Wisdom and the kingdom of God

When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, "You are not far from the kingdom of God." And from then on no one dared ask him any more questions. (Mark 12:34)

Hearing the scribe’s answer, Jesus said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” Does Jesus mean the wise answer given by the scribe become the precondition for reaching to the kingdom of God? Can a person enter the kingdom of God without possessing such wisdom?

Wisdom is important in the tradition of Jews and the Greek. A large portion of the Old Testaments belongs to the literature of wisdom such as Ecclesiastes, Psalms, Job and Proverbs. Here the meaning of wisdom is the thinking power to understand God’s will. Truly speaking, wisdom belongs to God. When God the source of wisdom allows men to possess wisdom as a gift, human being can be a wise creature on earth.

Greek regarded Philosophy as an important subject. Philosophy is a compound word of ‘Sopia’ meaning wisdom and ‘Philos’, love. Thus Philosophy literally means love of wisdom. According to Ancient Greek, philosophy meant the ability to discern whether myths were true or false. Ancestors of Christianity also positively accepted such Greeks’ philosophical tradition. The thought of Plato, Aristotle and Zenon deeply influenced Christian doctrine of God, anthropology and doctrine of Logos.

In general point of view, such wisdom is the power of thinking to which a person can attain through some professional disciplines. However, it is not always right. Rather the discipline pulls us apart from wisdom. We can see such phenomenon from the lives of the Pharisees and the scribes. True wisdom may be attained through a right attitude toward the truth rather than learning from discipline. Though there is less availability of professional discipline, those who open their ears to the sound of truth can judge wisely. Jesus’ aphorism, “He who has ears, let him hear” is not an empty word.

Power of the Words

“Come, follow me“ Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men.”(Mark 1:17)

Jesus talked to Simon and Andrew who were casting fishing net like this, “follow me”. This is surely the first incident that Jesus spoke to the person. You know Jesus spoke. Jesus, the Son of God, spoke to the man with a human voice.

Do you know when human beings have started to talk? For this, we might need archeological help, but actually we don’t have to know exact date. Instead we could get a little bit of information from a newborn baby. The most important thing for a newborn baby thrown just out of mother’s body is to breathe as well as to cry for his life. Before that time the baby might not need these basic things inside of the womb, because it should be provided every possible things for sustaining his life through a navel string. But baby’s crying is not a word yet. The baby’s crying shows only that he is breathing and his vocal cord is functioning normally. When I observe newborn babies in my church, I could see that it takes a lot of time for them to start talking. Some hasty parents seem to believe that their kids have begun talking with them, even though babies still need more time in order to start talking.

Why is it so hard to learn to speak? It is because speaking is an experience of life existence. Speaking is a life phenomenon that does not happen when he exists by himself and that only it could happen when he recognizes the existence of other beings. So the newborn baby cannot talk because of lack of recognition. Of course even it could be very hard for him to activate his vocal cord. And then when he can recognize his mother and father, he learns to speak. The more objects he could recognize, the more vocabularies the baby could use, and his speech skill improves very fast.

We do not know when anthropoids, our ancestor, started speaking; probably the use of language could not be that long like newborn babies. Probably even they started talking, it might take such a long time before it improved like modern language with abundant vocabularies. Sometimes we could see people who like to train a chimpanzee to talk, but the result seems to be very insignificant, because chimpanzee does not have a deep understanding about existence. Since I am not a linguist, I think I should get back to the text in the Bible.

Actually Jesus spoke to Simon Brothers. This could be happening routinely, but also it is a great encounter. That means that between Jesus and Simon Brothers some great things had started to happen. The words of Jesus began to have a new meaning for their lives. It is an existential power of the word.

Everyday we live talking to each other. But most of our talking could be like garbage. It is much possible for lots of speaking from lots of preachers including me could be garbage. Why? It is because there is no existential power in their words. In order to show him off we call friends and try to persuade them without existential power in our words. Think about it carefully. What kind of words did we speak out of our mouth today? With life and truth, hope and power of love did we talk in our speaking? Just like Jesus did to Simon Brothers?

Christianity had lost the power of the words from some time ago. The world does not have any attention to the words from the church. Our words having life could never sound strange to the worldly people, but instead our words seem to have so much of our greed. Think about it. Does Christians’ opinion to oppose minority religious group, who insist alternative public service to keep their peace-oriented faith, have life in their words? I don’t want to talk about these things in details in here.

