ルカによる福音書1:39-56 Luke 1:39-56,
「主はその腕で力を振るい、思い上がる者を打ち散らし、権力ある者をその座から引き降ろし、身分の低い者を高く上げ、飢えた人を良い物で満たし、富める者を空腹のまま追い返されます。」 （ルカ1:51-53）
「身分の低い者を高く上げ」はどのようなことを指しているのでしょうか？マリアは自分自身を「身分の低い、この主のはしため」（48節）と言っていますから、低い自分が神の独り子イエス・キリストの母とされたことを考えているに違いありません。そうすると、イエス・キリストがこの世に来られたことによって、思い上がる者が打ち散らされ、権力ある者がその座から引き降ろされ、 反対に低いものは高く上げられると詠っているのでありましょう。これをさらに大胆に言い換えますと、イエス・キリストは、この世の幸いをもつ者に対しては、ご自身の祝福をお与えにならず、反対にこの世の幸いをもたないものに対して、ご自身の祝福をお与えになるということでしょう。「身分の低い者を高く上げ」とは、単にこの世において身分が逆転するということではありません。むしろ、この世において低められた者が、神の国における身分を獲得するということを言っているのです。
イエス・キリストは、父なる神様のもと、すなわちこの世を超えたところにある天国から、この世に降って来られました。それは、単にこの世の幸いを与えるためではありませんでした。この世の幸いを与えるためならば、わざわざ天国におられる方が降って来られる必要はなかったでしょう。天国におられる方が降って来られたのは、 ほかならぬ天国の幸いを与えるためだったのです。すなわち、この世において低められた人々を天国に迎え入れるために、キリストはこの世にこられたのです。そして、キリストは十字架で死んで、永遠の命の体に復活して、天に昇ることによって、この世にいる私たちに天国への道を示し、天国の門を開いてくださったのです。イエス・キリストの十字架と復活と昇天、これらは、信じる人々を、天国に迎え入れるための尊い働きでした。福音書によれば、イエス・キリストの救いの働きを信じたのは、当時のユダヤの国で人々から罪人と言われていた娼婦や裏切り者として軽蔑されていた徴税人のような人々でした。つまり、この世で低められた人々であったのです。イエス・キリストの救いの働きを多くの人々に宣べ伝えた使徒パウロもまた、コリントの教会に当てた第一の手紙の1章28節と29節で「神は地位のある者を無力な者とするため、世の無に等しい者、身分の卑しい者や見下げられている者を選ばれたのです。それは、だれ一人、神の前で誇ることがないようにするためです」と記しています。 （12月22日の説教より）
Happy Christmas 2024! Christmas is, of course, a day to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, into the world. The birth of Christ into the world is called “Koutan” in Japanese. That is, the Chinese character “kou” for “descend” is written with the Chinese character “tan” for “birth” to make the word “Koutan,” which means the Nativity. If you look up the word “Koutan” in the Kōjien Japanese dictionary, you will find the explanation “the birth of a sovereign, saint, or high priest into this world,” and if you look up the entry for “Koutan-sai,” you will find the explanation “1. a festival to celebrate the birthday of a saint, great person, etc.,” “2. Christmas.” In fact, the same Chinese characters are also used outside of Christianity. In Buddhism, the same characters are written and read as “Goutan,” and refer to the birth of Shakyamuni. Furthermore, if you add the Chinese character ‘e’ to this, it becomes “Goutan-e.” This refers to the Buddhist service held on 8th April to celebrate the birth of Shakyamuni.
The birth of a sovereign, saint, or high priest is referred to as “Koutan” because it means that someone who was previously high has come down to earth. However, the only person who can truly be said to have come down from a high place to a low place is Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, is it not? In the New Testament, in Philippians 2:6-11, there is a passage called as “Hymn of Christ,” which beautifully describes Christ’s work of salvation. It says as follows.
He was in the form of God; yet he laid no claim to equality with God, but made himself nothing, assuming the form of a slave. Bearing the human likeness, sharing the human lot, he humbled himself, and was obedient, even to the point of death, death on a cross! Therefore God raised him to the heights and bestowed on him the name above all names, that at the name of4 Jesus every knee should bow—in heaven, on earth, and in the depths—and every tongue acclaim, “Jesus Christ is Lord,” to the glory of God the Father (REB).
