Title: The Reality of Salvation
Contents
Shakyamuni, who has learned the Way through the life of a seeker for many years, said, "Life is a penance." This is a great truth. Anyone can overcome this truth as long as they realize it with a sincere heart.
Life is an asceticism and at the same time “life is a series of problems.” Depending on their nature, life's problems can lead us into frustration, lamentation, sadness, loneliness, guilt, regret, anger, anguish, anguish, or despair.
But the meaning of life lies in all the processes of facing these problems and solving them. Success or failure in life is determined by how well you solve these problems. In order to properly solve life's problems, you must learn the right way to realize them. Otherwise, life becomes more difficult and tiring. Let me give you an analogy regarding the problem of realization of life.
Now we are in late summer, seasonally looking forward to fall. It's already past season, but let's go back to spring for a moment. In the agricultural society, the most important thing in spring is cultivating fields and paddy fields. I use machines now, but when I was young, I used cows to plow the fields.
The oxen are yokeed when cultivating the paddy fields with oxen. At that time, when the yoke on the neck of the cow is too large or too small to fit well, it is difficult to complete the intended task. Then the wise thing is to change it to a yoke that fits.
Everyone has his share of life to be realized. In order for everyone to realize their share of life correctly, as I have already said, it is necessary to properly learn the path of realization of life. When you choose the wrong path of realization, life becomes difficult and keeps getting tangled up. Then, indescribable fatigue comes, and it is difficult to escape from the deep meaninglessness. Here, the integrated value or purpose required to realize life can be compared to a yoke. An inappropriate yoke makes life more difficult.
God gave the people of Israel the yoke of life called the Law in order to enable them to live by correctly solving the problems of life, a series of problems. But the law made their lives more burdensome than they solved their problems. The reason is that they did not properly understand the deep will of God who gave the law and used it. The responsibility rested with the Jewish religious leaders, who were responsible for interpreting and teaching the Law.
To give one specific example, God gave the Sabbath law for man, but man was changed to exist for the Sabbath. In relation to the law, "Keep the Sabbath day holy," as many as 130 articles to be observed were made, so the true meaning of the Sabbath was lost, and the Sabbath became a heavy burden.
Under the Roman colony, the Law added to conflicts and frustrations rather than giving hope and courage to those who were living in a state of mental and economic exhaustion and suffering from the worries and anxiety of life. Jesus gave the invitation to such people, "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden."
Jesus did not offer to bear their burdens for them, but said, “Come and take on the yoke of Jesus first.” This means to change the yoke. Jesus also acknowledges that life is an ascetic and has many problems. However, Jesus knows the way to live a life with many problems and leads the way. The path that Jesus leads is different from that led by the scribes and Pharisees of that time. Because Jesus knows the God who gave the law better than anyone else, He does not complicate life and make it more heavy, but simply accepts life as a gift from God and transforms it into a life of serving others.
Jesus promises to make it possible for worldly learners to reach the hidden path for those who are trying to reach the perfection of life by their own efforts, and to those who are struggling with the burden of life, such as infants and children. are doing The scribes and Pharisees of that time were all educated people and self-confident people were wise. But the way to true salvation was hidden from them. That way is the way to God, but only Jesus knew the way. The way is known not by keeping the law, but by going directly to Jesus and learning through him. So Jesus invites you to come to Himself.
What, then, is the yoke of Jesus? The yoke of Jesus is love. Only with the yoke of love can we realize a life full of problems.
If you go to Jesus, the burden of life will not be removed, but will be replaced with a gift from God. And there you will find rest. Rest in the true sense comes from forgiveness, reconciliation, acceptance, remission of sins, and release of anxiety and worry. However, the commonly known worldly path of rest is known as when the troublesome thing disappears, when the object of hatred goes far away, when the problems that cause frustration and pain disappear, and when there is economic wealth. That is why people face the life in question and try not to accept it and avoid it, avoid taking responsibility, and try to be exempted by observing religious rituals or precepts. The more you do so, the more difficult life becomes, and the more difficult it becomes for spiritual growth or the right realization of life.
Next, we must learn by putting on the yoke of Jesus, “He tells us to come and learn.” Jesus makes no promises to anyone that he will exempt anyone from the life in question. Jesus Himself came to the reality of the problem and lived the life of the cross.
