ルカによる福音書10:25-28 Luke 10:25-28,
「『心を尽くし、精神を尽くし、力を尽くし、思いを尽くして、あなたの神である主を愛しなさい、また、隣人を自分のように愛しなさい』とあります。」 （ルカ10:27）
さて、神様を愛することと隣人を愛することは単純な教えだから、実行するのは難しいことではない、と思う方がおられるかもしれません。しかし、よく考えてみますと、この二つの単純な教えを一生を貫いて完全に実行することのできる人がいるでしょうか？ ローマの信徒の手紙3章20節には「律法を実行することによっては、だれ一人神の前で義とされない」「律法によっては、罪の自覚しか生じない」とはっきり記されています。ですから、人間の行うべき生き方の原則は、神様を愛することと隣人を愛することだ言われれば、「そのとおりです」という人は多いでしょうが、それにもかかわらず、自分は「神様を愛することと、隣人を愛すること」を一貫して実行していますと言うことのできる人はとても少ないのではないでしょうか。言い換えますと、神様を愛することと隣人を愛することを、一生を貫いて実行するのは極めて難しいことなのであります。（中略）
ですから、人間の罪の現実を踏まえた上で、「私たちは神様と隣人を愛するという教えを常に実行して生きることはできない。それにもかかわらず、私たちは神様と隣人を愛して生きることを一生の間追い求めていかなければならない」と考えて生きることが必要なのです。それでは、一体そのようなことが可能なのでしょうか？すなわち、一方では、自分は神様と隣人を愛することを実行できない自己中心的な者だと認めながら、他方では、神様と隣人を愛して生きることを一生の間追い求め続けていくというような道が可能なのでしょうか？常識的に考えればそれは不可能でしょう。常識的に考えれば、神様と隣人を愛するのを実行できないと認めることと、それを一生の間追い求め続けていくことは、矛盾していると思われるからであります。しかし、信仰に基づいて考えますと、これは極めて狭い道ではありますが、可能な道なのであります。それは、神様と隣人を愛するという教えを完全に実行してくださった方であるイエス・キリストを信じて、キリストに自分の全てをゆだねるという信仰の道を歩むことによって可能になるのであります。それは、ローマの信徒への手紙3章22節にある「イエス・キリストを信じることにより、信じる者すべてに与えられる神の義」をいただいて生きる生き方です。キリストへの信仰によって罪ある自分を神様に義としていただいて、キリストに従って生きる道こそが、永遠の命に至る道なのであります。
（8月11日の説教より）
The question “How to live?” is a question that is asked of everyone. And many books have been written since ancient times to answer this question. However, it is not easy to live out one’s life with a consistent attitude, with one definite answer to this question. For example, a family man who is a devoted husband and father at home may be a ruthless individual who will stop at nothing to protect his position in society. Extreme examples are often given of people who worked for Nazi Germany during the Second World War to kill Jewish people, but who were good men in their own right as fathers and husbands when they returned to their own homes. Or, in general terms, people who are against discrimination, if their son or daughter is married to someone who is discriminated against in society, rather than fighting together to overcome discrimination, they would rather oppose the marriage and be on the side of the discriminator. People also change their attitudes to protect themselves, even if they are not that contradictory. One young Korean woman living in Japan had a Japanese best friend of the same sex. However, when her best friend got married, she was not invited to the wedding and reception and was shocked when she was informed after the fact. Discrimination can creep in even when it is just about inviting people to the wedding and reception.
Therefore, in order to live life with a consistent attitude, it is necessary to have a set of principles of life that integrate a person’s life. In verse 25 of today’s Bible passage, a Jewish expert in the law asks Jesus Christ, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” The Jews believed that there would be the Last Judgement on the Last Day based on Old Testament beliefs, with some receiving eternal life and others eternal destruction. For example, in the Book of Daniel 12:2-3, what will happen on the Last Judgment is described as follows.
And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. And those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky above; and those who turn many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever.
This is a warning that those who have already died will also face the Last Judgement on the Last Day, some will be given eternal life, while others will suffer eternal “shame” and “contempt.”
