Title: Extortion (Mark 15:22-24)
Contents
March 21, 2004 (Sun) 11:00 am Cheonan Salim Church
Title: Chantal
Text: Mark 15:22-24
It has become an unavoidable reality. There is no way we can avoid the situation that is being caused by the impeachment of the president by the National Assembly. At first glance, it seems like a very simple situation, but what has been happening since then is not so simple. It's very complex and subtle. So, the past week has been really messy. I thought a lot about how I should view this situation and what the right way should be. (For the complicated idea, please refer to the separately written "April 15 General Election Welcoming in Impeachment Politics".)
Among the many thoughts, the one I want to share with you at this time is to understand why so many people are angry right now. In my view, the reason people are outraged is not because of the fact that we have to protect 'our president'. A citizen who participated in the candlelight parade in Gwanghwamun, which continues day after day, wore a sign that read "I'm not a senior citizen!" as if annoyed. Of course, among those who participated in the candlelight march, President Roh Moo-hyun, including Roh Samo, and supporters of the Uri Party are included, and it is true that the political party support is shifting to the Uri Party due to the impeachment regime. But the majority of people who oppose impeachment are angry for another reason.
The first is the fact that the National Assembly's impeachment vote does not represent the will of the people. The forces leading the impeachment insist that they followed legal procedures and that they did not violate the principle of majority rule, but the people feel completely different. Right before impeachment, the public opinion against impeachment was dominant, reaching close to 70%, and after the impeachment was passed, the opposing opinion of over 70% has maintained a steady trend. At least, we do not believe that the reasons for impeachment raised by the three opposition parties, especially the president's statement of violation of the election law that directly served as a basis for it, are not grounds for impeachment. Nevertheless, the passage of the impeachment is considered to be tyranny by using their numerical superiority in the National Assembly because of their sense of crisis. This fact clearly shows that the 193 doctors of the three-party parliamentarians never represent the will of the people. In short, public opinion against impeachment reflects the disappointment of 'the usurpation of sovereignty'.
People who have violated the sovereignty of the people and their right to live are outraged by the act of taking care of the country in the name of the people. It is the anger of the people who have only been taken away from this and that.
We see the grief of those who have been deprived, the culmination of that bitterness, and the climax of that bitterness in Jesus Christ who was hung on the cross. We now have a biblical text that tells what happened the moment Jesus Christ was hung on the cross.
The soldiers who executed the crucifixion when Jesus was hanging on the cross in agony were doing two things that are difficult for us to understand at first glance.
Next, the soldiers share Jesus' clothes. Perhaps the story of the wine drinker, one way or another, is still vaguely understandable, but what this action means is even more difficult to understand. It is easy to think that there was just such a custom. It seems that such a practice existed in Roman times. However, in this case, too, the evangelists do not focus on simply reporting facts. There is a clear purpose in conveying this fact. The act of taking the clothes of the dead means complete extortion, the act of taking away nothing. It means complete usurpation of the property of the dead, complete contempt and contempt.
The content of the Gospels, which conveys the suffering of Jesus Christ on the cross, is not just a factual report, but a premise that the Jews have known for a long time. It is a tradition of psalms that conveys the pain of those who are in trouble and the pain of those who have been taken away. Psalm 22. Let's move some of them as they are.
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far away that you do not hear my cry for help? My God, I call all day long but you do not answer me
...
I am not a human being, but a worm, a ridicule of men and despised by the people Everyone who sees me makes fun of me, pouts my lips and shakes my head. "If he has relied so much on the Lord, the Lord will rescue him. If he is so pleasing to the Lord, the Lord will deliver him" (6-8).
...
please don't get away from me Disaster is near, but there is no one to help me. A herd of bulls surrounded me. The mighty cattle of Bashan surrounded this body. It roars at me with its mouth open like a ripping lion. I spread like spilled water and my bones were all broken. My heart melted like a candle in the intestines. My strength has dried up like pottery, and my tongue is stuck to the roof of my mouth, because the Lord has left me to die in the dust. Dogs surrounded me, hordes of evildoers surrounded me and pierced my hands and feet. Each and every bone is exposed bare enough to be counted, and my enemies constantly stare at me. My cloak is divided among the enemies, and my underwear is divided by lot (11-18).
Everyone, isn't it just like Jesus screaming and suffering on the cross? The Gospel accounts of Jesus Christ suffering on the cross evoke that memory. We understand the death of Jesus Christ on the cross as the most dire situation of a man in a corner, in which everything is taken away and even his very existence is completely denied.
Those who take away and inflict pain never understand the plight of those who are deprived and tormented. There is no room for sympathy for those who suffer from them. They are in a hurry to get their share. "They crucified Jesus, and they divided Jesus' garments, and they cast lots to decide who will get what." It is their job to not stop at denying the existence of Jesus Christ, but to thoroughly harvest every last garment he left behind.
The painful situation of the Old Testament poet, the tragic situation of Jesus Christ, is unfortunately repeated today. The established political forces, who have already inflicted the pain of loss on the people, are eager to calculate and take care of their share. The 3rd opposition party is sitting anxiously trying to take a deep breath and somehow take care of their share as their share is getting smaller. It is the shape of picking up and throwing spoons and chopsticks at will to try to do something in reverse. The ruling party is aiming for the gongsoo with such anticipation, 'This is so!' The chairman of the ruling party revealed his true intentions by remarking that "we are the most pro-market party", while also easing the system to check the harmful effects of the chaebol and secretly offering a welfare policy of the beneficiary pays principle rather than the principle of fair distribution as a general election pledge are doing People who want to bring in cows or dogs without adhering to ideology and policies are welcome. Everyone is in a hurry to get their share.
To them, they do not care about the suffering of farmers whose right to live is threatened because they cannot even save the cost of their sweat and investment. They do not see the reality of 'Taebaek Lee', the reality of "placenta in their twenties", the high unemployment rate and the fact that more than half of those who even work are non-regular workers. So now the people are in a situation where the scars add to the wounds and the pain adds to the pain.
Jesus Christ, who was deprived of everything on the cross, is an eternal indictment against that unchanging reality.
Why did Jesus, who suffered on the cross, become our savior? This is because, seeing the reality that people are not treated as human beings and sovereigns are not treated as sovereigns, they cry out, ?쏯o!??Because they shouted, "What more blasphemy can you have when you've come this far? Your sympathy and your ridicule are no longer acceptable. You blaspheme and ridicule me like this, but now I will stand up on my feet again." The paradoxical meaning of the cross is the incident that made it known to the whole world that there should no longer be any mockery of suffering people and no more blasphemy of God's holiness. The real reversal, the resurrection of Jesus Christ, begins there. The rising of those who were taken away and killed, that is the resurrection.
On the fourth Sunday of Lent, we still have to wait longer for the morning of Resurrection. But we must keep in mind that the resurrection of Jesus Christ was foretold from the very moment he was put to death. I pray that you will become a firm believer in the fact that the morning of the Resurrection begins again at the same time that they were taken and killed.