フィリピの信徒への手紙3:12-14
兄弟たち、わたし自身は既に捕らえたとは思っていません。なすべきことはただ一つ、後ろのものを忘れ、前のものに全身を向けつつ、神がキリスト・イエスによって上へ召して、お与えになる賞を得るために、目標を目指してひたすら走ることです。
（フィリピ3:13-14）
クリスチャンは「目標を目指してひたすら走る」者です。この「目標」というのが、終わりの日の復活と永遠の命であるということは、何度も繰り返し申し上げてきたことです。興味深いのは、この「ひたすら走る」と翻訳されているディオーコーという新約聖書のギリシア語のニュアンスです。確かに、この言葉には「走る」という意味があるのですが、ただ軽やかに走るというのとは違うニュアンスがあります。それは英語の聖書を読むとよくわかります。この言葉は英語の聖書では、しばしばプレス・オンと翻訳されています。プレスというのは「押す」ということで、プレス・オンというと困難を排して「押し進む」ということです。つまり、永遠の命を目指して進む歩みは、決して鼻歌まじりでスキップして走るような軽い歩みではないのです。それは、向かい風の中を、嵐の中を、霧の中を押し進むような歩みなのです。私たちが永遠の命を目指して進もうとすると、私たちの心の中でも、また私たちを取り巻く外部の状況においても、それを妨げようとする力が働くものです。不信仰な思いがわき上がり、迫害の逆風が吹くものなのです。そして、そのような逆風の中を「押し進む」のがキリストを信じる者の前進の仕方なのであります。
私たちは、この世でいかに多くの試練や困難を乗り越えたとしても、さらに進むべき道があり、目指すべき目標があります。言い換えますと、この世に生きている限り最終的な安住の場所はないし人生の完成はないということです。山をいくつも越え、谷をいくつも渡った後で、最後に最も深い谷を渡り最も高い山に登らなければならないのです。それは、この地上の肉体の死ということです。イエス・キリストのおそばに行って、キリストと同じ永遠の命を受けるためには、この地上の肉体の死という最も深い谷を渡り、最も高い山を登らなければならないのです。どのようにして、私たちはその最も深い谷を渡り、その最も高い山に登ることができるのでしょうか？「キリストに捕らえられて」です。つまり、私たちに先立って歩んでくださったキリストが命綱をしっかりと私たちに結んでくださっているから、その命綱に信頼して最も深い谷を渡り最も高い山に登ることができるのです。このように、キリストに捕らえられて歩むということは、目指す目的地にいる方と命綱で結ばれて歩むというまことに幸いなことなのであります。（4月21日の説教より）
The Christian life is a life of constant progress towards a goal. And that goal is resurrection and eternal life at the Last Day. Of course, it is natural and right for a person to have a goal to achieve something good in one’s life here on earth. However, for Christians, achieving something on earth is not the ultimate goal.
Ms. HIROOKA Asako, the model for the heroine in NHK’s 2014 TV series “Asa-ga Kita” (Asa’s Coming), was a so-called woman entrepreneur who founded and managed businesses such as a coal mine, a bank and an insurance company at a time when women’s social status was hardly recognised. She was also an educator who devoted herself to the establishment of Japan Women’s University in Mejiro, the first women’s university in Japan, and gave good moral guidance to women university students. Normally, having achieved so much in society, she would have enjoyed the rest of her life doing whatever she liked, even indulging in her hobbies. However, Ms. HIROOKA sought the path of the Christian faith after the age of 60 and was baptised, after which she served the mission of Christianity until she was called to heaven at the age of 70. Ms. HIROOKA’s search for the path of the Christian faith was triggered by the fact that when she underwent surgery for breast cancer, she felt a great power, leaving all things completely up to heaven. But that was not all, in fact, Ms. HIROOKA states in her autobiography book that everything in her life up to that point had been led by God. The text of her autobiography is difficult to understand in words, so I will rewrite it and quote it in a clearer way, roughly as follows.
I have been a non-Christian for forty-five or six years, dealing with various societies, all kinds of difficulties and tempting circumstances. When I look back on this long lifetime of activity, there are countless times when I have been rescued from the brink. Those were the times, when I would have destroyed not only myself but also my whole family as if the train had derailed and overturned. But each time, I was able to find a ray of light on the path and proceeded, clearing away the clouds and fog that surrounded me and setting a course of action. When I look at the marks of my efforts, which I continued to make until I reached old age, I cannot help but shed tears for the fact that even as a non-Christian, there was nothing short of the grace of my heavenly Father, who was always so generous to me. (Hito-wo Oshorezu Ten-wo Aoide: Hukkan Issyu Isshin [Look up to Heaven Without Fear of Man, reprinted “One Week, One Belief”], Shinkyo Shuppansha, 2015, 139-140. Translated by MIYOSHI Akira)
Ms. HIROOKA then concludes by saying as follows.
If I had pushed through this lifetime in stubbornness and in defiance of God, I would have been buried from darkness to darkness, unaware of this unmerited grace, even though my material life was rich. My soul would have fallen into the shadow of death. But because I was able to repent through Christ, I was able to become aware of the grace and power that is truly from heaven. Without this awareness, I would not have had the honour of being a child of God, which I could never have received. (Ibid., 141-142)
Ms. HIROOKA states that her life has been led in order to receive the honour of being a child of God. She is not proud of her accomplishments, but is focused on how God has been leading her life and what God is trying to give her. What about us? Do we ever feel proud of what we have done, fixated on what we have done, saying that we have done this or that? When we are proud of ourselves, our gratitude for how God has led us becomes weak. And when our gratitude for how God has led us is weak, we tend to lose sight of the goal God has given us. So what attitude should we have in our lives so that we do not lose sight of the goal God has given us?