It is also stated in the Old Testament that physical death no longer has decisive ruling power for those who trust in God and walk with him. For example, in Psalm 16:10-11, which is also quoted as a prophecy of Christ’s resurrection, it is stated as follows.
For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol,
or let your holy one see corruption.
You make known to me the path of life;
in your presence there is fullness of joy;
at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
This poet who trusts in God has the hope that his soul will live forever. In other words, he is confident that he will receive “pleasures forevermore” from God because his soul is eternally connected to God, the source of life.
Based on this faith in eternal life, which has been handed down from Old Testament times, this expert of the law asks Christ, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” He asked Christ what kind of life he should lead in this life in order to receive eternal life. This question is phrased in Mark 12:28, “Which commandment is the most important of all?” and in Matthew 22:36, “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” Many biblical scholars argue that the question in Mark’s Gospel was the original one, which Luke rewrote and combined with the Good Samaritan parable that followed. However, this need not necessarily be the case. It is quite possible that Christ was asked essentially the same question many times by Jewish experts in the law, but in different ways. That is, at one time he was asked, as in Mark’s Gospel, “Which commandment is the most important of all?” and at another time he was asked, as in today’s passage, “What shall I do to inherit eternal life?”
In today’s passage, the expert of the law asks the question in an attempt to test Christ, unlike in the case of Mark’s Gospel. In the case of Mark’s Gospel, he is asking questions as one who is genuinely seeking the way of truth. But in the case of the Gospel of Matthew and today’s Gospel of Luke, the question is asked to test Christ. So Christ keenly discerns the questioner’s intention to test him, and asks counter questions, as recorded in verse 26. “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” That is, Christ asks back, “Is not the way to eternal life written in the Law, the Law given by God to the ancestors of the Jews through Moses?” Moses, the leader of the Israelites, was given various laws by God on Mount Sinai. The Ten Commandments in Exodus 24:2-17 are central among these. You are familiar with the Ten Commandments, as we always read a summary of them in worship service.
The Ten Commandments can be further summarised into two short teachings: love God and love your neighbour. Therefore, in verse 27, the expert of the law was quite right to summarise the law into two teachings when he replied: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind” is the teaching of Deuteronomy 6:5, and “You shall love your neighbour as yourself” is the teaching of Leviticus 19:18. In the Gospels of Mark and Matthew, Christ himself summarises the content of the Law by these same Old Testament words. And in verse 28 of today’s Bible passage, Christ says to the expert of the law who gave this answer: “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.”
Now, some may think that loving God and loving our neighbour are simple teachings and therefore not difficult to do. But if we think about it carefully, who can fully live out these two simple teachings throughout his/her life? Romans 3:20 clearly states that “by works of the law no human being will be justified” and “through the law comes knowledge of sin.” Therefore, when it is said that the principles of human life are to love God and to love one’s neighbour, many people will say, “That’s right,” but very few can nevertheless say that they are consistently practising love of God and love of neighbour. In other words, it is extremely difficult to love God and love one’s neighbour throughout one’s life.
For example, a person, as a youth, hears that the Christian teaching is to love God and love one’s neighbour, and is attracted by the ethical aspects of Christianity. However, as he/she gets older and faces the harshness of real life, he/she may say, “I can’t just say such things to survive” and abandon the Christian path. Or one may replace “God” with his/her own self-invented God instead of the true God taught in the Bible, or one may limit “neighbour” to only a few people in their immediate vicinity. Furthermore, one may interpret “love” in a self-centred way. One may think he/she is loving his/her neighbour, but in reality he/she is trying to dominate his/her neighbour. Therefore, in light of this reality of human sin, it is necessary to consider that “we cannot always live out the teachings of loving God and neighbour. Nevertheless, we must live with the thought that we must pursue loving God and neighbour throughout our lives.”
