30th Sunday Sermon

Christ is born!

Jesus walked truly well. Why? Today, let’s explore the answer.
One day, the Lord was walking through the city of Jericho. A blind beggar heard the roar of the crowd, “Here comes Jesus!” and cried out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”

The people scolded him and tried to silence him, but he cried out all the more loudly.
Jesus stopped, stood before the blind man, and asked, “What do you want me to do for you?”
The blind man immediately replied, “I want to see.”
Jesus replied, “Receive your sight,” and praised the man’s upright faith.
This man, whose eyes had been opened by the Lord, was filled with joy and followed the Lord with a spring in his step. And seeing this man, Jesus was also filled with joy.

What does the Lord see as he walks through the very “streets” of this world, in the midst of people’s busy lives? He must have seen the tired and poor, the sick, people who make and lose money every day, or who count their silver coins and rejoice or despair, and people who pretend to have forgotten the transience of human life and live life to the fullest, even if it means risking their lives to do so. He must have also encountered many people who were burdened by various hardships, who suffered from conflicts between people, who were troubled, frightened, fighting and hurting each other…and people who lamented the death of loved ones and cried so loudly that it seemed they were tearing the heavens apart.

Jesus was not “looking down” on such people from on high.
Jesus is the “Man of Sorrows…who has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows…who was despised and rejected by men,” as prophesied by Isaiah. He is the man who sat by a well, exhausted and thirsty in the scorching sun. He is the man who “wept,” his heart torn apart by the death of his friend. He was betrayed by one disciple and ultimately abandoned by others. Jesus sometimes expressed intense anger towards people, but he never hated them. He was spat on, mocked, whipped, and crucified. Yet he never hated them; he only prayed for them. However, he knew the pain of being hated. And so all the more, he could not help but sympathize with how those who hated him were burning in the hot flames of hatred, and with the hell they themselves were in.

Jesus knows all too well the state of death for us humans and the suffering it brings…but he did not use his divine power to respond by running up to all of us one by one and saying, “You’re in pain, I’ll save you.” With a keen awareness of their suffering and sorrow, the Lord walks on. He passes by.
He waits to be called out to: “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me.”

He who knows everything simply passes by those who have lost hope and believe that “all I can do is wait for death to come,” waiting to be called out to them: “Have mercy on me.”

Is this cold…? Is this lacking in love? No. What is there is the true love of God. There can be no entrance to the “true happiness” that God has given and promised to man unless one comes to know God as the Lord of life, understands the incredible depth of His love for man, and, believing in that love, cries out from the bottom of one’s heart and begins to pray. Over a long, long period of time, people have become increasingly sinful and have lost sight of this simple truth. This is why God became a human being and has come into this world. And he walks. As he walks, he reveals himself among people, eagerly waiting for us to call to him. This is the answer to the question at the opening: why is he walking?