Title: Love your fellow countrymen (Leviticus 19:18)
Content 1. The enemy in this world
You can see that there are many people in this world who live as enemies of each other. After the first Adam became enemies with God, Cain and Abel became enemies, Israel and the Gentiles became enemies, Pharisees and tax collectors became enemies, the rich Lazarus and the beggar became enemies, the handsome Absalom and his father David became enemies, and black people became enemies. Those who have studied a lot and those who are not white can see that democracy and communism have been enemies of North and South Korea.
Even in our daily life, we can see that we hate each other when we talk with our friends once or twice, and if we don't like them, we become enemies, or we become enemies by saying a word wrong.
Today is Liberation Day to remember once again the suffering of 36 years of slavery in Japan, which left the most painful scars among many countries that were enemies with our country, and to give thanks for God's grace and love for freeing us from such suffering. is.
I could see a newspaper published last week introducing a Japanese family that had been hit by an atomic bomb. A man who was taken to conscription immediately after marriage had a child after being hit by a nuclear bomb in a coal mining village, and his son was born crippled. Eventually, the son committed suicide before reaching the age of 20, and I saw that his daughter had to live in a wheelchair. And the daughter gave birth to a daughter again, and after six months, a child was born, and I saw that she was still prolonging her life in the incubator, with water in her brain and bleeding.
I didn't go through that, and you won't be able to know what happened 49 years ago, but it's what we went through on this earth and it was so great that we can't go on without remembering it. Not only that, but we know that many people were dragged to death, succumbed to disease, and dragged into wars in other countries to death, and even today, in this country and in the world, enemies continue to be made amidst numerous wars. is known.
Sometimes even in sports broadcasts, "Even if all countries lose, only Japan has to win" is a reminder that our enemies and enemies are still not resolved. Of course, the Soviet Union also shot down our plane, and China also invaded Korea occasionally, but Japan was the only country that ruled Korea and became an enemy for an incredible 36 years, so we cannot forget that our country recovered its freedom from Japanese rule. It means that nothing happened. Even today, we can see endless wars taking place in each country, and what we want to remember is why we have to live while making enemies like this. And what to do with these hostile things?
2. Love your enemies
In today's text, God tells us not to take revenge, not to grumble against our fellow men, but to love our neighbor as yourself. How can you love your enemies? It will be very difficult for us to do. But our Lord is telling us today to love our enemies. Not only that, but He tells us to love you as your own body. We speak of not only Japan, but also North Korea, which is one people with us, as our enemies. In this way, we know that there are enemies between our friends and nations in a small way, and our God says that we must love even those peoples. What our Lord said to love as your own body here is that we can understand that it is an active word of love that goes beyond taking revenge and murmuring, and first knowing that that person is also a child of God.
Love makes love, but hatred and enmity make another enemy, so our Lord told us not to take revenge and not blame our fellow men.
It is said that these words were written on the wall after the Jews were freed after being held prisoner in a concentration camp called Auschwitz as prisoners of war by German soldiers. "Forgive, but don't forget." Perhaps this is a good example of how we love. To love like my own body means not only to forgive unconditionally, but also to not forget past mistakes.
Being not one with me, saying that I am not my body, creates greed and eventually creates enemies, so today our Lord asks us to take revenge on you, and before complaining about it, first remember that we are one body with you, then we will not take revenge and will not take revenge on our fellow countrymen It is saying that you will not be resentful. However, when you say that you can't be with me because you are not one with me, and you say that you and I are not different from each other, painful things from the past keep happening to us, and we have no choice but to live in a war without bullets every day.
3. My enemies are
Even today, in a lot of different aspects of myself, we often say, ?쏻hy am I like that? There is. Looking at how we are, today the Lord tells us not to take revenge, not to grumble against our fellow men, and to love your neighbor as yourself.
4. Middle school students who love me
"Don't play with me, you won't talk to me, what's with your face, why can't you study, why can't you sing, why are you weak"
I pray that we will become middle school friends who will make the world we live in a beautiful world where only one brother and sister live, not enemies, by eradicating the seeds that make up our many enemies.
I pray that the lives of middle school friends who make this painful history of enmity into a history of united love.