The Lord Is My Good Shepherd

The title of the words I would consider together with you is “The Lord Is My Good Shepherd.” Under such a title, I will speak for a while. Because of the fall, human beings do not have a master to attend to. And even all things have come to lose their master.

Among the isms (主義) and assertions (主張) of human beings today, there is not one that has well-up from a true master. Because human beings are in such an incomplete state, they seek to shed this and find what is complete, and they seek to escape anxiety and find peace.

Through the fall, human beings lost the master of life and love and hope.

Originally, the purpose for which God created human beings was that human beings should live singing an eternal ideal in an eternal garden of love, centering on eternal life.

Yet because human beings, by falling, came to lose this, God has been toiling through long history to find this again for human beings.

Moreover, all human beings are placed in a destiny in which they cannot but go until they become possessors of a true mind by making the body, which does not follow the mind, follow the mind. But that does not come about naturally. One must resolve upon death and pass through a history of every suffering and struggle.

Then how must we break through this road of destiny, which is thus cosmically blocked? This road of destiny is a han-bound pass (한) that we human beings have until now been unable to cross and have agonized over; and before human beings cross such a pass of destiny, they cannot go seeking the original true master, that is, the one who is the protagonist of goodness and love and the ideal.

That is why God, who is such a protagonist, has carried out for six thousand years the Providence of salvation of drawing fallen human beings up again, centering on that ideal of rejoicing together and living together with original human beings.

Though we have longed for the original ideal garden centering on God, because we are deficient and unfinished, we must examine ourselves, who are walking a course of battle to reach the complete standard, and not only that, we must be able to examine the countless Satanic forces and evil people who block us round about.

And further, we must become ones who, examining the grievous heart of God, who toils inwardly and outwardly in order to draw us up out of darkness, can fight and defeat the forces of evil and thereby settle this whole grief, this whole grievance.

Otherwise, we cannot pass through the course of Restoration, and if we do not pass through the course of Restoration, we will be unable to face the Father, who comes as the true protagonist at the Last Days.

God bears the responsibility of leading all human beings to that one garden where they can meet the eternal protagonist, to establish fallen human beings as human beings of life. That is why God sent Jesus Christ to weak and deficient human beings as the center of life and as the center of hope and love.

Not only that, God did not make it so that we meet that center of hope, whom we must meet, at the end of a historical hope, but established him as one who is present within our actual living and breathes new life into us and accomplishes God’s hope. We must become one before the grace of God, who has thus set the center of hope and life within our living, and must attend to that true protagonist and accomplish God’s will.

Unless we take hold of such a cosmic protagonist, Jesus Christ, the cosmic central being of life, that is, Jesus Christ, who leads the road we are to walk, we will not be able to find hope, nor will we be able to find life and the ideal.

For us to become one with Jesus, the center of hope, that is, the center of love and the center of life, we must commune with his inner circumstances and outer circumstances, by which he has worked and fought until now to accomplish the will God dispenses. Otherwise, we cannot become one with Jesus, who is the true protagonist, and neither can we become one with God the Creator.

You must consider what road of toil Jesus, who can thus be the protagonist of life for all human beings, the protagonist of love, and the center of the ideal, walked to find one person such as myself.

Jesus was born pitiably upon this earth and lived a pitiable life. He fought the forces of evil while receiving indescribable contempt, and he died without gaining a comrade who truly became one on his side. Not only that, but after Jesus died, he has been fighting for thousands of years until today to drive out Satan, who torments human beings. You must know that Jesus is thus passing his time with a grievous heart we cannot imagine.

In the passage read at this hour, the words that the shepherd separates the sheep and the goats, setting the sheep on the right and the goats on the left, foretell that a time of final judgment comes when God will discern all peoples and separate the good band to the right and the evil band to the left. On such a day of judgment, on the basis of what condition will He separate them to the left and right? You must know that the condition of judgment is set up because of the whole course of Jesus’ life, from his birth to his death.

Then what must we do, who would become one with Jesus Christ? We must model upon Jesus’ entire course of life and walk such a road, and must grasp through experience (체휼) the inner and outer heart he felt, and must think what he thought, and must take his hope as my hope.

If not, we cannot become one with Jesus and cannot attend to him as our protagonist. Moreover, if no one can help Jesus — who has become the protagonist of all human beings and is bearing alone the responsibility of the historical battle with Satan — and fight in his place and take over and carry out his work in his place, then God’s will of sending him as the savior of human beings and saving human beings will by no means be accomplished.

