Jesus Without, Jesus Within

Today marks the seventh Sunday of Easter and the Ascension of Jesus. According to Acts 1: 3, Jesus appeared to his disciples several times over 40 days and told about the things of the kingdom of God. What do you think when asked about the Ascension of Jesus? Isn't that an amazing scene Jesus ascending to Heaven?

In a way, after Jesus came to the lowest position of the death of the cross, he rebounded and experienced the moment of victory called resurrection, and ascension is the scene like the finale of the resurrection. However, if we read the Bible more carefully, we can see that the Bible focuses more on resurrection than ascension. When we say that Jesus was glorified, the content is mainly related to the resurrection.

How should we understand the meaning of this ascension? The details of Jesus' activity on the earth for 40 days after the resurrection are not described in detail, and the scene of Jesus ascending is not depicted by Jesus himself or the Bible in such a magnificent form. The reason seems to be understandable if you think about it. If you draw a picture, this ascension scene will be a great scene, but if you ponder it, ascension is a very worrying event. Because through ascension, Jesus came to no longer exist on earth.

The disciples were able to live like Jesus for 40 days after the resurrection, but because of the ascension, Jesus is no longer on earth. Now the disciples must live without Jesus. I think Jesus was also worried about the things he was going to leave the earth. We know that disciples who had a lot of problems. Jesus would not feel comfortable.

If you look at the text of the book of Acts we read, Jesus gathered his disciples told them what to do in the future. I think you have said it many times. Nevertheless, the disciples still seemed unable to understand what Jesus wanted. The reason that Jesus came to the earth, crucified, died, resurrected, and ascended is for the kingdom of God.

According to Acts 1:3, after his suffering, he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God. This kingdom of God is the reason that Jesus came to the earth and the reason of the cross and the resurrection. It seems that the disciples still misunderstood this kingdom of God. Looking at the scripture of the book of Acts read today, what was the disciples' question? Jesus, when will Israel be restored?

That was my biggest concern. Think about it. Are we not aware of the suffering that the Israelites were experiencing then? Under Roman oppression, the temple was insulted, unable to live a religious life at will, and in many ways economically, politically and culturally condemned by Rome, thinking of the splendid prosperity of the ancient Solomon and Davidic eras. The Israelites were eagerly waiting for their nation to recover.

And as we read in the Bible, many of the disciples were expecting that Jesus would become a great king and become the Messiah, restoring Israel, and then disciples could take these important positions. As for the meaning of the kingdom of God, the disciples were thinking of the kingdom of God in connection with the riches that they can enjoy on this earth. What was the heart of Jesus putting these people on the earth and going to heaven? I think Jesus must have been very worried when thinking about his disciples. In fact, Jesus has spoken many times about the kingdom of God, that Jesus wants to achieve on this earth.

The disciples simply didn't understand it. All of the parables Jesus told were about the kingdom of God. And many times before Jesus dies on the cross, he said that he will no longer be with them and disciples will have to live without him. Jesus also said that without him, disciples will have to live a life of witnessing this gospel and preaching the kingdom of God. It is written in the Gospel of John that we read today.

The words in John 17 is a conversation that Jesus gathered and shared with his disciples before he died on the cross. This is the scripture from the Bible that we know as the interference of the high priest of Jesus. In this passage, you know that Jesus is about to leave the world and pray for God's disciples to keep them safe while worrying for them. And this is the content of John 17 and the surrounding chapters that he tells his disciples many times.

As we saw in verse 11, Jesus prayed like this. I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, so that they may be one as we are one. This was Jesus' greatest concern. When we think about this, we think that ascension is not an event that can be thought of as just being happy and glorious, but a big challenge and a great assignment for us.

Jesus still rules the whole world as the son of God, but he no longer joins us by holding our hands close to us and interfering in what we do. How much has it changed? Don't we feel the difference between physically meeting someone and having a relationship apart from each other?

