エフェソの信徒への手紙3:7-9 Ephesians 3:7-9,

この恵みは、聖なる者たちすべての中で最もつまらない者であるわたしに与えられました。　　　　　　（エフェソ3:9）

パウロは自分のことを「聖なる者たちすべての中で最もつまらない者」であると述べています。これは、社交辞令のようなうわべだけの謙遜ではありません。クリスチャンを迫害していた自分の過去に基づいた悔い改めの言葉です。コリントの信徒への手紙一の15章9節でも、パウロは「わたしは、神の教会を迫害したのですから、使徒たちの中でもいちばん小さな者であり、使徒と呼ばれる値打ちのない者です」と述べています。興味深いことに、コリントの信徒への手紙一の15章9節の「いちばん小さな者」と本日の箇所の「最もつまらない者」は、原典のギリシア語の新約聖書ではエラキストスという同じギリシア語の言葉を用いて書かれています。また、テモテへの手紙一1章15節で、パウロは「『キリスト・イエスは、罪人を救うために世に来られた』という言葉は真実であり、そのまま受け入れるに値します。わたしは、その罪人の中で最たる者です」と述べています。これも、クリスチャンを迫害していた自分の罪を告白した悔い改めの言葉です。私たちはパウロこそキリストを宣べ伝えた最も偉大な人物であると考えていますが、パウロ自身は自分のことを「最もつまらない者」「いちばん小さな者」「罪人の中で最たる者」と考えていたのでした。

このようにパウロ自身は自分を偉大な者とは考えていませんでしたが、パウロの働きには、ほかの人々以上の偉大なことがありました。それは、「異邦人に福音を告げ知らせて」（3:9）いたということです。使徒言行録によれば、使徒ペトロもローマの軍隊の百人隊長であるコルネリウスにキリストの福音を宣べ伝えました。また、第一回目の伝道旅行では、バルナバもパウロと共にキプロス島や小アジア地方の異邦人にキリストの福音を宣べ伝えました。しかし、パウロほど人生のすべてをかけて異邦人にキリストの福音を宣べ伝えた人はいなかったでしょう。ユダヤ人のように天地万物の造り主である一人の神様を信じているのではなく、ギリシア神話やローマ神話の多神教の神々を信じている人々に、造り主である父なる神様の独り子イエス・キリストを宣べ伝えるというのは、どれほど困難なことであったことでしょう！しかし、パウロは神様の恵みによってこの困難な働きを、生涯を通して成し遂げたのでした。先ほど引用したコリントの信徒への手紙一の15章9節の次の10節で、パウロは「わたしに与えられた神の恵みは無駄にならず、わたしは他のすべての使徒よりずっと多く働きました。しかし、働いたのは、実はわたしではなく、わたしと共にある神の恵みなのです」と告白しています。　　　（4月6日の説教より）

“What do we live for?” is a question that many people have been pondering since ancient times. And the simple answer to this question is: “Live to live happily.” And there are probably many people who would agree with that. However, in his book Levinas – Nanno Tameni Ikirunoka (What are we living for?), which explains the thought of the French Jewish philosopher Emmanuel Levinas, Prof. KOIZUMI Yoshiyuki, the philosopher and professor at the Graduate School of Ritsumeikan University, asks the interesting question as follows.

If the ultimate answer to the question of what we live for is to live in order to live happily, then we are living every day for the purpose of living happily and for the realisation of that goal. Is that true? (Translated by MIYOSHI Akira. The following quotations are also the same.)

Prof. KOIZUMI then considers the relationship between people’s going to work daily and people’s living happily, and raises the following question based on Levinas’ argument.

What do they go to work for? It is to earn wages. Then for what do they earn wages? For hobbies and for food. So, what do they want food for? To live happily (healthily). And for what purpose do they spend money on our hobbies? To live happily (enjoyably). Then, for what purpose do they live happily (healthily and enjoyably)? They live to live happily (healthily and happily). Then what is it for? Even though there are times when we get sick or suffer, and even though there will come a time when our health and enjoyment are never guaranteed, what is the ultimate purpose of living happily?

Furthermore, based on Levinas’s argument, Prof. KOIZUMI states that since the purpose of work, which is to earn wages, and the purpose of needing money are different things, “tracing the short-term purpose of life should never yield an ultimate answer.” He then boldly points out that the idea that “people live to live happily,” which many people take for granted, is itself something that actually fails to grasp the truth of life, as follows.

Many times we say that we live for happiness, and then we believe that we are living that way. We assume that we are sweating for the realisation of happiness, here and now. However, this fails to capture the reality of life, no matter how we look at it. I do not mean to say that our daily toil is never rewarded. I am saying that even if there comes a time when daily toil is rewarded, and that reward is happiness, such temporary reward = happiness cannot be a definitive answer to the question of what the purpose of life is. Perhaps there will be times in our lives when we are at our best. Maybe people get spot-lighted once in their lifetime. But it should be very hard to think and believe that we are born, grow old and die for such a moment. Life itself cannot be endowed with meaning and value by the goal of living happily.

To this point made by Prof. KOIZUMI, some may argue that if there is one happy moment in life that is spot-lighted then why not live with that as the purpose? In other words, “Isn’t it enough that human beings live for a purpose of being blessed with good health and wealth, honour and status, a partner and children, and living in a nice house, eating good food and enjoying their hobbies? That’s the way it should be!” But even if there are times when we get all those things, it is only temporary. Even if those so-called “happy” times pass, people must continue to live. And in the real world on this planet, there are many people who have to continue living without those so-called “happy” moments. That is, the truth of life is that human beings have to live in a reality where they cannot aim to live happily.