If it becomes so, human beings likewise cannot attend to God the Creator as Parent. This is because fallen human beings can approach God only through Jesus.

Also, when we consider ourselves who live within the realm of the fall, you must feel that if the course of life Jesus could not fully walk and the historical destiny that must be crossed remain with us just as they are, we cannot attend Jesus as master and cannot attend God as our eternal Father.

Furthermore, in the Bible passage read to you, there are words concerning Jesus’ circumstances of being hungry and his circumstances of being thirsty, and his circumstances of being a stranger, his circumstances of being naked, his circumstances of being sick, his circumstances of being shut up in prison. And it foretells that Jesus, having returned, will say to the band on the right, “When I was in such difficult circumstances, you helped me.”

You must bear in mind that these words were not spoken to inform the disciples who followed Jesus during his lifetime but were words counseling the Christians of the Last Days who will undergo judgment.

Here, his saying that he was hungry and thirsty symbolizes the indescribably sorrowful circumstances the Lord felt. And because Jesus felt an indescribable loneliness, he spoke of the circumstances of being a stranger, and because he underwent unjust suffering, he spoke of the circumstances of being shut up in prison.

The course of life of Jesus, who foretold that the Lord of the Second Advent would undergo such circumstances at the Last Days, was indeed a road of grief and sorrow and pain that others cannot even imagine, in the midst of which no one sympathized with him. You must know that he lived such a painful life from the time he was born.

We must form a direct relationship with Jesus, who thus walked his course of life while enduring pain, and must ourselves feel the grief and loneliness he grasped through experience. Otherwise we stand in a position that has nothing whatsoever to do with him, who walked a heavenly course of life.

Upon the earth, Jesus walked a grievous and lonely and painful road for a lifetime of some thirty years, and after ascending, he has walked a grievous and lonely road for two thousand years until today. Yet Jesus did not walk such a road for his own sake. It was because of us fallen human beings—that is, to find fallen human beings and set them before God—that he willingly walked that road of pain.

There were times when Jesus was hungry, times when he was thirsty, and times when he was sick; times when he became a stranger, and times when he was shut up. And Jesus felt such difficult circumstances not only on the outward plane but also on the inner plane. In the people of Israel, who ought to have taken over God’s will, dispensed it for four thousand years, and accomplished that will, Jesus felt that God’s life had dried up and felt that God’s hope had dried up.

That is why, to take responsibility for this, Jesus became an utterly solitary stranger and wandered through every part of Israel, seeking out the Jewish people.

Originally it was the Jewish people who ought to have walked such a road. But because the Jewish people did not walk such a road, Jesus, on their behalf, walked such a road as a stranger among people who did not receive him at all, in order to find true sons and daughters of God and to establish true life and love.

Also, because the people of Israel, who ought themselves to have been in a position of undergoing pain and being shut up, had forgotten that fact, Jesus was in a position of undergoing pain and being shut up on their behalf.

We must know that Jesus, who walked such a life and died, has been coming seeking us with the same heart until now, even after resurrecting and ascending. In other words, Jesus is not enjoying splendor with a glad heart or living freely; at this very hour he sympathizes with the pitiable human beings of this earth who are undergoing extreme hunger and thirst inwardly and outwardly, and is anxious for the saints who wander seeking the true road of life, and he himself, being in infinite pain, is in an unfree position on behalf of the saints who are bound. That is why you must know the circumstances of Jesus, who, though he has left this earth and is in the heavenly kingdom, is in a position of being unable to rejoice together with God for even a moment.

Jesus, sharing out bread and wine to his twelve beloved disciples, said, “From now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the day I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom”; these are words meaning that Jesus too cannot be at peace before the grief of all the human beings of this earth is resolved. We must know such circumstances and must not let it be that because of any one of us Jesus is made still lonelier and undergoes pain and is bound.

We ourselves must grasp through experience all these circumstances with mind and body and know Jesus’ circumstances and fight and win victory against Satan in Jesus’ place and thereby resolve God’s anxiety. If we do not become such people as can be anxious for the human beings of this earth in Jesus’ place, we will be unable to face Jesus when he comes to this earth at the Last Days.