However, even when we are physically separated, we realize that it does not mean that we cannot have a relationship with anyone at all. Because of this COVID-19, we worship online but we somehow feel connected. You know clearly that there will be a situation where you will be unable to deliver. He told me many times about how to live life without Jesus.

There is a gap between these two pictures, the kingdom of God that Jesus said and the kingdom of God that the disciples thought and expected. What we must realize today as we read these words is how to bridge this gap. What is the difference between the kingdom of God that Jesus presented and the kingdom of God that the disciples expected? I'm going to use the word Utopia to find some key to this problem.

Utopia is a very popular word since Thomas More published a book titled Utopia in the early 16th century. The original meaning of the word utopia is a word made by combining the prefix ‘ou’ with the stem ‘topos’. The word ‘ou’ means non-existent. 'Topos' will be a place. Utopia literally means “no place.” Because it is such an ideal world that is so ideal and perfect, the meaning of utopia was created in the sense that it is a virtual world that cannot exist on this earth.

Utopia, however, is so perfect, as the prefix 'ou' says, that there was a lot of difficulty in reality and that it could be distorted a lot. So there was a lot of contradiction in most of Utopia's affairs, and behind that there were always people who enjoyed great privileges in the world of Utopia and who suffered more from the opposite. So the word Utopia itself is not so positive for many today.

Once you say the word utopia, don't you see it with a very doubtful eye? Dystopia is another word that reveals this aspect of utopia. In dystopia, the word 'dys-' is connected to the same topos. The 'dys-' means something bad. It's a bad place.

Dystopia refers to a society that is greatly affected by some catastrophe in the future of humanity, but it is not simply a general catastrophe, but a utopia, but as it turns out, it reveals the wrong side of utopia in the sense that there was a great contradiction. The word dystopia is used a lot in the sense. As for the dystopia literature that we are familiar with, there are such wonderful novels as <New World> and <1984>.

Aren't many science fiction films today making movies from a dystopia perspective? With the advancement of science and technology, there has been a tremendous advancement in civilization, but because of it there is a gap between rich and poor. There is injustice. It depicts a future with injustice. I wonder if the picture the disciples were drawing in the book of Acts was the same as Utopia. They kept staring at the sky looking at the ascended Jesus. Someone appeared and scolded them, asking why they were looking up at the sky.

The future ideal of their thoughts was that God intervened in history with absolute power, presumably overpowering all the evil powers on earth by falling from the sky or creating a great supernatural event. It seems that God expected to build a perfect nation like Utopia on earth. It may not be the perfect country for them to see, but in their opinion they wanted a country where their own people were masters and all other peoples were eventually ruled by them. In that sense, we see a negative picture of utopia here.

It was their idea that there was still some greed on this earth, and that they were interested in power on this earth, but relied on Heaven's help for how to achieve it. The kingdom of God we think can be similar if we do something wrong. There are many things we don't like living on this earth. There is clear injustice and evil. And God is eagerly looking forward to establishing the kingdom of God in this country.

But the way in which we hope God's kingdom will be achieved is through an amazing miracle that God has ascended to heaven, and now that Jesus is in heaven, we are using heaven's power to use heaven's supernatural powers to bring disaster to this land, or to make super-historic interference in this land, so that the ideal country that we want to be built on this land.

If you look at the scripture in Acts today, we can make a very in-depth discovery of this problem. As the disciples looked at Jesus ascended, they focused their attention on the heavens and expected some help from heaven, but what command did Jesus give them? You will soon receive the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit will give you power, and then you will be empowered to reach Jerusalem, Judah, Samaria, and the ends of the earth to be my witnesses.

It was Jesus' command to preach the kingdom of God on this earth beyond geographical and historical boundaries. And based on the story of the people in white clothes in the book of Acts, Jesus ascended and will not be eternally in the kingdom of heaven, but will come down to earth again in time. After all, Heaven and this land cannot be thought of separately.

