Title If you ask me why
Text: Matthew 16:24~26
Sermon: Sang-Sang Ryu (Sunday Sermon at Saegil Church 2006.2.5)
If someone asks you, 'Why are you buying?', what would your answer be? It's easy to answer when you ask, 'How are you going to live?' “I will live like this.” Just answer. But “why are you buying it?” It is not easy to answer quickly when asked. After thinking for a while, “I live without dying”, “I live to eat”, “I live because I was born.” A lot of people answer this way.
These days, there are surprisingly many people who say, “I live without dying.” I don't want to live, I don't have the taste to live, and I don't have much fun living, but there are so many things that I have no choice but to live. I have a wife or husband, and children, so I can't die. I hope that the world will be a place where ordinary people, good-natured neighbors, can live in an exciting and fun way.
There are quite a few people who say “I live to eat”. Eating is important, but if that's the reason for living, I wonder what makes it different from animals. Some people say, “I live because I was born.” In a way, I think that might be close to the answer. But if that's the only reason we live, I wonder if life is too meaningless or too bland.
When I was at school, I used my religion class time to give a research presentation to students on the topic, “If you ask me why you live.” Many students ask this question, ‘To do (something)… ’ I replied. To go to college, to succeed, to make money, to achieve (something like this)... Most of the answers were.
So I said this. “Students who say they live to go to college will have to die if they go to college. If you live to go to college, you went to college, so there is no reason to live anymore, right? Students who live to be successful may live a little longer. Because success in life is a little more difficult than going to college... But this student must also die, because once he has achieved the success he expects, he has no reason to live anymore.”
In response to the question ‘Why are you buying?’, “To do (something)… If we answer that, our life is reduced to a means. But our life cannot be a means to achieve something. Our life itself is a purpose.
There is a problem that many people, especially devout Christians, misunderstand. “The reason God gave us life is to accomplish something great.” However, such a view is quite far from the teachings of Jesus. Jesus told us. “What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his life?” It is said that life is the most important thing. Even if you gain the whole world, if you lose your life, it will be of no use. However, there are so many tragedies around us that we do not realize this fact well.
It is a sad thing that recurs every year. After the college entrance exam is over, young people commit suicide, and one or two of them are reported in the media. I remember that there were no reported incidents last year. Do you know why there were no (or relatively few) students who committed suicide last year? He said it was because the first class language test was easy. There is a saying that it was deliberately made easy. This is because students must think they did well on the exam to prevent at least jumping out of the window after the first period. I don't know if that's true or if someone's imagination spreads plausibly.
Why is it that reckless things happen when young people with bright futures try to end their lives just because they have low test scores? This happens because we feel that if we don't do something, if we don't achieve something great, our lives have no meaning. That kind of thinking can help you build some achievements. However, the reason why that thought can never be correct is that it reduces the value of life, the precious life itself that God has given, as a means. If a student who says they live to go to college fails the college entrance exam, it is natural that they do not want to live. Because I thought that my life was worthwhile if I went to college, and that my life was nothing if I didn't go to college, people commit suicide just because they failed the entrance exam.
Let me tell you about an old gentleman who is very close to me. He suffered a lot when he was young, and he thought that if he made money, his life would automatically be happy. So I lived my life with one purpose only to make money. And I made quite a bit of money. But a problem arose. I thought that if I had money, my life would automatically be happy, but as this person grew older, I realized that this is not the case. Although money can be a means to make life happy, I have come to realize that money itself is not happiness since I was over 60 years old. But it was too late. “This is not life… ” I regret and feel empty, but I can't turn back the life I've been through.
As long as we think that obtaining something like this, doing something, and making our life meaningful and happy, our life is constantly reduced to a means for that thing. If someone asks me, 'Why do you buy it?', I'll answer this. “I live for the value of life itself.” It is precious and meaningful to me that I am enjoying the life God has given me here and now. You don't have to do something to make life meaningful.
If you are still young or have young children, please explain the meaning of life that our Lord has taught you to your children. To live is to be sublime and beautiful. If it is necessary to fulfill that noble life itself, we will go to college, earn money, gain fame, and achieve success. Money, college, success, fame, all these are means, not ends, for the abundance of our lives. Even if you do not go to college, do not succeed, or earn a lot of money, to be born as the lord of all things that resembles the person (image) of God and to live as a human is itself a valuable, noble and beautiful thing.
Let's talk a little bit more about the students. Around this time of the year, there are cases when a conflict arises between students and their parents who failed the college entrance exam or failed to enter the college they wanted, or, in severe cases, a crisis in the family. When I live with students at school, I ask, “What is it that a guy like me who can’t even study is alive?” I sometimes meet children with extreme thoughts. Female students think that way more than male students, and students who are in the 2nd or 5th place in their class, or 20-30 in the whole school, rather than students who do not study very well, have extreme thoughts about students who do not make it into the top 10 no matter how hard they try. Do more and put it into action.
But the truth is, they didn't come up with that idea on their own. It is something that our society has implicitly instilled in us. Do any of us have parents who have children who are obsessed with such thoughts? If there is, please take a look at whether the parents had such thoughts in the first place, and whether they implicitly instilled such thoughts into their children. Also, think deeply about whether this is a good idea, and talk openly with your children.
I started teaching at a girls' middle school in Seoul in 1985, 21 years ago. In the fall of that year, I followed the body of a disciple who took his life because of his test scores to the Byeokje crematorium and saw a child coming out as a handful of ashes. I asked the child who couldn't answer looking at the amazing sight. “Hey, you bastard, did you buy it for your studies? Did you study for your life?”
Our noble life that God has given us, to make that life fuller, study, college, success, money… Aren't those things necessary as a means? Studying is fun, and if you work hard, your grades will go up, and those students should keep studying. Go to college, go to graduate school, get a doctorate, contribute to the country and society, and live your life abundantly… It's fun and it's cool.
However, there are some students who have little or no interest in studying. Even if I try, there is a limit, and there is obviously a different talent, but I want to go there, but I study because this society evaluates people based on academic background. How about letting the kids go so they can be sexually free?
About 10 years ago, a song with lyrics like this was popular. “The good people live the good things, the bad people live the bad things.” I think there's a reason this song became a hit with the slang. It seems that many people, especially ordinary people, deeply sympathized with the contents of these lyrics. Shouldn't it become a world where only the best people can live? There is a song that students play as a joke during their birthday party. I change the lyrics of the song "Happy Birthday", and the lyrics are as follows. “Why were you born, why were you born, why were you born without even studying? Why were you born, why were you born, why were you born with an ugly face?” The students laugh and sing, but when you think about the lyrics, it is very sad and terrible.
The Bible says “What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his soul? What will a man give in exchange for his life?” (Matthew 16:26) It is saying that our life itself is more important than gaining the whole world. To live is good in itself. It is worth living in itself. To live is to be sublime in itself. I hope you will live the precious life that God has given you to be healthy and happy.