Here we would like to consider the apostle Paul, who proclaimed Jesus Christ to people. Paul was not a man who lived his life with the aim of living happily in a worldly sense. Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5:14-15 as follows.

We have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.

The one who “has died for all” in verse 14 is, needless to say, Jesus Christ. And “one has died for all” means that Christ died on the cross in place of all. What then does it mean to say that “one has died for all, therefore all have died?” It would mean that since Christ died on the cross, taking upon himself the punishment that all human beings deserved, by his death all human beings have died.

The following verse 15 says, “He died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.” If Paul had continued the previous passage simply, he would have written, “He died for all, that all might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.” But Paul did not write “all” but wrote “those who live.” He then said, “That those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.” This change in language has an important meaning. Namely, “those who live” means “those who live” by having been given new life through faith in Christ. That is, “those who live” by having been given new life through faith in Christ “no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.” It goes without saying that the one “who for their sake died and was raised” is Jesus Christ.

The significance of this can be clearly seen when we consider Paul’s life. Before Paul became a Christian, he was a teacher of the Jewish elite and a persecutor of Christians. However, on his way to Damascus to persecute Christians, he heard a voice from heaven calling out, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” (Acts 9:4). It was the risen Christ in heaven speaking to Paul. Paul was taken to the city of Damascus in such a weakened state that he was blind and unable to eat or drink. In Damascus, he met a Christian named Ananias, whom Christ had sent to him, and was baptised and became a Christian. He then took a 180-degree turn and began to live to proclaim Christ.

In verse 7 of today’s Bible passage, Paul says, “Of this gospel I was made a minister according to the gift of God’s grace, which was given me by the working of his power.” This means that God turned Paul into a believer in Christ, as I mentioned earlier, and made him a proclaimer of the gospel of Christ, that is, “If you believe in Christ, you will be forgiven of your sins and receive eternal life.” It does not mean that Paul himself reflected on his own way of life and changed it, saying, “I will believe in Jesus Christ. And I will proclaim Jesus Christ.” It means that God changed Paul into the one who believed in and proclaim Jesus Christ through his grace.

In verses 8 and 9 that follow, Paul says as follows.

To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God, who created all things.

Paul describes himself as “the very least of all the saints.” This is not a socially-reflective, superficial humility. It is a word of repentance based on his own past persecution of Christians. In 1 Corinthians 15:9, Paul also says, “For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.” “The least” in 1 Corinthians 15:9 and “the very least” in today’s passage are written using the same Greek word, elachistos (ἐλάχιστος) in the original Greek New Testament. In 1 Timothy 1:15, Paul says, “The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.” This passage is also words of repentance, confessing his sin of persecuting Christians. We think of Paul as the greatest preacher of Christ, but he himself thought of himself as “the very least of all the saints” and “the foremost” of sinners.

Thus, Paul himself did not think of himself as great, but there was something greater in his ministry than others. He was preaching the gospel “to the Gentiles.” By “Gentiles” he means non-Jews. According to the Acts of the Apostles, the apostle Peter also preached the gospel of Christ to Cornelius, a centurion in the Roman army. On his first missionary journey, Barnabas also preached the gospel of Christ to the Gentiles on the island of Cyprus and in Asia Minor, together with Paul. But no one else spent his entire life preaching the gospel of Christ to the Gentiles as Paul did. How difficult it must have been to preach Jesus Christ, the only Son of God the Father, to people who believed in the polytheistic gods of Greek and Roman mythology, rather than in one God, the Creator of heaven, earth and all things, as the Jews did! But Paul, by God’s grace, accomplished this difficult work throughout his life. In 1 Corinthians 15:10, the next to the verse which I quoted earlier, Paul says, “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.”

In verse 9 of today’s passage, “the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God, who created all things” is described a little earlier in verse 6 as “that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.” In other words, Gentiles who did not know the true God as their Creator become heirs of the heavenly property with the Jews through faith in Christ. Paul was preaching for everyone how God’s hidden mystery is to be accomplished.

At the beginning of today’s sermon, I spoke about the idea of living for the purpose of “living happily” and the problems with this idea. To avoid any misunderstanding, I am not saying that we should not seek happiness in life. It is natural for people to live in search of happiness. The problem I point is that there is a belief that temporary things in this world, such as health and enjoyment, are “happiness.” And it has become the norm to live with the purpose of achieving temporary “happiness” in this world. This is the mindset of Gentiles who do not know the true God, the Creator. The people to whom Paul preached Christ in New Testament times were the Gentiles who lived for the temporary “happiness” of this world. The people living in Japan in the 21st century are also the Gentiles who live for the temporary “happiness” of this world.

Paul preached that the Gentiles, by believing in Christ, would be heirs of heavenly property along with the Jews. Paul’s purpose in life was to inherit the heavenly property himself and to proclaim to others that if they believed in Christ, they too would inherit the heavenly property. And the same is true for the purpose of life for Christians living in 21st century Japan. It is to inherit the heavenly property ourselves and to proclaim to others that if they believe in Christ, they too will inherit the heavenly property. It is not enough to be happy if only you yourself are forgiven of your sins and receive eternal life. There is great happiness in proclaiming the gospel of Christ to others, telling them that if they believe in Christ they too can be forgiven of their sins and receive eternal life. And proclaiming the gospel of Christ is a purpose in life that we can continue to hold on to even when the happiness of this world has passed us by. It is also a purpose in life that we can share with those who have no worldly happiness. This is because proclaiming the gospel of Christ is proclaiming the happiness that Christ himself won through the suffering of his death on the cross.