Jesus and the Angels

and he was in the desert forty days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and angels attended him.(1:13)

According to the Gospel of Mark, the last temptation scene shows the angels to help Jesus. We don't see specific details how the angels helped Jesus, because there is no explanation, but we could make it sure indirectly that Jesus needed some help. Like the aforementioned animals being stayed with Jesus, now the angels were with him to help.

The Bible often mentions the angels. With this topic, it might be insufficient to finish even in a single book. The Bible tells about the fallen angel too. It must be Satan. But in here do not ask if the angels exist or not. Because we always used to think only through that way, we are often likely to lose the basic things. The things that exist actually could be originally non-existent, and the things that you don’t get right now could not be non-existent actually. We must change the idea of “being” basically. If we think only the things we make sure now of its existence exist, we just stay in the first dimension of the world. There are plenty of things that exist in a totally different way of living. And also there are plenty of things as a process of being, not as an accomplished being. We cannot say that the things do not exist now but would exist in the future are not existent at all. Since it has been said if it does exist, let us ask ourselves again. Does the kingdom of God exist? Does it now? Or would it be in the future? Do you know very well that that kingdom of God exists without any relations with our lives now, or would be related with them? This kind of question should lead to the ultimatum. Does God exist? Is he a being to be created in the future? In which way does he exist? If you regard God as an object, you should make a conclusion that such a god never exists. That means that if we don’t consider a totally different new theory of existence, we could never realize the existence of God.

I am not able to explain what the angels attend Jesus means exactly what in order to help you to understand this passage. Even though I cannot give you precise explanation, I could accept the fact itself, because I believe in that special messenger who appears personally or privately to the person who has an eye to see. Perhaps just like the spirits and the angels in Shakespeare’s works, such power seems to show to the person who could see deep inside of the world. If there were no such angels, our lives would be so dry and barren. The lives without the angels must be only movement of chunk of protein automatically following a primitive instinct of survival. But luckily the human lives as a person or as a group as well as all the living creatures must be controlled by the supernatural power. That is the Holy Spirit and the angels are fairy-like expression for that power.

Did you ever get help from the angels? Did you ever experience an angel? The angels dancing in the breath of a baby, under the starlight, in the love between a man and a woman, in the winds and the waves, are being with us. If we open our eyes of heart, we could see the angels helping us.

Lord, please allow us an eye of the heart to see the angels. Amen.

With wild animals!

"and he was in the desert forty days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and angels attended him. (1:13)

The story not mentioned in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke does appear in Mark's Gospel. It is a story about that Jesus was with the wild animals. There was no specific explanationwhat these wild animals could be. Looking at the circumstances, these must be the wild animals living in the desert. Could they be rabbits, or deer? or a little more fierce wolves?

I don't know what Mark's intention could be for adding up the story of the wild animals in here. Of course these are not inappropriate relationship at all between Jesus and animals. According to the tale of his birth, he was born in the manger. There are some pictures with Joseph, Mary, and Jesus with the background of some animals like cows or sheep. When Jesus entered Jerusalem, he rode on a donkey. These must be the only stories with animals being related with Jesus.

Could there be animals in the kingdom of God? If the mankindget eternal lives in there, could it be possible for an animal to get an eternal life in there too? These are not the problems only for the animals. What about the insects and bacteria? Today we cannot imagine a living world, excluding the insects and bacteria on earth. They are related with each other in an organic way. Some relationships we might understand, but some we don't know. Perhaps it could be impossible to understand every single relationship between them until the world ends.

We cannot predict how the relationships between human and animal, between human and microorganism would be in progress. Now they compete with each other, but sometimes cooperate witheach other. But at the ultimate, we don't know what's going to happen. Maybe the microorganism could destroy the species of human beings. But the day when human beings could remove microorganism totally will never come. Becausehuman beings cannot exist without microorganism, but they could exist without humans. Maybe there is no direct connection between what we don't understand the relationship with living species surrounding us and Christian faith. But we should get rid of foolishness to measure everything round the human species as a center. A form of new life begins in a new heaven and a new earth, with Jesus' second coming, doesn't it? Until then we must keep on living on this earth with a partial experience of life. Inside of that partial, there exists a hidden whole thing. If we have good relationships with animals now, we could taste in advance a bit of an absolute world of the whole life that will begin in the future. In this point of view, Christian ethics we should discuss is very complicated. The problems from the carnivorous culture or medical experiment for development of medicine belong to this category. I am saying that we should keep on discussing what kind of attitude toward a life could be a proper way of thinking for a living world in the kingdom of God.