Before Jesus Christ came to earth, he existed in heaven as God’s only Son. In other words, he was of divine status. As it says at the beginning of the Gospel of John, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God (John 1:1), Jesus Christ existed as God’s Word from the beginning of time. As it is written in the Gospel of John 1:14, “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us,” Christ came to this world by being conceived in the womb of the Virgin Mary and taking on a human body. The fact that the only begotten Son of God became human meant that he “made himself nothing, assuming the form of a slave.” He descended from the status of master to the status of slave. In this way, Jesus Christ came down from the highest heaven to the earth, and suffered for us on the earth. That is, he died on the cross on our behalf, was resurrected on the third day, and ascended into heaven 40 days later.
Verses 46 through 55 of the Bible passage we read today contain the song of praise sung by Mary, the earthly mother of Jesus Christ, as she was filled with joy at the thought of carrying God’s son in her womb. This song is called the Magnificat, based on the Latin word for “praise” in the opening line, “My soul magnifies the Lord.” It has also often been used as the subject of religious music. The first characteristic of the Magnificat of the Virgin Mary is her humble faith. In verse 48, Mary tells the reason she worships the Lord God: “for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant.” The Greek word translated as “humble” (ταπείνωσις) means “lowly state.” Firstly, this word means that, by the standards of people in this world, Mary is in a “lowly state,” that is to say, she has a low social status. And secondly, it means that she is in a “lowly state” before God, that is to say, she cannot live without God. By being in a low social status in this world and being unable to live without God, Mary was able to become truly humble before God.
There are not many people who willingly descend to a lowly state. For most people, they are placed in a lowly position against their will. When we think we are somebody in this world, it often happens that we lose our wealth, power, health or beauty against our will and are placed in a lowly position. However, if you think about it carefully, all of us living on earth are lowly people who originally have nothing, and the things we think we own are merely things that we have been temporarily entrusted with by God.
There is a book Ji-sun, I Love You, written by a young Korean woman called LEE Ji-sun. This book is both a memoir of LEE Ji-sun ‘s hardships and a testimony of her faith. Ms. LEE Ji-sun was an ordinary university student studying at Ewha Womans University, a Christian university in Korea, with the aim of becoming a schoolteacher. On one Sunday she attended church, missed choir practice because she had an exam coming up, and went to school to study in the library. At 10 pm, she met her brother at the school gate and was on her way home in his car. The car in which she and her brother were riding was waiting at a traffic light when a car driven by a heavily intoxicated driver plowed into them. The car they were in burst into flames, and her brother, who had just regained consciousness, pulled out Ji-sun, who was still unconscious and wrapped in flames, and put out the fire on her body with his T-shirt. Then, a few minutes later, the car exploded.
In this way, Ms. LEE Ji-sun suffered third-degree burns over 55% of her body, and after a hellish hospital stay and five skin graft operations, she returned home after seven months. Even after returning home, she suffered from the pain of her skin pulling and the transplanted areas becoming unbearably itchy, so she couldn’t sleep. She had to turn to her right all the time because of the skin pulling, and her spine also became bent. The tips of the eight fingers on both hands, except for the thumbs, were cut off, and she could hardly use her right hand at all. The burns on her face were particularly serious, and the once beautiful features were completely lost, and she was horrified to see her reflection in the window at night, in the spoon when eating, and in the CD case. There is no end to the details, but in the midst of such unimaginable suffering, she grew as a Christian. It could be said that she grew as a person who had been humbled. Let me quote a little from Ji-sun ‘s memoir, which describes her change of heart.
While using my eight shortened fingers, I realised how important fingernails are to a human being, and I thanked God for keeping my thumbs, which write letters and play ten roles. I learned that even these small eyelashes are very important to a human being, while experiencing how everything would fly into my eyes because I had no eyelashes. While using my right arm, which had become like a stick, I realised why God had made the joints bend and how important it was to be able to reach my ears. Thanks to my collapsed right ear, I have come to realise that God created the ear with extreme precision so that water does not enter the ear canal. After having the skin on my leg removed for a transplant, I limped around for a while, and I was able to really understand how difficult it is for people with disabilities to walk. Above all, I realised how many functions healthy skin performs, and how precious it is to us. Before, I had thought that skin, which only covers the surface of the body, was not very important. I was grateful that the remaining skin was working to keep me healthy, and I experienced that God had created our bodies with the utmost care and precision. And through my small pain, I was able to empathise with even one-millionth of the pain that Jesus experienced on the cross, and I was able to understand how it feels to be treated as a lowly human being, sometimes as a sinner, as a miserable human being with no face or name. Now I feel that even that pain is something important. If I hadn’t experienced that pain, I wouldn’t have been able to feel other people’s pain so deeply as I do now. (Translated by MIYOSHI Akira)
Through being put in a lowly position in this world and before God, Ms. LEE Ji-sun was led to a firm relationship with God. She came to understand that she was recognised as a very important existence to God. She also wrote the following.