The apostle Paul was a man who was very clear about the goal of his life. In verses 10 and 11, immediately preceding today’s passage, Paul writes: “My one desire is to know Christ and the power of his resurrection, and to share his sufferings in growing conformity with his death, in hope of somehow attaining the resurrection from the dead” (REB). Christianity teaches that those who believe in Christ, when their bodies die, their souls are called to heaven to live on, and they will be resurrected with bodies of eternal life on the Last Day. Paul’s goal was to receive eternal life in its fullness through the resurrection on the Last Day.
You might take this for granted in the case of a Christian preacher like Paul. But this is not so easy to take for granted. Because just as a businessman aims to do a great job as a businessman, it is natural for a preacher to aim to do a great job as a preacher. Of course, Paul lived his life with a specific goal in mind: where to go next to evangelise. However, Paul’s ultimate goal was not tangible activities such as how many people to baptise, how many churches to plant or how large an area to evangelise. Paul’s goal went far beyond those activities. The goal was for Paul himself to share in the gospel with people and receive eternal life (1 Corinthians 9:23).
Therefore, Paul does not write the letter as if he were saying, I have already achieved these. Rather, as in verse 12 of today’s passage he writes, “It is not that I have already achieved this. I have not yet reached perfection, but I press on, hoping to take hold of that for which Christ once took hold of me” (REB). Some biblical scholars have speculated that the fact that Paul wrote to the Philippian believers in this way means that there may have been an invasion of false ideas within the Philippian church that claimed that they had already been made perfect. Certainly, such a speculation is possible. However, given that Paul’s ultimate goal was “the resurrection from the dead” and eternal life in the Last Day, as he said in verse 11, it would be natural for him to say, “It is not that I have already achieved this. I have not yet reached perfection,” as the previous context would suggest. Paul has not yet reached the distant goal of the resurrection on the Last Day, but he “presses on, hoping to take hold of that.” And “to press on, hoping to take hold of that” is not simply based on unilateral zeal on Paul’s part. Rather, as we read at the end of verse 12: “Christ once took hold of me,” it is based on a zeal on the part of Christ in heaven to give Paul eternal life and lead him to the resurrection on the Last Day, i.e., the gracious intention of Christ to take hold of Paul and make him an heir in heaven and give him eternal life. Christ’s gracious will comes first. It is that gracious will of Christ that keeps Paul going in his quest for “the resurrection from the dead” and eternal life.
In verses 13 and 14, Paul’s Christian life is described using an athletic metaphor as follows.
Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
In ancient Greece, the Olympics was dedicated to the god Zeus, who was worshipped in the temple of Olympus. These ancient Olympic Games officially began in 776 BC and were held every four years. It is said to have continued until it was banned by the Roman Emperor Theodosius in 394 AD. Various competitions took place, including foot race, long jump, javelin, discus, boxing, wrestling, horse racing, four-horse chariot races, armoury races and juvenile competitions. The oldest of these is said to have been the foot race. In the Near East at the time of the New Testament, there were Greek-style stadiums in quite a few towns, and Paul probably had seen the competitions taking place in the stadiums. The sight of the athletes running hard for the finish line was probably burned into Paul’s mind. So Paul likens the Christian life to such athletes, as they advance towards eternal life.
That figure is, firstly, “forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead.” If a runner looks back and is distracted by what lies behind him/her, he/she will fall behind. In the same way, if a Christian is preoccupied with what he/she has done, he/she will not be able to move forward. Especially if we have an inflated idea of what we have done well as a Christian, we will not be able to live forward, but we will even fall backwards. When Paul was writing this letter, he had already done a great deal as a Christian evangelist, having founded several churches. Nevertheless, he is saying that he “forgets what lies behind.”
Secondly, he says that Christians run “for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” Athletes were given crowns made of laurel leaves if they won a competition. It was a time of great joy. In the same way, if a Christian has finished running in this life and has been called to heaven, he/she will be given a crown of eternal life. It is also called in the Bible “the crown of righteousness” (2 Timothy 4:8) or “the crown of life” (Revelation 2:10). So Christians do not just run blindly and without a goal. They run in order to receive the prize of resurrection to a body of eternal life, which is given to all who complete the race.
Thirdly, Christians are to “press on toward the goal.” I have said many times today that this “goal” is the resurrection and eternal life in the Last Day. What is interesting is the nuance of this New Testament Greek word diōkō (διώκω), which is translated “press on.” Indeed, the word means “running,” but there is a different nuance to it than just running lightly. “Press on” means moving forward overcoming difficulties. In other words, the advancing towards eternal life is not a light walk, like humming and skipping along. It is like pushing through a headwind, through a storm, through a fog. When we try to advance towards eternal life, there are forces at work in our hearts and in the external circumstances around us that try to prevent us from doing so. Unbelief rises and the headwinds of persecution blow. And it is the way of a Christian to “press on” in the face of such headwinds.
No matter how many trials and difficulties we overcome in this life, there is always a further path to follow and a goal to aim for. In other words, as long as we live in this world, there is no final resting place and no completion of life. After climbing many mountains and crossing many valleys, one must finally cross the deepest valley and climb the highest mountain. That means the death of the body on earth. To go to be with Christ in heaven and receive the same eternal life as Christ, we must cross the deepest valley and climb the highest mountain, which is the death of the earthly body. How can we cross that deepest valley and climb that highest mountain? By Christ’s having been taking hold of us! In other words, we can cross the deepest valleys and climb the highest mountains because Christ, who walked before us, has firmly tied a lifeline to us, and we can trust in that lifeline. Thus, to walk in Christ’s having been taking hold of us is to walk being tied with a lifeline to Christ, the one who is at the destination, a truly blessed thing.