Because we are rotten, fallen, and controlled by the devil, we want to give up on this land and go to heaven and live in a perfect paradise in any way aside from everything that is done on this earth. But for Jesus, this is not the case. It was Jesus' request to remain in this troubled world. Is Jesus resentful? Don’t you feel like If Jesus really loves us, he should take us with you when he ascends? And we take all those who are not evil on earth. Why did you leave us in this troubled world? Don't you think like that?

There is suffering in this world we live in. We have clearly realized from the scripture of 1 Peter that the suffering is inevitable. Jesus does not guarantee us a life without pain. Jesus did not pray to God to keep his disciples from suffering. Pain is inevitable in this world. Because this world we live in is not a perfect world. It's because you're not living in Utopia which cannot exist.

In some ways, Jesus' ascension presents a very important challenge to our attitude of faith. It is the word of Jesus who ascended to heaven that he should no longer look only at heaven, but look to this land, to Jerusalem, Judah, Samaria, and to the end of the earth, and live in the land to fulfill God's mission. After all, it is to live without Jesus but according to the will of Jesus. We haven't read it today, but if you look at John 16, Jesus said this while praying and asking for the disciples Jesus would leave on the earth. I give you the Holy Spirit as the Comforter.

Today’s scripture says “But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things  and will remind you of everything I have said to you.” That very Jesus will be Jesus Within, Jesus within us. It is said that Jesus is in us. The fact that we are in Jesus seems to mean the same thing.

In other words, it is not the appearance of Jesus that we can physically touch and look at only outside of us, but we confess that Jesus is always with us beyond physicality. I've talked about utopia and I talked about dystopia, but I'd like to suggest some third words besides the words utopia and dystopia. As I search on the internet, people haven't used this word much yet. However, there are some people who have already used it. It is Eutopia rather than Utopia.

It is a topia prefixed with Eu. It's ambiguous to pronounce. Utopia or Utopia or I will pronounce it as Eutopia for convenience. What does the prefix EU mean? It means good. So when I say Euangelion meaning the gospel, the EU is in front. You can think of Eutopia as a good place or a blessed place. And those who write Eutopia do not refer to this word as an ideal society that is so perfect, unlike Utopia, that it cannot be realized on earth, but rather an ideal society that can be realized on earth.

In other words, we can think of a country that we can realistically build on this troubled land that is not the form of heaven in that sky that has nothing to do with it. In this regard, the mission that Jesus entrusted to us is to abandon the utopian dreams that cannot be built on this earth and cannot be experienced on this earth, I think it is Jesus' command to not give up and compromise with evil just because this land is like a dystopia, but to live a life that makes this land a good land by constantly proving the gospel and practicing the gospel.

I think that it is the mission that Jesus left us as we go up to heaven. As I read the scripture today, I thought of the parable of the talents of Matthew 25. I think that Jesus is exactly the same person who left the talents in the parable of Matthew 25. Jesus went to heaven, but rather than coming to call us there, he came back to earth and made us realize that he is coming back to figure out what kind of life we have lived.

In other words, this ascension is the return of our life to Jesus. You can think of it as a kind of sign that you will come back to that period of complete completion and waiting for Jesus to judge. Through the ascension, we have entered the stage where we have to live our lives on earth without Jesus. When learning to drive, the instructor will probably ride next to you at first. So, there are times when it is dangerous to hold the brake and turn the handle. You can learn driving with confidence.

But in the end, we have to learn how to drive without an instructor next to us. The reason why Jesus ascended to heaven is that he left us to listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit as he was in our hearts so that we could drive ourselves through the voice of the Holy Spirit and live in this world. Our mission is to preach this gospel to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and all the ends of the earth. This gospel is the gospel of Father God and his son Jesus Christ, and it is the mission that everyone can be saved by understanding his will by knowing him.

Although we cannot physically meet Jesus, I hope that because Jesus is in my heart and we are in Jesus, we will be the hands and feet of Jesus to live Jesus' life in this land. May the Holy Spirit give us great power and wisdom for us on this path. We will meditate for a moment while thinking of God's will for us.