Title: The Pain of the Word Made Flesh
Contents
Even when the country's economy is on the verge of bankruptcy, the spirit of commercialism is dancing here and there ahead of Christmas. The whole country is immersed in a gloomy and gloomy atmosphere as it comes under the control of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), but the world that celebrates Christmas is still driving the atmosphere of a Christmas without Jesus, or even a Christmas that ignores or despises Jesus. There seems to be Santa Claus, but not Jesus. All kinds of sales noises are heard, but the true gospel is not heard well. In this chaotic and uneasy situation, the baby Jesus lying in a manger, the Jesus who went to Jerusalem after carrying out missionary and volunteer work in Galilee, suffered severe suffering and died on Golgotha Hill, and furthermore, the Jesus who broke the power of death and was resurrected. must be accepted anew. In order to welcome Christmas more rewardingly, we must broadly understand the true meaning of the amazing event that the Word became flesh.
Christmas is the event in which God came as a man. The Word became flesh. Generally, the incarnation is seen as an event in which God came into time and history, that is, an event in which He came in a specific historical situation. The Absolute, a transtemporal and transhistorical being, came to us in the relative situation of time and space. About 2,000 years ago, God was born in the context of Palestine.
This incarnation event is generally accepted as a glorious event. The Gospel of John (1:14) also described this event as a glorious event full of grace and truth. It is undoubtedly a very happy and welcome event. We should welcome the birth of the baby Jesus as an event of salvation. It goes without saying that it is a glorious day full of truth and grace.
However, in order to properly welcome and celebrate this glorious day, we must consider the deeper and broader meaning of this day. It is not just a day of secular feasts that are greeted cheerfully with the sound of jingle bells. It has a deeper meaning. The event in which the Word became flesh must ultimately be an event of joy, but the process is an event that accompanies aching pain. We must look directly at this aspect of pain. It is necessary to go back to the Bible and reconfirm the successive moments of that pain. In particular, it is necessary to reflect on the true meaning of the incarnation in today's pitiful reality under the control of the IMF.
First, God came into the world and history in the form of one of the least. He did not come as a noble Crown Prince in a splendid palace, but came to a lowly and humble place. Matthew 25 shows this very clearly. He came as the hungry, the thirsty, the naked, the stranger, the sick, and the imprisoned. He was incarnated as a person who was unfairly deprived of freedom or deprived of equality. You came as a poor, sick person whose health was also compromised. Therefore, on Christmas Day, we need to confirm once again that God is not coming down anew, but is already in us. Because there are people around us who suffer from unfairly deprived of health, liberty and equality, and people who suffer like strangers. Therefore, Christmas is an opportunity of grace to meet God anew by remembering and caring for them. Christmas is a time to meet the incarnate God, especially to share that pain. Matthew 25:40 testifies:
Truly I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these brothers, you did it to me.
That is why Christmas should be a feast for the least.
Third, the crucifixion is the event in which the pain of the incarnation reached its climax. The omnipotent, omnipotent, holy and holy God is the most helpless being, 'in vain', being killed. The so-called robbers who were crucified with him had the strength to resist, but our Lord was slain like a lamb to the slaughter. The cross is the culmination of incarnation suffering. Therefore, a Christmas without the pain of the cross would be false. Crosses are standing tall in our society today, but I am not sure whether they desperately represent the pain of the incarnation.
The God who was crucified is also the same. It's usually not stupid, either. Among the paintings of Professor Kim Byeong-jong, who is always diligent, there is a painting of Jesus wearing a crown of thorns with drops of blood flowing from his eyes. There is also a painting called Golgotha Jesus, who died after spilling every drop of blood. More interesting is the picture called . It is a picture of Jesus wearing a crown of thorns with his big eyes drooping down and looking like a fool. Professor Kim describes the fool Jesus as follows:
Jesus, you are a fool. By using the power of the countless people who followed you, you could have overthrown the fragile and fragile Pilate regime in an instant, but you were foolish enough to bear the cross of death and suffering.
Jesus, you are a fool. The powerful people of your time wanted to date you, but your friends were always low-class, at best publicans, even prostitutes and lepers. He had taken on their entire troubling and messy life.
Jesus, you are a fool. When you chose your disciples, how could you have left them as ignorant people who had nothing to show off of such a humble academic background or family? And were you able to entrust the evangelism of this world to the dozen or so pathetic disciples and ascend to heaven with ease?
Jesus is such a fool.
But why do I miss you so much in this wicked and evil world, in this loveless world where people hate their people and point each other at each other? You, who pushed aside all the glory in front of you and turned away from victory.
We need to reaffirm that God came in the form of a miserable, poor, and foolish body with the birth of Jesus. Then, we cannot help asking why God incarnated as the least of all. This question is a question that must be asked by those who believe in Jesus at Christmas, that is, the Christmas question.
Second, we humans are evil and discriminate against and despise the same human beings. It discriminates and tramples the poor and the helpless. The leaders of all closed systems, be they Hitler or Stalin, trample on basic human rights. In order to correct this, the powerful and rich God Himself incarnated suffering. Humans who trample on human rights will eventually prove themselves to be fools by trampling on God. We already know the judgments of these dictators in human history. But who will endure God's judgment later? I'm afraid. This fear will force us to respect the human rights of others and stop foolishly ignoring, discriminating against, or trampling upon God. The lesson of Matthew 25 is this same lesson of the incarnation. So Hitler, who killed millions of Jews, killed God millions of times.
In this way, as we celebrate Christmas in difficult circumstances, let us realize that the least of us are the mangers in Bethlehem today. And even today, it should be noted that the forces that ignore these little people and trample on their human rights are still alive. And we must gain the power of faith to fight them and overcome them through the Holy Spirit.
On Christmas this year, we should quietly reflect on whether believers do not repeat the foolishness of not recognizing God who has come in the form of the least of them without their knowledge. We must have the wisdom of faith to see for ourselves whether we are not goats at the Last Judgment. If you are a goat, you must repent and soon turn into a sheep.
December 1997 was exceptionally cold. It is not only because of the cold wind of the IMF, but also because the number of Jesus in prison, the trembling, hungry, and stranger God, may keep increasing around us. I hope this Advent season will be a time when you earnestly realize that the pain of God's incarnation stems from your love. December is the season to share the pain God goes through when He takes on flesh. Let's experience the pain and loneliness of the fool Jesus before Christmas.