ヨハネによる福音書3:16-21 John 3:16-21,
神は、その独り子をお与えになったほどに、世を愛された。（ヨハネ3:16）
神様が「世」を愛されたというのは、よく考えてみますと驚くべきことです。なぜなら、「世」とは、神様を信じないで否定するものだからです。神様は、神様を否定し神様に逆らう「世」を愛してくださいました。これは私たち人間の常識からすれば信じ難いことです。私たちは自分を愛してくれるものを愛する傾向があります。自分を愛してくれないで否定するようなものを愛するのは、私たちの自然な感情に反することです。「世」は 神様によって造られ、神様によって支えられてきました。ところが、「世」の多くの人々は造り主である神様を信じようとせず、神様の教えに従ってではなく自分の欲望に従って生きています。そうだとすれば、神様にしてみれば「世」を裁いて滅ぼすのが自然ではないでしょうか。聖書の中には、ノアの大洪水のように神様が邪悪な「世」を滅ぼしたという話もあります。
ところが、神様は「世」を愛して救おうとされたというのです。しかも、その神様の愛は「その独り子をお与えになったほど」でありました。聖書の話を長年聞いておられる方は、神様がご自身を啓示するために独り子イエス・キリストをお遣わしになったという話を、今まで何度も聞いてこられたことと思います。しかし、今日の聖書の箇所では「神は、その独り子をお遣わしになったほどに、世を愛された」とは記されていません。「神は、その独り子をお与えになったほどに、世を愛された」と記されているのです。
確かに、イエス・キリストは、この世に遣わされて来て、真理について教え、様々な奇跡を行い、神様の偉大な力を示してくださいました。しかし、キリストがこの世で成し遂げてくださったことの中心は、単なる教えや奇跡ではありませんでした。キリストが成し遂げてくださったことの中心は、私たちに代わって十字架上で死に、三日目に復活してくださったという十字架と復活のみわざでありました。 言い換えますと、キリストはこの世に来て立派な教えやすばらしい奇跡を行って「どんなもんだ、これで神の偉大さがわかったか！」と言って、意気揚々と天に引き上げて行ったというのではなかったのです。むしろ、キリストは、この世においては自分の命を犠牲としてささげて十字架の上で死に、そのあと復活して天に昇られたのでした。キリストは、世の人々のためにご自身の命を十字架の上で犠牲としてささげられたのです。すなわち、神様が独り子キリストをお与えになったのは、人類の罪を償う十字架上の犠牲としてお与えになったのであります。使徒パウロは、ローマの信徒への手紙5章8節に「わたしたちがまだ罪人であったとき、キリストがわたしたちのために死んでくださったことにより、神はわたしたちに対する愛を示されました」と記しています。神様の愛は、キリストの十字架上の犠牲によって最もよく表されているのであります。（12月24日の説教より）
Happy Christmas 2023! The season of Christmas has come again this year. First and foremost, I would like to thank God for the blessing of being able to offer Christmas service with you in this way.
An American missionary woman, Karyn Zaayenga, wrote in a Christian magazine about her memories of Christmas spent with her family as a child. It began with the preparation of the Christmas tree in the second week of December, the church service at midnight on Christmas Eve, the pile of gifts under the tree on Christmas morning, the turkey, baked potatoes and dessert pie on Christmas afternoon, and finally, her parents and three siblings together sitting by the warm crackling fireplace and enjoying the games. It was a truly happy Christmas scene. However, the missionary reflected on her childhood Christmas in this way and wrote as follows.
In this way, my family’s Christmas was the perfect, ideal family Christmas. But to whom was it “perfect”? Certainly, there were scenes of a close-knit family, but in God’s eyes, something important was missing. Because the core of the Christmas celebration had been completely forgotten. The whole family went to church together, but none of us had the faith to connect directly with Jesus. It may be very hard to understand in Japan, but in the USA, there are many people who go to church formally, because it is traditionally Christian, because everyone goes, because they have always done so, but they don’t really believe in Christ (i.e., they don’t believe in Jesus Christ as the Lord they follow with all they have and as the Saviour who saves them from sin, death and emptiness). My family was the same way. “Good” people go to church, so we spend two hours every Sunday morning at church. But the rest of the time, we were a family that lived our lives completely oblivious to God. No matter how perfect Christmas looked in our home, it was completely empty because Christ was not there. The beautiful boxes decorated with nice wrapping paper and ribbons were empty. (Karyn Zaayenga, “The Real Christmas,” trans. by MIYOSHI Akira, Hyakumannin-no Fukuin, December 2003)
Of course, this does not mean that the gift packet she received on Christmas Day was empty. Inside were new books and toys. But such joyful gifts and friendly family fellowship were only to pass away in the end. The beautiful and happy Christmas itself was just like an empty box “decorated with nice wrapping paper and ribbons,” she reflects. Indeed, if you think about it, it doesn’t have to be Christmas if you just want to experience a fleeting sense of happiness. It could be any other festival. Because Christmas is a time when we receive a gift that we can have forever. Eternal joy, eternal fellowship, eternal life – this is what the real Christmas gift should be about.