In order to bear the yoke of love to the end, we must constantly learn to deny ourselves. Only then can you reach your destination. Before Jesus began his public ministry, he was tempted by Satan in the wilderness. That test has to do with how you realize the Messianic path that Jesus should follow. The path that Satan presented was impossible to realize the life of the true Messiah. It may temporarily satisfy human heroism and worldly ambitions, but it was not the way to accomplish God's will. Jesus resolutely rejected it and walked the path of true self-denial. There was the glory of the resurrection along the way.
The reason most people fail to realize the life in question is because they give up on their wife's life and live an excessively self-centered life. Because I think that doing so is the way to happiness. In a self-centered life, there is no spiritual maturity and there is no way to God. That path is not the path to the realization of true life.
From now on, I think of a person I had an acquaintance with about 20 years ago. He and his wife studied abroad and returned to Korea, leading a stable life with a social status that is not inferior to both inside and outside the country. But they had a son who was mentally and physically handicapped. To them, the child was a burden they could not openly reveal to the world. They tried to hide the child from people as much as they could, and not to tell him. For them and for them, the child was a source of concern and a cause of shame and gloom in life.
Late one afternoon on a public holiday, I visited the house after a while after being asked by her husband to come over. I was guided by the man who greeted me with joy and sat down at the recommended seat. He started talking seriously about the reason he suddenly called me on the phone.
“Pastor, I am not going out today, but I have been sitting here reading the Bible all day without going out. I have been reading the Bible up to this time and have experienced various salvation. I can quit smoking, and tomorrow morning I'm going to hold my baby's wrist and go for a walk."
When I heard that he would take his son's hand and go for a walk, internally, in hope, joy and gratitude, I confirmed once again what God's saving power meant. It was not that his son had turned into a normal person. It was as it was in the past. Nevertheless, the son was no longer a shame and a burden to his father, but was a personal being who could live together with gratitude and joy. Since then, he has been living with his son, learning the life of his wife, and walking with Jesus who walks with him. Until then, he had lived with his son, but it was a nuisance in itself that he had not developed a personal relationship with him. But from that day a new life began between father and son. God's salvation came to that family. Jesus, who was always suffering with the child, stopped crying.
Jesus doesn't do something for us, He helps us do it ourselves. All that Jesus had to do for us was already done by dying on the cross.
Jesus doesn't change circumstances, he changes us. The situation is no different. But Jesus enables us to respond by giving us new courage, new strength, and new ability to face the situation.
Jesus does not run us away from reality, but helps us to face difficult situations and overcome them with love. By doing so, you become a more mature person.
When I look back on my life, there were times when I too faced many life problems and was frustrated, and there were times when I was troubled and had sleepless nights. Because of the burden of such a life, I was ashamed and resented others. But Jesus did not take away the burden of such a life. In the end, you helped me carry that burden. Such burdens of life have helped me grow spiritually so that I can have the reality I am today. What I regret now is that I did not bear the burden of life more with love, with faith, with forgiveness.
Our life's burden is heavy and difficult because of our lack of courage, dishonesty, excessive humility, hatred, hostility, infidelity, avoidance of responsibility, and self-centeredness, rather than the problem itself. Jesus frees us from such things, allows us to face problems and accept them with love. Then the life in question becomes a gift from God. From that moment on, our own lifestyle begins to change into a life of service to others.
There was a young Christian couple in Japan. The wife gave birth to a child. When the wife gave birth, the husband was watching. The child born amid the pain of childbirth was unexpectedly deformed. The husband hid the fact, pondered for hours, and finally made a decision and told his wife the whole truth.
After hearing her husband's story, the wife replied, "Honey, how grateful I am that God has entrusted the child to my husband and wife, rather than to someone else." The child was not a burden to the young couple. It was a gift from God. Through that child, the couple was able to live closer to God than any other couple.
God has opened wide the door of grace through which we can achieve our lives beautifully with whatever difficulties we may have in this world. The problem is how we accept the reality of our lives.
God does not give us a perfect life. You provide the ingredients for life. We have to build our own lives out of those materials. As the material of life, God provides us with talents and abilities, a beautiful and rich world, and a companion to live with us again. And he says: "Treat these materials and create a life worth living"
Problems in life arise in the process of building the life that God has entrusted to us. Problems become more difficult when you escape the problems that arise along the way. We must come to Jesus in order to properly realize the life of that complicated problem. You have to go to him and learn.
Jesus gives us an invitation.
“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Revised Version) Amen