Pyeong Hwa Gyeong: Episode 240
Pyeong Hwa Gyeong: A Selection of True Parents’ Speeches
Book 5: Absolute Values and New World Order
Speech 28: The Life of Jesus from the Perspective of God’s Will and God’s Warning to the Present Age, pg 867-871
This is not the age of blind faith
You probably never even imagined this. Christianity and Judaism need to realize even now that the Lord who tried to demolish Satan’s nation and do away with Satan’s kingship, and who tried to accomplish God’s Will and restore humanity, died a tragic death. When they realize this, they will repent and become one. They must become one and prepare to receive the Lord on his return.
Truth must conform to reason. The time has come for all Christians to free themselves from the age of blind faith, move ahead into a new age united as one, sort out this world and bring it to salvation. Therefore, you need to know that the time has come in which the word unity has become necessary.
What does it mean that Jesus suffered pain during the three days following his death? Heaven, the earth and hell all remained in the realm of death. For Jesus to gain authority over heaven and earth, he needed to encompass the depths and heights of the realm of death. In order to pursue the connection of life and go the path that could comfort God, Jesus needed to prevail, even if it meant descending into the lowest environment in hell and suffering pain.
Because Jesus passed through hell, he prepared a path by which a new beginning toward heaven is possible. Though he was cast out and isolated on earth, and finally forced to go the way of death, he was able to leave a path of hope for future generations. That is the reason Jesus had to go on his three-day course.
Jesus did not go to hell for three days just to look around. He already knew about hell. He needed to go there, pass judgment and pave the way to rise from the world of death to the world of life. In this way, he laid a foundation of victory on earth, which is a hell-like world of death, and established a starting point from which it is possible to reach heaven.
In the eyes of the religious establishment Jesus was a heretic, and in the eyes of the nation he was a destroyer of the religious law. His own clan rejected him and chased him out of his home. The group surrounding John the Baptist rejected him. He went into the wilderness, and there, even Satan pursued him. That was not all. Eventually the entire country mobilized to force him to go the way of death on the cross, the path of Golgotha.
Jesus nonetheless shed tears for the nation that was rejecting him as a traitor. The religious establishment treated Jesus as a heretic, yet he shed more blood and tears for them than any priest did. Not a single person of that age would stand at his side, although Jesus was a friend of that age. He was rejected as a traitor, yet he was the greatest patriot. He was rejected as a heretic, although he was the most devout believer.
Jesus walked a wretched path, the path of the cross, where people ripped his clothing, drove him on, and forced him to the ground. That was not all. Evil men whipped and beat him. In this situation, if Jesus had been like Elijah, he might have said to the people, “I, even I only, am left a prophet of the Lord.” (1 Kings 18:22)
When Jesus left his disciples in the garden of Gethsemane, he went to pray, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; yet not what I want but what You want.” (Matthew 26-39) This was his greatness. Though his own situation was dire, he understood that his body was a sacrificial offering for the nation, a sacrificial offering for humanity and a sacrificial offering for Heaven’s providence.
Jesus’ grief and God’s heartrending sorrow
Jesus understood his role and did not avoid his own suffering. He was more concerned about how great a sorrow God must have felt. Because Jesus had appeared for the sake of the nation, he was concerned for how great God’s sorrow was to see him rejected as a traitor. Jesus was the prince of heaven, the central person of the entire universe, and the Messiah. If he chose, he could have fallen prey to self-pity and asked why he had to go the miserable way of the cross. He could have set the entire universe in motion to breathe a deep sigh of despair with him. However, Jesus understood that his position was not to sigh in despair. Instead, he went so far as to feel apologetic toward God for having been rejected.
Jesus bore the responsibility to rally the religious establishment, rally the nation, build the kingdom of heaven and return the world to God’s bosom. Yet when he was forced to abandon that mission and walk the way of the cross, he did not feel enmity toward anyone. He did not pray, “Let this cup pass from me,” out of a fear of death. Rather, he prayed this because he knew that his death would add to the grief of the nation and to God’s grief.