Today’s Bible verses are a very brief description of what is given to us at Christmas. In particular, John 3:16 is said to summarise the Christian gospel. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” A British pastor, Robertson Nicol, explains this verse in plain language and teaches as follows. God the Father is the “lake” that is the source of water, and Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, is the “river” that flows out of that lake. And that our faith is the “pitcher” from which we drink the water drawn from that river, and that by faith one can drink the water of eternal life.
This metaphor illustrates very well that the source of the grace we receive is the love of God the Father. But God the Father’s giving Christ, his only Son, to the world was not as simple as water flowing from a mountain to a plain. That God loved “the world” is, when you think about it, a marvellous thing. This is because “the world” is something that does not believe in God and denies him. God loved “the world” that denies him and opposes him. This is hard to believe according to our human common sense. We tend to love those who love us. It is against our natural feelings to love that which does not love us and denies us. “The world” was created by God and sustained by God. However, many people in “the world” do not believe in God as their creator and live according to their own desires, not according to God’s teachings. If this is the case, isn’t it natural for God to judge and destroy “the world”? In the Bible, there are stories of God destroying the wicked “world,” such as the flood in the time of Noah.
However, it is also said that God loved “the world” and tried to save it. Moreover, God’s love was so great that “he gave his only Son.” If you have been listening to the Bible for many years, you have probably heard many times before that God sent his only Son, Jesus Christ, to reveal himself to us. However, today’s Bible passage does not say that “God so loved the world that he sent his only Son.” It says: “God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son.”
It is true that Jesus Christ was sent into the world to teach the truth, perform various miracles and demonstrate God’s great power. But the focus of what Christ accomplished in the world was not mere teachings or miracles. The focus of what Christ accomplished was the work of the cross and resurrection, in which he died on the cross on our behalf and resurrected on the third day. Did Christ come into the world, perform wonderful miracles and teach splendid things, and then say, “Well, now you know how great God is!” and then was he lifted up triumphantly into heaven? No! Rather, Christ died on the cross, offering his life as a sacrifice for salvation of the world, and then rose again and ascended into heaven. Christ offered his life as a sacrifice on the cross for the sake of the world. In other words, God gave Christ, his only Son, as a sacrifice on the cross to atone for the sins of mankind. The Apostle Paul wrote in Romans 5:8: “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” God’s love is best expressed by Christ’s sacrifice on the cross.
God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, “that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” In order to receive the immense grace of Christ’s “eternal life,” all we human beings can do is to “believe.” In other words, by believing that God’s only Son, Jesus Christ, died on the cross for mankind and for me and rose again on the third day, we can receive Christ’s grace of “eternal life.” Believing in the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ means, in other words, receiving God’s work of reconciliation. It means grabbing back the hand that God has held out to us and shaking the hand of reconciliation. This is because by believing that Christ’s cross and resurrection were for our salvation, the efficacy of the forgiveness of sins is extended to us, so that we are forgiven of our sins, justified before God and restored to a right relationship with God.
In Romans 5:9-10, immediately following the passage just quoted, Paul writes as follows.
Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.
If God forgives our sins and count us as righteous, we are saved from God’s wrath. Being saved from God’s wrath means not only being saved from God’s wrath now, but also being saved from God’s wrath at the Last Judgement in the Last Day. Because we have been reconciled to God by faith in Christ, and God is on our side. And if God is on our side, we are not only saved from God’s wrath, but we are also given eternal life like Christ. Think about it. If we are reconciled to someone with whom we have been at odds and closed fellowship for some reason, and we shake hands with an open heart, that reconciliation will give us great power. And if we are reconciled and shake hands with God, the creator and ruler of the whole world and universe, how much more power will be given to us! If we are reconciled to the One who is the source of life, who created us and gave us life, we can have eternal fellowship with him and receive eternal life.