Let's get back to the text for today. At the time of temptations and at the place where Jesus got temptations, instead of people, the wild animals were with him. It could be explained the wild animals were a kind of help to Jesus. It means that the animals were able to support Jesus under hard conditions, but not the humans. Ignorant animals could be more useful beings than highly intelligent humans in a certain way.

Lord, we are looking forward to the world in which people, the wild animals, and microorganism get along together peacefully, Amen.

The Temptation for Jesus(5)

“……and he was in the desert for forty days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and angels attended him.” (Mark 1:13)

Satan showed all the glorious things to Jesus and asked like this. This is the third request Jesus got from Satan. ““All this I will give you, if you will bow down and worship me."(Mt. 4:9) Two temptations requested before are about the confidence or the doubt of "the son of God", but now the last temptation is about worldly honor and possessions. The former is likely to be rather spiritual questions, but the latter is totally worldly question.

People could be tempted more easily to the worldly than to the spiritual. It is saying that even though someone acts like to regard the spiritual thing asprecious, actually he could be shaken by the worldly thing. Here difference between the spiritual and the worldly is not decided by the standard of how much being religious or not. Ministry seems to be spiritual, but it could belong to the worldly. If youtake advantage of ministry in order to show off your honor or to make sure of your ability, ministry could be only a pattern of God superficially, and also in fact it could be such a worldly thing.

Satan said to Jesus like this. ““if you will bow down andworship me, I will give you this all." In here we could find two things. One thing is that worldly honor belongs to the authority of Satan. What Satan makes a promise to give everything could mean he can control everything according to his will. Worldly honor and authority are Satan's possessions. Of course to say that all the secular power and honor are Satan's possessions could be a little too much. If we could use the secular honor, wealth and power according to God's will, it might be evidence that those are not Satan's possessions anymore. Well, this kind of question is a little bit complicated.

Luther solved this kind of problems by the theory of two kingdoms. He said that since the heavenly order and the earthly order were so different, and the kingdom of Christ was different from the kingdom of kings, they should not interfere with each other. Luther definitely seemed to look at the magical power of the secular order. As long as the human beings keep on living with two feet in the earth, we cannot deny such a worldly order, but we don't have to take it. Because this secular order could not help bringing in immoral order, even though that secular order is trying to do good works. For example, the capital punishment it could be. It is said that the capital punishment is required to keep the order for justice, but in a sense that this system is another kind of violence, it is an evil.

The other thing we could find in Satan's saying to Jesus is the fact that you should compromise with Satan in order to possess worldly honor and power. We have to keep our relationship with Satan if we like to succeed in this world. It happens in case of managing business. If we manage our business so honestly, we might not compete with other businesses. Of course we could act rather comparatively in an honest way, but absolute ethics could not be appliedin secular world, because secular honor and power could be given by Satan.

Today my writing might have a tendency like the theory of good and evil. It is not true that I think that this world is immoral unconditionally. I just want to emphasize the reality of evil, which is so evident. The characteristic of wealth, honor, and power are so immoral, so that I cannot help thinking those are under Satan's control.

Jesus answered to Satan like this. ““Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only."(Mt. 4:10) Our lives should stay in here. The answer is in the life to serve God only. That means the life only God controls. What could it be in details?

The Temptation for Jesus(4)

and he was in the desert for forty days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and angels attended him.(1:13)

The second temptation Jesus got from Satan was a request like this: “The devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. 'If you are the Son of God,' he said, 'throw yourself down. For it is written "He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift your up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone'"(Mt. 4:5,6) If Jesus fell down from the top of the temple, what could it happen? Since Jesus did not learn how to support his body in the sky, he might hurt himself a lot or kill him just like us if he fell down from the high point. What is the reason that Satan used to ask such a silly question that everybody already knew the answer.

This question indicates what kind of attention human beings might have. That attention could mean the human nature in which people want to get special treatment from others. People sometimes show their anticipation of being so exceptional, even though anybody could be killed or hurt if they fall down from the highest point, or they hide that kind of anticipation deep down in their unconsiousness. As an example, there is almost zero possibility to win the lottery, but people imagine they could be lucky enough to get the winning ticket, so they used to buy them again and again. Maybe this kind of a speculative spirit might keep up their lives these days.

Especially to us Christians it seems to be very prevalent that God provide with special guidance for us. Of course this kind of thinking is not totally wrong. But despite all the other people are struggling in the hard conditions, if they think it could never happen to them, it must be symptoms of a mental disease. Christians always ask so much to God. Even there are some special early morning prayer meetings or all night prayer meetings for the high school seniors' college entrance prep test. How could church, which is an eschalogical community waiting for a new heaven and earth, pray for this kind of nonsense? If they are faithful Christians, they should pray for neighbors' children, who are under hard conditions, to get good scores for the test. Christian way of life should yield the better position in this world to the people of the world.