How on earth is this possible, then? Is it possible, on the one hand, to admit that we are self-centred and incapable of loving God and neighbour, and on the other hand to continue to pursue loving God and neighbour throughout our lives? Common sense suggests that this would be impossible. Common sense would suggest that there is a contradiction between admitting that it is not possible to love God and neighbour and continuing to pursue it throughout one’s life. However, when considered on the basis of faith, this is a very narrow but possible path. It is possible by following the path of faith, by believing in Jesus Christ, the one who has perfectly carried out the teachings of loving God and neighbour, and by surrendering one’s whole self to Christ.
It is a way of life in which we receive “the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ” as stated in Romans 3:22. The way to eternal life is the way to live following Christ, being justified by faith in Christ. Therefore, we can see that verse 28 of today’s Bible passage has an extremely deep meaning. To paraphrase the deep meaning in a simple way, Christ is saying, “Put your love for God and neighbour into practice. But if you try to do it, you will find that you cannot. Therefore, believe in me and follow me. That path of faith is the way to eternal life.”
In today’s sermon, we have started from the point that the question “how to live” is a question that is asked of everyone, and we have heard the Bible’s answer to it together. There is a book whose title is the question itself, Ikani Ikiruka, i.e., How to Live. The book was published 48 years ago in 1976 as Kodansha’s Gendai Shinsho, and the author is a Christian thinker MORI Arimasa. MORI Arimasa’s grandfather was MORI Arinori, the first Minister of Education in the Meiji Government, and his father was MORI Akira, who was the pastor of the Nakashibuya Church of the Church of Christ in Japan before the Second World War. Born in 1911, MORI Arimasa studied the ideas of Pascal, a French physicist and philosopher. And he was an assistant professor at the University of Tokyo when he went to France in 1950 for research as part of the first group of students to study abroad after the Second World War. But he resigned from the University of Tokyo without returning to Japan after the scheduled period. In fact, MORI Arimasa had married in Japan in 1942 and begot three children. However, he divorced this Japanese wife and married a French woman in 1962. Ten years later, he also divorced this French woman. In France, he taught Japanese language and literature at the School of Oriental Languages at the University of Paris and later became a professor at the Department of Oriental Studies at the University of Paris. He also became a visiting professor at the International Christian University in Mitaka in 1969 and was offered the position of professor there in 1976, but died in a Paris hospital on 18 October of that year, aged 64, his life on earth.
In the closing years of his life, MORI Arimasa wrote many philosophical essays, and his writings were read by many people seeking the way to live. The book Ikani Ikiruka, (How to Live) is a collection of four lectures that MORI Arimasa gave in schools and churches between 1971 and 1975. In one of these four lectures, “Ikiru-tameno Shinko” i.e., “Faith for Life,” MORI Arimasa states that “as long as there is sin, man cannot die even if he dies.” Only “the problem of sin,” he says, “remains, like a sea bream bone in the throat, even if everything goes well.” If we connect this with the theme of today’s biblical passage, “To receive eternal life, we must live by loving God and our neighbour,” we could say that we cannot receive eternal life unless the problem of sin, the inability to love God and one’s neighbour, is solved. MORI Arimasa then describes in simple terms how the problem of sin affects our daily lives as follows.
For me, for example, the problem is in the morning. When I am very unwell, the hardest time for me is when I wake up in the morning. When I think that another day has come, my eyes are blocked by greyness. But then my faith becomes really clear and I realise that the most important thing is that I am forgiven in Christ, and I suddenly feel better. If I forget that for a moment, it can be a really grey day. (Ikani Ikiruka, 196. Translated by MIYOSHI Akira.)
At first glance, what MORI Arimasa writes about in this way seems to be just a matter of mood. However, I believe that he is actually writing about a very deep problem. That is, this man, MORI Arimasa, was a pastor’s child and had faith in Christ, but he was aware of his own sin in failing to live a life of love for God and neighbour. And the thought that he could not receive eternal life as such tormented him every morning. But when he thinks that even such a person is “forgiven in Christ,” he is given the strength to live a new day. And perhaps the same can be said of each of us. To each of us who are taught to “practise love for God and neighbour” but fail to do so, Christ calls us anew every day, “Believe in me and follow me, for the way of faith is the way to eternal life.” With faith in Christ, let us follow him and walk the path of love for God and neighbour throughout our lives.