And a voice came from heaven: "You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased. (Mark 1:11)
In a big frame, each book of the Gospels has a little different report about Jesus' baptism, but it reports three incidents happened at the moment with one accord. As I pointed out before, those are three incidents which are heaven being open, the appearance of the Holy Spirit like a dove, and a voice from heaven. Then what do these three phenomena mean?
Nobody seems to deny Jesus' baptism because of these three happenings. But we could reconsider this from a little different point of view. Jesus' baptism had happened before the disciples were chosen. If there were no followers who had been taught by Jesus and served him, who could watch the scene of Jesus' baptism and report in a concrete description? Can we say that Jesus told this incident to the disciples for himself? There is no evidence like that report in the Gospels. Then John did? No reports like this, either, in the Gospels.
In my opinion, this episode did not happen historically, but instead it seems like confession of faith in the early Christian community. In more details, I am saying that definitely Jesus' baptism happened, but there is more possibility that those three phenomena are like confession of faith. It is like the myth of Jesus' birth being not historical, but it is confession of faith from the early Christians who accepted Jesus as the Messiah.
Today in the New Testament, we could find out the history of Jesus, on the other hand, the confession of faith about him. Some people consider that just the objective facts are important, but this is because they don't understand history in a precise way. History is not dead stories, but it could move up with power through interpretation. The interpreted history(Geschichte) is much more important than the factual history(Historie). The New Testament does not talk about the history of Jesus, but it is telling us the interpreted history in early Christianity. Those two different kinds of history are mixed up. Therefore from this point of view, three incidents even though they are not actual phenomena, are very important to us today. Among those three, the last one is a voice from heaven.
At this story we could be a little puzzled. What kind of voice on earth did it come from heaven? Of course Apostle Paul on the road to Damascus is said to see the bright light and to hear a voice. Many tribe leaders, Moses, Joshua, the judges, lots of prophets were said to hear God's voice directly. But it is impossible to think God was talking directly in Hebrew or in Aramaic to them. If we imagine God could talk through the vocal cords like a human, he should talk in Korean to the Koreans today, shouldn't he? Furthermore, he should understand hundreds of language on earth, shouldn’t he? To hear a voice from heaven does not mean an actual sound, but instead it seems to me to be a kind of oracle.
Even though it was not the direct voice from heaven, this could not be meaningless. It could have much deeper meaning because it is an indirect voice. The reason is that even today it is possible for anybody, if he has an open ear to hear a voice from heaven, to hear this voice. If you could hear real sound, it must be auditory hallucination, but if you could hear a sound in a different level, it could prove that your spiritual ear had opened up.
This year it would be bicentennial and 50 years since Mozart's birth. From 5 years old, he started to compose all different genres of music like sonatas, concertos for various kinds of musical instruments and also operas until he died young at the age of 35. How on earth did this kind of musicians compose such music? They could hear sounds. They could hear touching sounds of soul. They did only write the sounds on the music sheet. Ordinary musicians squeezed out music with difficulty, but the musicians who are indulged into the world of music and hear those sounds naturally make some music. You could say that they are not making up music, but let music transfer into them.
Today we should ask ourselves if we hear a voice from heaven. This is a question how much we, who are living among a flood of sound, could hear voices to revive life. Also can we hear a voice from heaven on the pulpit of Korean churches? Do we open up and declare mystery of life today?
Lord, we like to hear a spiritual voice. Please clean our spiritual ears. Amen.
In a big frame, each book of the Gospels has a little different report about Jesus' baptism, but it reports three incidents happened at the moment with one accord. As I pointed out before, those are three incidents which are heaven being open, the appearance of the Holy Spirit like a dove, and a voice from heaven. Then what do these three phenomena mean?
Nobody seems to deny Jesus' baptism because of these three happenings. But we could reconsider this from a little different point of view. Jesus' baptism had happened before the disciples were chosen. If there were no followers who had been taught by Jesus and served him, who could watch the scene of Jesus' baptism and report in a concrete description? Can we say that Jesus told this incident to the disciples for himself? There is no evidence like that report in the Gospels. Then John did? No reports like this, either, in the Gospels.
In my opinion, this episode did not happen historically, but instead it seems like confession of faith in the early Christian community. In more details, I am saying that definitely Jesus' baptism happened, but there is more possibility that those three phenomena are like confession of faith. It is like the myth of Jesus' birth being not historical, but it is confession of faith from the early Christians who accepted Jesus as the Messiah.
Today in the New Testament, we could find out the history of Jesus, on the other hand, the confession of faith about him. Some people consider that just the objective facts are important, but this is because they don't understand history in a precise way. History is not dead stories, but it could move up with power through interpretation. The interpreted history(Geschichte) is much more important than the factual history(Historie). The New Testament does not talk about the history of Jesus, but it is telling us the interpreted history in early Christianity. Those two different kinds of history are mixed up. Therefore from this point of view, three incidents even though they are not actual phenomena, are very important to us today. Among those three, the last one is a voice from heaven.
At this story we could be a little puzzled. What kind of voice on earth did it come from heaven? Of course Apostle Paul on the road to Damascus is said to see the bright light and to hear a voice. Many tribe leaders, Moses, Joshua, the judges, lots of prophets were said to hear God's voice directly. But it is impossible to think God was talking directly in Hebrew or in Aramaic to them. If we imagine God could talk through the vocal cords like a human, he should talk in Korean to the Koreans today, shouldn't he? Furthermore, he should understand hundreds of language on earth, shouldn’t he? To hear a voice from heaven does not mean an actual sound, but instead it seems to me to be a kind of oracle.
Even though it was not the direct voice from heaven, this could not be meaningless. It could have much deeper meaning because it is an indirect voice. The reason is that even today it is possible for anybody, if he has an open ear to hear a voice from heaven, to hear this voice. If you could hear real sound, it must be auditory hallucination, but if you could hear a sound in a different level, it could prove that your spiritual ear had opened up.
This year it would be bicentennial and 50 years since Mozart's birth. From 5 years old, he started to compose all different genres of music like sonatas, concertos for various kinds of musical instruments and also operas until he died young at the age of 35. How on earth did this kind of musicians compose such music? They could hear sounds. They could hear touching sounds of soul. They did only write the sounds on the music sheet. Ordinary musicians squeezed out music with difficulty, but the musicians who are indulged into the world of music and hear those sounds naturally make some music. You could say that they are not making up music, but let music transfer into them.
Today we should ask ourselves if we hear a voice from heaven. This is a question how much we, who are living among a flood of sound, could hear voices to revive life. Also can we hear a voice from heaven on the pulpit of Korean churches? Do we open up and declare mystery of life today?
Lord, we like to hear a spiritual voice. Please clean our spiritual ears. Amen.
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