Jesus answered to Satan like this. “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.”(Mt. 4:7) Yes. The thought to get a special treatment is an act like putting God to the test. The idea that only Christians must receive blessings does not give glory to God, but hide His glory. You'd better not to put God in embarassment. Let us not ask God, who gives the sunlight and rain to everybody in the world, to give the sunlight and rain only to ourselves. Let us not ask only Christians' business being prospeous. It is impossible, and also it is to put God into a test.

And then what could be the reason to believe in Jesus some people could ask. Faith could be already an event itself. ‘'Faith' means a cosmological event of salvation, so it does not need anything else. Think about it. Resurrection of life which happened to Jesus is guaranteed to us, so whatelse do we need? . Nothing else. The things you might get in this world are just small fragments. With clinging into this kind of small fragments, if you lose the foundation of faith or make an object of relativity, it could mean you put God into a test.

Lord, we don't want to test your love, but want to live with a dignity whatever happens. Amen.

The Temptation for Jesus (3)

and he was in the desert for forty days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and angels attended him.(1:13)

The first temptation that Jesus got from Satan was a request like this: "If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread."(Matthew 4:3) Satan's requests sound very interesting. He put the preposition "If you are." Jesus might receive this kind of requests lots of time from others. And also he could ask himself too, couldn't he? He could have liked to prove "if he is the Son of God or not" in any methods. One of them could be to change stones into bread.

First of all, let's ask like this. Could Jesus change stones into bread? Many Christians might think like this: of course, he could, but he did not, because he did not want to be led into temptation. Well, it might be possible. But it is meaningless to ask if Jesus has this kind of power or not. Those questions belong to the heavens of curiosity, not to the spiritual realm. These questions are ones that Satan might pay attention to.

These days when people have attentions only to reinvestment are for Satan. Modern people whose interests are just in the price of apartments, stocks, expense for education are friends of Satan's. Satan's requests to mock Jesus 2000 years ago happen to us these days over and over again. Roughly speaking, neodemocracy is Satan's ideology, what to change stones into bread is the most valuable thing to do. How do we Christians overcome this kind environment of today? What is worse, we might provide with some tests to Jesus to change stones into bread, having shoulder to shoulder with Satan?

If we are true disciples of Lord Jesus, we should be able to change Satan's request into spiritual one. And then we should ask like this. "Lord, what is a true bread to revive us?" In this sense, Christian spirituality might be an ability to differentiate worldly questions from spiritual ones. It is an ability to differentiate what kind of question could be to revive mankind and ecosystem from what could kill them.

Jesus answered like this to the request of Satan: "Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God"(Matthew 4:4) This teaching means that we need bread as well as the words of God to live a life? On the surface, it may sound like he emphasizes both bread and the words, but actually he does not. To live on bread people do without learning from anybody. Jesus does not mean we need both bread and the words. Jesus' answer focuses on the words of God only.

Yes, it is true. If people understand the words of God in proper way, they could share bread with others. Church should pay attention to only teaching properly the words of God. Church should be able to say to the world that this much of bread is enough. That is a short cut to revive mankind.

Lord, we like to live with attention only to the words through the mouth of God rather than an economical magic power to change stones into bread. Amen.

The Temptation for Jesus(2)

"…and he was in the desert for forty days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and angels attended him.” (Mark 1:13)

I don't remember it was when I was in the seminary or working as a pastor, but long time ago I was very interested in reading Nikos Kazantzakis' "The Last Temptation of Jesus". I don't remember much of "Zorba the Greek" written by the same author, but regarding that I remembered a lot of this "The Last” in a big frame, it must be touching my youthful sensibility.