Eternal life, of course, ultimately refers to eternal life in the world to come. In other words, it is the eternal life that those united to Christ will receive in the resurrection of the Last Day. But eternal life also means the life that those who have been reconciled to God through Christ will receive in their fellowship with God in this world. Being in right fellowship with God in this earthly life gives us the power to live anew day by day. And by being reconciled to God, even those who have been enemies can be reconciled to each other through God and share in the power of new life.
There is a person called Ikuko Williams, who graduated from a theological graduate course in the UK and became a pastor of church. She used to be a hospital chaplain in the UK, but now lives in Japan and shares her experience of reconciliation at universities and churches in Japan, teaching about how people can be reconciled to each other when they have been enemies. The following account of Ikuko Williams’ experience appeared in a newspaper on 1 June this year.
Ikuko Williams went to the UK with her British husband on 7 January 1989. That was the day Emperor Showa of Japan died. The news of Emperor Showa’s death was widely reported in the UK. And British newspapers and television reported day after day on the voices of former soldiers who had been prisoners of war in South East Asia during World War II and had experienced the harshness of the war. A British popular newspaper even wrote that hell awaits the Emperor. Ikuko was shocked that Japan was hated to such an extent, and she began to think that she, as a Japanese, wanted to work for reconciliation. The newspaper article is quoted verbatim from here.
Christmas Eve, one year. Ikuko-san visited the hospital as a minister. An elderly man looked lonely and alone. When she visited his hospital room, he said he was sorry to leave his wife alone on Christmas Eve. When she prayed at his bedside, he gradually became more peaceful. Ikuko-san said “Merry Christmas” and left the hospital. The man was a former POW. He had witnessed the atrocities committed by the Japanese on the Burmese front. He decided not to speak to Japanese people for the rest of his life. A few days later, a colleague told her that this elderly man had confided in him. The elderly man also said, “When she prayed together, the feeling that ‘only the Japanese are unforgivable’ suddenly disappeared.”
Ikuko-san recalls, “It’s been 20 years since I sincerely faced the people I met. I was finally able to reconcile with them and I too was saved.” (Asahi Shimbun, 1 June 2023, evening edition, trans. by MIYOSHI Akira).
Eternal life is given even in the life of this world. by being reconciled to God through Christ. And eternal life is something we can share with our neighbour by being reconciled to him/her through God. Sometimes we look at the riches we see with the naked eye and compare ourselves with our neighbour and say I don’t have this or I don’t have that. When we do this, we grumble and complain to God, and we become envious and hateful towards our neighbour. But when we look at the cross of Jesus Christ, we can know the love of God who loved us enough to give his only Son. And in that love of God, we can be reconciled to God and reconciled to our neighbour. The real gift of Christmas is the eternal life that is given to us through this reconciliation with God the Father, and which we can also share with our neighbour by being reconciled to God.
Karyn Zaayenga, the woman missionary introduced at the beginning of today’s sermon, poses the following question to her readers in her Christmas message.
Many of our readers may be discouraged and wonder why their lives are not going so far as they would like. If so, the Christmas season can be a particularly difficult time. However, it is important not to think, “Oh, if only I had been married,” “If only I had children,” “If only my husband were a believer,” “If only my father (or mother) were alive…” and so on, and not to focus on what you do not have. If you are constantly looking at what you don’t have and dwelling in sadness, you are missing out on the true joy of the season.
Is focusing only on what you don’t have and being sad all the time, a way of embracing God’s reconciliation? Is that not turning our backs on the God who is reaching out to us in reconciliation? In this Christmas season, let us remember again the love of God who gave us his only Son. We want to remember once more deeply the love of God who gave us his only Son, Jesus Christ, to give us forgiveness of sins and eternal life, when we had turned our backs on God. This woman missionary concludes her Christmas message with the following prayer. “May we receive and be thankful for the gift God is giving us. May we focus our minds on the greatest gift of all, the only Son of God, and how we can share that gift with others.” Reconciliation with God and with our neighbour is a very heavy and big task for us human beings. But if we focus our thoughts on Jesus Christ, we realise that the gift is given to us as a source of strength to take on that heavy and big task.