistics, I thought to myself, is just the sort of thing we should expect of a fallen and rebellious race, at odds with their planet, their own human family, and Almighty God. We are universally clueless. Every language, everywhere, it seems, corroborates the malady. We don’t know where we’ve come from (Isaiah 1:3).

We don’t know where we’re going (Jeremiah 8:7). We don’t know how or why the world is so complicated, or our lives are so frustrated, or our hopes so diminished, or our possibilities so regularly dashed (Romans 3:9ff.). We think it simply a rotten, inexplicable bit of bad luck. We think its remedy to consist of brave perseverance, if only we can manage it, in the eager, witless hope that our luck will one day change.

“Huh?”

But the Bible describes another perspective. There is a reason for our dashed hopes and diminished possibilities: it is sin (Romans 3:23). And the condition is not at all inexplicable: we are ourselves at fault (Ephesians 4:18; 1 John 1:8). Yet we are not left alone in our woeful condition: there is a remedy for our sin. And the Remedy has come to live among us: it is Jesus, the Savior of the world (Romans 6:23). The Creator of all things has made Jesus to be sin on our behalf, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21). He is the Cure for our ruined world. He is the Hope for our hopeless condition. Jesus is the Remedy.

This means, of course, that people like you and me have a very pressing job to do. Just listen, even for a moment, in any language or culture of the world: you won’t have to listen for long, I think, to detect evidence of our collective cluelessness. You will hear echoes of our lostness, our brokenness and sin… everywhere.

And you have been entrusted with the Remedy (2 Corinthians 5:18-20). There is Hope – even for the clueless – in the reliable fact of the gospel. Jesus is the Answer! No dithering “huh?” about it.