Urgently we need like that encounter of words, what Jesus did to Simon Brothers. This encounter does not require complicated theological reasoning. It depends upon that our spirit is open to the spirit of truth or not. Or open to the spirit of love. Can I say one more word? This is upon relationship with the Holy Spirit. That is the relationship with the spirit of life. The core of this event is an open heart to the spirit of Truth, not a close heart for himself. Since Jesus is that person who was in accord with the Holy Spirit, his words could be an event to save human beings.

Did my explanation sound too ideological? The conclusion is concrete like this: “Think carefully before you talk”.

Lord. Hope our talking could be related with the spirit of life. Amen.

The distortion of the bunt offerings

The distortion of the bunt offerings

To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices."(Mark 12:33)

A wise man keeps talking. He says to love God and neighbor is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices. This content is a mere repetition of what Jesus’ mentioned in verses 30, 31. The scribe simply added the items of burnt offerings and sacrifices. However, through this account we can clearly find out what is more important and what is less essential in our religious life.

The burnt offering was an act of worship of the ancient Jews. They offered burnt offering because they thought their sin would be forgiven through this act of burning offering. They had a strong impression that their sacrifices offered to God would be accepted when the smoke goes up to heaven as they burn the sacrificed animals. The burnt offering was the holiest act of worship for them.

However, problem crept in when the burnt offering has lost its spiritual dynamic character and has distorted its original meaning as time went by. For them, the refined form of burnt offering became more important than the close relationship with God. The priests especially wanted to confirm their religious ability or even earn money through the activity of burnt offering. The holiest act has degraded into the most secure and self-centered act.

How about the Korean Church today? There are many churches that have lost the original spirit of worship. Populism penetrates into the worship service. Various forms of worship programs are being developed to quench the religious thirst and feelings of the congregation. The hero in their worship is not God but man. They give too much emphasis on offering. Gradually all the acts and tenets of worship begin to fall on the line of the temporal laws. In spite of this fact, most of the people may not even know the reason why this has become a problem.

God is one (8)

"Well said, teacher," the man replied. "You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. (Mark 12:32)

We are now having the 8th meditation based on the title “God is one”. By this meditation I would like to fold up this topic. The last meditation is an explanation about the fact that ‘God is one’ is the very God who declared ‘I am that I am’ which is found in the account Moses. (Exo. 3:14)

Everything in this world cannot exist by itself. We all are born depending on our parents and even now we are living mainly depending on certain food material. If we are not provided oxygen for ten minutes, our life will be ended. It is not only the human beings but the entire nature also has the same destiny. The existence of the earth depends on the son the bigger nebula.

Basically, in quality, God is totally different from all other things. He exists by himself. The word exists by itself means that the ground of existence is not from without but from within. The ground of existence of all living creatures is from outside force. The creatures cannot directly share the experience of life with the creator whose ground of existence is from within. By any means, we cannot recognize him completely. He alone can say about himself. We have to shut up our mouth before him who says “I am that I am”. He is the very God.

Such being can be only ‘one’. ‘One’ means the whole. He will reveal his complete self on the last day. This is the meaning of the concept of ‘one’. The one God loved the world and gave his son. The son is the very Jesus Christ. The only way for us to experience direct relationship with God is to meet Jesus Christ personally. The fact that Jesus is the real image of the humbled God (Kenosis) is still the shrouded mystery of God’s existence.

God is one (7)

"Well said, teacher," the man replied. "You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. (Mark 12:32)

I have an additional account to be added to the topic of judgment that I discussed yesterday. In fact, this additional account is fundamental and factual rather than a mere supplement. The conventional belief is that God’s judgment starts with the beginning of the end of time. But in reality, judgment has already begun long time ago. The judgment of God has been manifested in Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection. Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection is rather the judgment of God. This is the central point of distinction which clearly distinguishes Christianity from Judaism. Thus the doctrine of resurrection plays an important role in the lives of Christians.

Why does Jesus’ resurrection have the precedence over the judgment? I need to explain the fundamental concept of resurrection. Resurrection is the completion of life. Life is the ultimate outcome of God’s creation and his creative power is beyond our understanding and imagination and therefore we can neither produce nor improve his creation. The impact and the value of Jesus Christ’s resurrection are so great that now all human efforts to achieve personal heights become meaningless. This is the grace of God.