The grievous circumstances of Jesus, who was pierced with sorrow and loneliness and pain while passing through a life of some thirty years of suffering and a long providential course of two thousand years, must not stop with Jesus alone. We must take those grievous circumstances of Jesus upon ourselves and console Jesus. If we do not become such, we cannot go forth before Jesus and cannot face Jesus and call him Lord. That is why we must offer up our whole lives and live a life of communing with Jesus’ circumstances with mind and body. You must know that this is more important than anything.

Although Jesus came to this earth as the true master, he is not being wholly attended to as master by human beings. And though Jesus is working to accomplish God’s will, he is in a position where he cannot govern with joy even all the things that were created for God’s will. This is because human beings are still bound within sorrow and distress and loneliness and because God’s will has not been completely accomplished. Jesus thus cannot govern all things with joy unless he is in a glorious position through the complete accomplishment of God’s will.

Then what must we do to meet the true master of glory and joy? We must first become selves who can gladden the Lord by resolving the grief of the Lord that has piled up in the course of history. Otherwise, Jesus cannot govern us. And if Jesus cannot govern us, God likewise cannot govern us.

Furthermore, if we cannot wholly receive Jesus’ governance, we cannot form a complete bond of love with Jesus and, accordingly, cannot attend to Jesus as the true protagonist.

If elements that make Christ grievous, make him lonely, make him painful, and bind (拘束) him remain in you yourselves, on the day Christ returns, you will be unable to stand before Christ.

Furthermore, if you cannot set up a center by which you can take responsibility for Jesus’ grief on behalf of history, you will be unable to stand as one governed before Jesus, who has borne the historical Providence.

If there is a hope by which Jesus wishes to govern one person such as myself, that will be a cosmic hope; and if there is a will that Jesus has set up, that will too be a cosmic will. Not only that, even if there is a love and glory he desires, it will not be a love and glory for himself alone but a cosmic love and glory.

Then is there grief in you yourselves today?

Is there loneliness and pain?

Are you perhaps being bound? It must not be that the Lord, who is the cosmic protagonist, undergoes such sorrow and loneliness or pain because of you. This is because, since we are related to Jesus, even the small sorrow of one person such as myself, or even a pain, does not end in me alone but reaches all the way to Jesus.

If my grief is piercing, this becomes the grief of Jesus, who governs all things; if there is loneliness in me, this becomes the loneliness of Jesus, who is the master of all things; and if there is pain in me, this becomes the pain of Jesus, who stands in place of the Cosmos. Therefore, unless you settle and overcome grief and pain within your living, you will be unable to attend to Jesus, the cosmic protagonist, as the protagonist of your life. If it becomes so, instead of Jesus coming to you, Satan will invade, and you will have no way to block it.

Moreover, if you cannot commune with Jesus’ circumstances, the circumstances of Jesus, who has taken responsibility for the historical Providence and fought, cannot be conveyed to you; and if you do not become ones who can stand in place of God’s will, Jesus’ grief will not be resolved, and you will be unable to gain victory in the battle with Satan and return that glory before Heaven.

You must know that Jesus feels the grief of each individual as the grief of the whole and is anxious. This is because each of us is one individual and yet a part of the whole. Therefore, unless each of you individually, as a partial being, stands in place of the standard of the whole and reaches the completed standard, Jesus’ whole will cannot be fulfilled.

In other words, if one person, such as myself, is not perfected, the entire will that Jesus is establishing is not accomplished; and as long as the entire will is not accomplished, Jesus cannot govern us as the good shepherd representing the complete.

If it becomes so, God’s love, God’s hope, and God’s life cannot form a direct relationship with us. Jesus has been working for a long time to appear before God’s will as the substance of hope and to appear as the cosmic substance of life and the cosmic substance of love.

Today we, as sheep led by such a shepherd, must stand in a position where when he moves, I too move; when he is still, I too am still; and when he rejoices, I too rejoice.

Otherwise, God’s will of seeking to resolve the cosmic grievance through Jesus is not accomplished through Jesus and, at the same time, is not accomplished through me.

And so, although you are tiny individuals, you must stand in place of the cosmic good shepherd and must live attending him; and even though there will be times when you undergo grief and loneliness or pain within your living, you must overcome those difficulties by thinking of the circumstances of Jesus, who is distressed more than I am.

You must bear in mind that if you do not know how to live such a life, you cannot take part in the position of glory of Jesus, who is the good shepherd.