This book starts with a cry of a Jewish woman whose son was executed on the cross because of having an independence movement with guns. This woman came to Jesus to condemn him. My son died on the cross you made. You would be executed on the cross too. . Since Jesus was a carpenter just like his father, Joseph, he could not avoid making crosses to sell according to Roman official's demand for execution of antigovernment criminals. Jesus was a little more sensitive and thoughtful than other kids from he was young, but he was not that special kid. When he was an adolescent, he attracted some girls when he went to the festival. Martha and Mary had special interests in him. Maybe Jesus himself had some curiosity too. But it was just a puppy love. After he became a young adult, Jesus had some serious spiritual talk with Baptist John. Sometime under the stars, they used to talk to each other, focusing on the will of God. And John went out of home first, and then Jesus followed. Just like the story in the Gospels, Jesus was killed on the cross. Just like that curse of a Jewish woman toward the person who made the cross, because of her son's death, Jesus was executed on the cross. At the moment he was losing his mind, Jesus descended from the cross and then on the white horse he was riding to go to Bethany and married Martha and Mary sisters. At those days this system of marriage did not look strange at all. Jesus lived happily with wives and son and daughter. One day the door was open, and some group of people rushed in. They were Peter, Andrew, James and John who used to be his disciples. Peter was grabbing his neck and shouted. “Such a traitor. Because you ran away from the cross, we failed in the world. Be responsible for that.” Other disciples began to do some violence to Jesus, and Jesus fell down to the earth by them. They kicked Jesus who felt down to the earth. To his stomach, neck, head and they trapped him on. Jesus was murmuring with a big headache. “I am not a traitor. I didn't run away. I am not a coward.” On the earth he threw himself down and started losing his spirit. With a big sigh he was getting his spirit again and found out he was still groaning on the cross.

Nikos Kazantzakis was describing dramatically with full imagination of a writer what the last temptation could be for Jesus being executed on the cross. His answer was that Jesus wished to live just like an ordinary Jewish young man, but is it close to the truth? Nobody knows. It might be possible or not. And that's not that important. We read a novel for the sake of novels. That's enough.

"The Last Temptation" took a great role to correct the image of Jesus for me little by little when I was young. From serious to friendly, from almighty of helpless, from the object to believe to companion for life, it changed. Through this kind of process, I could recognize Jesus as Messiah much realistically. Maybe some of you have the similar experiences like mine. But some people in Korean church, mostly the group which belong to the Christian Council of Korea would wave their hands for "The Last Temptation." I don't understand why they do not have such confidence about their own faith.

It is very fortunate for Jesus to have temptations. Beloved readers, we are not just getting temptations. The Bible is telling us Jesus got temptation under the same circumstances just like us. At the moment we face with temptation, Jesus might be in the same spot with the same kind of temptation. Let's be courageous

Lord, help us not to fear temptation. Amen

The Temptation for Jesus (01)

“…and he was in the desert for forty days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and angels attended him.” (Mark 1:13)

The author of Mark's Gospel explains that Jesus was tempted by Satan when he was in the desert for 40 days. It is not a pleasing story that he was tempted by Satan even before he started his official life to proclaim God's kingdom. The Gospel of Mark reports this event very simply but the authors of other Gospels explain these temptations in details. I will put off those three temptations like "rock to become bread, to descend from the temple, to bow down to me" for the later time, but today I like to follow the reports in Mark's Gospel and focus on the fact that Jesus was tempted by Satan.

First of all, it sounds very strange for the son of God to get temptation from Satan to us. Because it seems to be very unreasonable that the word temptation could be possible for Jesus who knows everything and has power to subdue everything. On the premise that in the Old Testament there is none of description that Yahweh God gets temptations from Satan, we even could wonder if Jesus might be in a little lower level than God. But we Christians believe Jesus has the same intrinsic nature (homosius), so we cannot take this kind of difference in quality.

And then what does it mean that the person who is the same as God got some temptations, which never occurred to God?
Temptations might happen only in case we have body. Jesus could not help these temptations because he has a body just like us, even though he is the same as God in essence. The authors of Gospels did not mention much in details, but we can assume that Jesus might have temptations all through the 3 years of his official life, not just in the 40 days in the desert before his official life. It might be possible to assume until he was clothed in resurrected body. Before the event of crucifixion, he prayed to take away the cup from him if possible, and on the cross he cried out, "God, do you forsake me?" It seems to mean that until he died Jesus was anxious about his physical limited ability, his commission, and also God's power. Or course ultimately he died on the cross with a perfect trust on God.

We, having body and soul, could not help temptations. Big or small temptations follow us just like a shadow. What we get temptations proves that we are alive in good health in the world. Just on that moment we don't have any ability to judge what's right or what's wrong, or the time to die, we finally could get away from temptations. Temptations are very fatal so that's why Jesus was teaching his disciples "not into temptation" through the Lord's Prayer, and "watch and pray so that you will not to fall into temptation" at Gethsemane. Apostle Paul's teaching like "wake up and pray always" came from the assumption that Christians face with temptations.

Nobody could live a life without any temptations, but it is evident that some people could win over temptations or the other could lose. It is not that simple to win over temptations. Satan is much wiser and more powerful than us. But those Satan's activities are valid only under sovereignty of God. If we could trust God honestly, there are no any temptations that we cannot overcome.

Lord, we are praying for a neighbor who is trapped in temptation. We pray that he could have total trust for God, who is the foundation of much more power than Satan, who is the owner of temptations.