Jesus knew that if he died on the cross, there would be an even heavier cross remaining for future generations of humanity. It would mean that the sorrowful history would not end. He knew that the path of Golgotha and the path of death would not end with him. He knew that if he went the way of Golgotha, those who followed him would have to go the same way.
Jesus knew that an even more difficult course lay beyond the cross. As he was made to wear a crown of thorns, and nails were hammered into his hands and feet, and his side was stabbed with a spear, Jesus knew that these events would have impact far beyond his own death. When he turned to Heaven and said, “It is finished,” he did not mean that the path of the cross for the world was finished. He meant that Heaven had received his heart’s tearful plea of concern over the cross. We need to know that Jesus comforted Heaven by taking upon himself all the mistakes committed by the prophets and patriots and offering himself as a living sacrifice.
What, then, would God’s heart have been like at this point in regard to Jesus? As He looked upon the dying Jesus, crossing the hill of the cross with concern only for Heaven, if He felt resentment toward the human world, His resentment would have been greater than any seen on earth then or at any time in the course of the four thousand years of the history of Heaven. However, as he neared death, Jesus said, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.” (Luke 23:34) God had a mind to pass judgment immediately, judgment that was even stronger than that at Noah’s time. Jesus died holding on to the nation, holding on to the religious establishment, holding on to the cross, and for this reason God did not abandon humanity; He held on to us. Because this bond of heart existed between Jesus, the future generations of humanity and the remaining people of Israel, God has been unable to abandon the religious organizations and peoples of succeeding generations who turned against Heaven, and instead has clung to them.
God, who had been carrying out the providence of restoration for four thousand years, could not complete this Will in heaven and on earth simply by the providence of Jesus’ resurrection. God established His Word as the New Testament and through it worked to bring together His Will on earth as it is in heaven and establish the promised original garden, as you may well know.
Jesus said the bread and wine that he gave us were the promise and the new covenant. After Jesus departed the earth, we received his flesh and blood. These represent the life of perfected wholeness that we must accomplish and, at the same time, the providence in its entirety. What does the fact that we received Jesus’ flesh and blood symbolize? This is not just the flesh and blood of Jesus as one individual. In a larger sense these signify heaven and earth, and in a smaller sense they signify the core, the individual body. The flesh symbolizes the truth and the blood represents the Holy Spirit. Jesus gave us all of this without condition.
What has been blocked between God and human beings? Heaven’s Will must manifest on earth, and everything on earth ultimately must connect to Heaven’s Will. In this way, heaven and earth will move toward a single goal. However, that way is blocked.
Jesus established a new promise before he departed, the promise of connecting the spirit world and earthly world. That promise remained as a condition to be fulfilled by the disciples who followed Jesus. Had Jesus not died, heaven and earth would have been connected through him. Because he died as he did, Jesus came to represent the conditions in heaven and the Holy Spirit came to represent the conditions on earth.
Now is the time to establish God’s kingdom of Cheon Il Guk
Respected guests, the time has come. Heaven’s time, for which God has been waiting six thousand years and for which Christians have been waiting two thousand years, has come. It is the time to build the kingdom of heaven on earth and in heaven on an interreligious, international and inter-NGO footing. The time of heavenly fortune finally has arrived. Jesus, Peter, James and the other disciples, plus thousands and even tens of thousands of religious leaders in the spirit world, are now of one mind and one body, and they are descending freely to the physical world to attend True Parents. Without a doubt, Cheon Il Guk, the kingdom of heaven in which heaven and earth can be as one in eternal peace, will settle on the earth.
Now is the time for America, the Christian country representing the Second Israel, to stand in the forefront. I declare to the world that America has the responsibility to guide all the world’s people, not with weapons but with truth and love and by living for the sake of others upon the foundation of true love, true life and true lineage.
In conclusion, I hope The Washington Times, United Press International, and other major media outlets will accept this lofty command from Heaven and take up the task of educating humankind, taking a stance that transcends religion and ideology. Please note that I have distributed to you a pamphlet containing messages from leaders in the spirit world. I ask that you read this carefully.
Thank you.
FFWPU, USA