There was a time when I thought that the blessing was to go to a good university, meet a good husband, and live a life that people would envy. There was also a time when I thought that having a pretty face was everything. But the real blessing was not like that. My disability, with suffering and pain I have endured up until now, has taught me those. I have realised that what is important and eternal is not what appears to be. (Translated by MIYOSHI Akira)
After that, she studied in the United States with great effort, and studied social welfare at three graduate schools, obtaining a doctorate. She is currently a professor at her alma mater, Ewha Womans University, where she teaches social welfare. Having been humbled by great suffering, Ms. LEE Ji-sun experienced for herself the blessing of having God’s attention focused on her. Although the specific circumstances in which she found herself were completely different, her faith can be said to have something in common with the faith of Mary, who said “he (God) has looked on the humble estate of his servant.”
Regarding God’s blessings on the lowly, Mary also says in verses 51 through 53 of today’s Bible passage as follows.
He has shown strength with his arm;
he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts;he has brought down the mighty from their thrones
and exalted those of humble estate;he has filled the hungry with good things,
and the rich he has sent away empty.
What does “exalted those of humble estate” refer to? Mary refers to her state as “the humble estate of his servant,” so she must be thinking about that she, a lowly person, was chosen to be the mother of Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God. In this way, the coming of Jesus Christ into the world “scattered the proud,” “brought down the mighty from their thrones,” and “exalted those of humble estate,” Mary says. To put it even more boldly, it is probably saying that Jesus Christ does not bestow his blessings on those who are blessed in this world, but on those who are not blessed in this world. “Exalting those of humble estate” does not simply mean that there is a reversal of social status in this world. Rather, it means that those who are lowly in this world will attain a status in the kingdom of God.
Jesus Christ came to this world from heaven, which is beyond this world, that is, from the place God the Father is. It was not simply to give people the blessings of this world. If he had come to give people the blessings of this world, there would have been no need for him to come down from heaven. The reason why the One in heaven came down to earth was to give us the blessings of heaven. In other words, Christ came to earth to welcome those who have been humbled in this world into heaven. And by dying on the cross, being resurrected in a body of eternal life, and ascending into heaven, Christ showed us the way into heaven and opened the gates of heaven for us who are in this world. The crucifixion, resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ were all precious works that welcomed those who believed into heaven. According to the Gospels, those who believed in the work of salvation of Jesus Christ were people such as the prostitutes who were called sinners by the people of the Jewish nation at the time, and the tax collectors who were despised as traitors. In other words, they were people who had been brought lowly in this world. In 1 Corinthians 1:28-29, the apostle Paul, who preached the saving work of Jesus Christ to many people, wrote, “God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.”
The year 2024 is about to end in just nine days. What kind of year has it been for each one of you? Some of you may say, “It’s been a fulfilling year.” But others may say, “I’ve had some tough times,” or “I’ve had some sad times,” or “I’ve been treated badly by other people.” Some of you may have had your lifestyle, which had been going at a certain level, brought down, and you may be facing the end of the year with the thought, “Why me?!” Or you may be thinking against someone, “Just you wait, I’ll get my revenge one day!” To those people, I would like to encourage you to take to heart the words according to verses 51 to 53 of today’s Bible passage: “God has shown strength with his arm; God has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts; God has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate; God has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich God has sent away empty.”
These words lift our minds, which are going round in circles, up high. In other words, it lifts our minds, which are going round in circles with thoughts like “I’ll punish the arrogant,” “I’ll bring down the proud,” “I’ll make those who make fun of me realise their mistake,” and “I’ll become more important person in this world,” to a place where we can think “God will punish the arrogant, bring down the proud, and make those who make fun of me realise their mistake.” It shatters the heart that says, “I’ll become more important person in this world,” and transforms us into people who live with the hope of heaven, “God will let me into the blessings of heaven.” In fact, Mary, who spoke these words, had to experience unimaginable suffering in this world, as her beloved child Jesus was crucified and executed as a criminal. However, Jesus was resurrected into a body of eternal life and took his throne in heaven. Mary was blessed to become the mother of Jesus Christ, the eternal King. We would like to spend Christmas firmly believing in the truth that “what is humbled on earth will be exalted in heaven,” and end this year with hope.