Title: The Lonely Jesus and the Pathetic Disciples
Contents
When you meet the Lord in the Bible, you can always smell the scent of moving there and feel the waves of emotion. If you see the disciples there, you will see our foolishness and ugliness, and it is a great thing to realize. Today we meet James and John, who have made greedy claims to the lonely Jesus, and we would like to learn a new lesson from our situation today.
One day, when the Lord was in a lonely situation where he had to inform his disciples of his impending death, he was bombarded with dignified and even arrogant questions from two of his closest disciples. On the road toward suffering and death, the disciples asked Jesus to give them the two highest positions when he succeeded in power and was glorified. The Lord, who received this request, did not criticize their vulgarity, but calmly answered them like Jesus. In the dialogue between the lonely Lord and the foolish disciples, as we confirm our own foolishness, we feel the personal and human fragrance of the Lord anew.
First, the disciples ask recklessly. We force you to do whatever we ask. Here we see that their demands are not only childish, but also terribly expedient. A request to answer anything is a request that completely ignores the legitimacy or morality of the request. Such expediency leads to crime. Tragedy arises. They also commit terrible things, from illegal admissions to a coup d'etat. Even Park Han-sang, who brutally kills his parents in order to get money, is the result of his greed to listen to anything. Today, this country is sick with such greed, and among them, expediency under the guise of religion and belief is the most frightening and hypocritical.
Looking at the disciples who frankly confided such a request, it seems that there was no hypocrisy there. I've actually seen how moving the Lord's charisma is, and I've seen the crowds come like a cloud at times. If the Lord coveted the worldly power, it would have been easier to come to power (especially through elections). The disciples believed in it, so they made such a reckless but frank request.
Now we must mirror their actions. Isn't there a terrifying expedient in us? Do you not ask for anything in the name of faith? With what greed are we following the Lord today? Is it gold power, power, or honor? Or is it because you want to be recognized and free from alienation? Still, the disciples were honest, but are we as honest as them?
Second, let us see the Lord again in His answer. you asked. He did not rebuke them for their foolishness and recklessness. This questioning method has an indirect lesson that you should ask what others will do in the future. A sentence from Kennedy's famous inaugural address comes from this. After that, the Lord enlightens us in two ways.
First, he said, “You don’t know what you are looking for.” He was not pointing out that the disciples were ignorant or lacked knowledge. He realized that he did not see the core of the problem. He realized that the Messiah is the one who finally wins the resurrection as he faces suffering and death, not the kind of leader who gains power right away. Politics from the Messiah. He made his disciples realize that they were hoping for social glory and privilege. How are we? What do you expect from faith in religion? Don't you sometimes find authoritarianism in the church? When our prayers are not answered, it is because we selfishly ask for the wrong things like these disciples. The Lord asked if I could drink my cup and be baptized. This was asking if he could endure suffering and sorrow. The road with the Lord is by no means the only way of privilege and glory. Rather, there are hardships and sorrows, but it is a way to rejoice in the midst of them.
Third, let us learn from the more pathetic answers of the disciples, who assure us that they can drink the cup of the Lord. “I can do it,” he says. They couldn't distinguish between "can do" and "can't do". They all ran away when Jesus was arrested. We remember King Herod as a man who made a big mistake by mistakenly thinking that he could do something he couldn't. We know the pride of John the Baptist, who had promised to give anything as a king and had no choice but to behead John the Baptist. I also remember Pilate as a man who, when he could do it, was mistaken that he couldn't because of selfishness. Knowing Jesus' innocence could save him from the execution, but he was executed because he was worried about his own advancement after seeing the attention of the Roman authorities. Don't we get the illusion that we can't do the right thing when we can do it? We should honestly confess our helplessness and cowardice in not being able to do what we absolutely must do to accomplish God's will and pray that we will be able to do this. We must not forget the end of Hitler and Park Chung-hee, who shouted that they could do anything.
Let us find ourselves in the foolish actions of James and John. And let us find new courage in the Lord's response. Let's meet the human and personal Jesus once again. When we drink the bitter cup of the Lord and receive the baptism of painful trials, let us realize that it is rather an honor.
We are intellectuals like no other when it comes to knowledge. However, do we really know the core of the gospel?