Deeply think about these paragraphs. The ultimate goal of human’s effort to achieve personal greatness is resulted in the crucifixion of Jesus. The Jewish religious power and political power of Roman could not accept Jesus for they thought that Jesus was an obstacle to their way of religious and political achievement. In this way, they judged to get life. However, we cannot get life in this manner. God raised Jesus from the dead. It was an incident that human trial to achieve self completely turned out to be an attempt ended in a state of futility and helplessness.

God’s judgment is in the completion of life. It had already happened in the time of Jesus two thousand years ago. Presently, we are tentatively living in the gap between Jesus’ resurrection and the life that follows the end of time. The one who leads the entire history is the one God the Creator. The reason why Jesus’ resurrection is the completion of life can be proved by the historical facts. Amen.

God is one (6)

"Well said, teacher," the man replied. "You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. (Mark 12:32)

Some insist that Jesus has clearly pointed out the imminence of the judgment by fire in hell. In Luke 16:19-31 speak about the parable of Lazarus, a beggar and a rich man. The beggar Lazarus was received by the angels and embraced by Abraham after his death, while the rich man was thrown into the lake of fire.

A pastor named Yoon frequently quotes this particular verse. In his preaching, the pastor even adds what the Bible does not mention by adding that the beggar Lazarus was sincere to God while he was on earth and as a result of his sincerity and faithfulness to God he was warmly embraced by Abraham. The Bible mentions about the beggar Lazarus’ suffering in this world and there is no mention of his sincerity to God. The Bible never mentions about the rich man’s belief.

The parable of the beggar Lazarus was not a teaching about the existence and nonexistence of hell. It only declares the fact that God’s judgment is totally different from our expectations. The parable about the last judgment recorded in Matthew’s gospel also talks about the same thing. Those who thought that they have not done anything good for the Lord are unexpectedly placed on the right hand side for salvation while those who thought that they have done many good things for the Lord are surprisingly placed on the left hand side for judgment. This ultimate result shows us that we can deceive man but not God. This also signifies the feebleness of human cognition before the God’s absolute character.

Now, I cannot deny the certainty of God’s imminent judgment. If there is no judgment, there is no life either. Judgment is meant for the removal of the power that destroys life. By removing and separating the chaff which is pseudo-life and anti-life from the grain at harvest, the activity of God’s creation will be fully accomplished. However, insisting on God’s judgment as the punishment for the people outside the church would rather transmute its true meaning.

God is one(5)

"Well said, teacher," the man replied. "You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. (Mark 12:32)

Some of you may feel uncomfortable to hear the word ‘Universalism’. I can understand such feeling. It is a serious matter not merely because of the pervading feeling but because it is closely related to the matter of our souls. Evidently, the salvation through Jesus Christ has its exclusive character. We cannot deny this fact.

The important point related to this fact is God’s judgment. The topic of judgment is found mentioned in Jesus’ parable about the kingdom of God. Chaff is burnt on the day of harvest. The virgins who did not prepare their oil in advance could not enter into the banquet and they were left outside the banquet weeping. Jesus’ second coming indicates the final judgment. Then do the terms universalism and judgment contradict each other?

The two doctrines appear to be contradictory to each other when we look at it in a single layer. But they do not seem to oppose with each other when we look into its central part and see it through the multi-layers of it. The combined study of these two doctrines clearly shows us a certain truth just like the right way is directed with the pointing of the forefinger. It appears to be a doctrine of contradiction because we do not have the cognitive ability to clearly see the pointed direction. If we open our sight a little wider and see the reality, we can come to know the fact that the direction of the finger of universalism and judgment is finally identical to each other. In other word, the doctrine of universalism and judgment are no longer contradictory but complementary to each other.

First, imagine, why the Bible talks about judgment though judgment damages God’s creation and his grace. This appears to be a negative view point in relation to God’s absolute character. God’s creation and his subsequent sovereign rule are beautiful and perfect. However, this world is ruled by evil and sin. This world is now in the transitional age. At the end of time when the activity of creation is completed, the countries with absolute truth and righteousness will come to surface. The only way to deal with the gap of the two extreme worlds is judgment. We have to regard the image of judgment as something that brings about the completeness of the kingdom of God rather than that throws certain objects into the eternal lake of fire in hell.