The Sorrowful Heart of Jesus as He Went to the Mountain
Matthew 17:1-8
Former Church Headquarters
Seoul, Korea
January 25, 1959
Prayer
Father, please remember this day. Please guide us not to appear before You with our minds and bodies centered upon ourselves. Please allow our minds and bodies to become the most holy place where You can personally dwell. Please allow this to be a time when we can be offered to You as undefiled sacrifices You can control and admonish.
Father, we have come before You with wounded hearts and exhausted minds and bodies from the previous week of living. We sincerely hope and desire that You grant us new joy of life with Your outspread loving hands and that You create an eternal and inseparable tie between You and us.
Allow us to be able to rejoice when You rejoice, to grieve when You grieve, to act when You act, and to fight alongside You. We eagerly hope and desire that You make an eternally irrevocable and inseparable relationship with us. We know that numerous ancestors of ours have worked hard to make a relationship with You. We eagerly hope and desire that You establish us as ones in which You can take delight, embrace and love eternally, guiding us to make an eternal and inseparable relationship of love with You.
Since today is a holy day, please perform an indirect work. Through our making a relationship of oneness with Your loving heart, please let the thirty million people receive the same grace and go into Your realm of love.
We know that there are many brothers and sisters who are worrying and praying for Your sake in front of hidden altars. Please allow them to be enmeshed in an unbreakable lifeline. Please guide this gathering to be a time to form a tight bond in the loving garden of Your pleasure. Father, we eagerly hope and desire this.
At this time, we dedicate ourselves entirely to You. Take us as Your own. Allow us to be the people who form an eternal oneness, inseparable from Your heart. Father, we eagerly hope and desire that You allow this to be a time when we can restore the true joy of the heart, emptying all of ourselves and filling our minds and bodies with what is Yours. Please grant Your hands of blessing upon all. We pray in the name of the Lord. Amen.
Prayer
Father, as I am about to deliver the word You have granted to the children You have gathered, please be the Master of our minds and the Ruler of our bodies. Father, we have seen the word Jesus spoke 2,000 years ago in the desolate moment when, having lost the standard for hope, he had to determine to go to the cross.
Father, although that time has passed, we know that the world of shimjung transcends time. Allow Your anger over having lost Jesus to be expressed as our anger. Allow the thirty years of Jesus' life to reappear in our own.
Father, none on earth know that our ancestors' lack of fulfillment of their responsibility before Heaven has become an eternal sorrow.
Although You have gathered these unworthy people, introduced to them the heavenly shimjung with many words, and have taught them everything through revealing Your situation, we have nothing to offer You. We possess nothing. Allow us to realize that the only thing we can offer You is to be a living sacrifice who will die willingly.
Guide us to move hand in hand as the heavenly tribe, with our heart moving with Your heart, our shimjung moving with Your shimjung. Allow us an eager heart that can, not only deplore the betrayal of Your son, but which can also receive Your son again. Father, we sincerely hope and desire that such zealous hearts will appear in the minds and bodies of this audience.
Father, I would like to speak Your Word in this short time You have granted. Please allow the hearts of the giver and receivers of the word to become one. Father, we sincerely hope and pray, knowing that no matter how excellent the word is, it has nothing to do with us until it makes a relationship with our hearts.
Since we know that such a relationship can be created only when You come to us, we request that You take charge from the beginning to the end. We ask You to embrace the brothers and sisters scattered in the countryside with the same bosom and dominate them with the same grace. We pray in the name of the Lord. Amen.
Christianity has had a deep connection with mountains throughout history. I will speak to you on the topic of "The Sorrowful Heart of Jesus as He Went to the Mountain."
You must know well the scene of the Transfiguration from the text of the Bible. Please re-imagine the figure of Jesus as he went up to the Mount of Transfiguration. Going to the top of the mountain, Jesus represented the whole providence of history, his own contemporary age, and all the descendants of the future. I would like you to remember, however, that he climbed the mountain with a mournful, sad and lonesome heart, rather than a joyful one. We should know that this event did not affect only that moment. It was a time when a crucial decision was made that had implications for the age before Jesus, the age of Jesus, and the age after Jesus.
Jesus and the Mountain
We know well that Jesus visited high mountains whenever he was faced with serious matters. Jesus, who received the three tests from Satan after fasting for forty days, had to discriminate clearly between front and rear, left and right, with worry and concern for Heaven, humankind and all things. For Jesus, who bore such a responsibility, that scene was an important and tragic one in which he had to distinguish between Heaven and Satan, heavenly affairs and satanic affairs. Jesus was led away by Satan to a mountain top for the test.
Mountains figuring in Jesus' life were: the mountain Satan led him to climb in the wilderness, the Mount of Transfiguration, which he climbed in order to decide in front of Heaven the matter of carrying the cross, and the garden of Gethsemane near the slopes of the Mount of Olives, where he offered a decisive prayer to go over the deadly path of Golgotha. We should remember this.
We will have to consider how Jesus moved, how woeful his heart was, and with what countenance Jesus appeared as he went to the mountain. We will have to reflect deeply on the figure of Jesus as he went into the wilderness 2,000 years ago. Otherwise, we will not be able to understand his desperate heart as he walked the course of struggle against Satan.
Jesus defeated Satan in the three temptations in the wilderness and achieved the final victory on a mountain. We should realize that the steps of Jesus in going to the wilderness, after being rejected by the chosen John the Baptist and his followers and the Jewish nation, were walked with a heart of sorrow the like of which no one on the earth has ever experienced.
Jesus appeared as the only son of Heaven, the one to resolve the 4,000 years, and the hallmark of victory God could boast about before the age and the descendants of countless generations. We must remember the sad heart of Jesus as he went into the wilderness alone, without a friend, leaving behind the people, the church, the chosen John the Baptist, and Joseph's family.
Jesus had come forward with the determination and sense of mission to establish the historical conditions of indemnity. What did he think about during the forty days of fasting? He felt an acute sense of responsibility to restore through indemnity, by himself, the rueful course of the ancestors. We must realize this.
In the process of the three temptations, what must Jesus have thought about as he was led to the mountain top by Satan? He went up the mountain with a serious heart, worried about the entire historical course of 4,000 years, struggling whether he could subjugate Satan by holding up the final shield of victory. As he was walking through the wilderness, Jesus must have thought about how, after the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden and their loss, their descendants had to roam around in search of the garden. As he thought about the historical ancestors who had lived in a garden of grief after the expulsion of Adam and Eve, he had to think seriously about the mountain.
Jesus must have remembered the loyalty of Noah, who appeared 1,600 years after Adam and Eve and built the ark on Mount Ararat, enduring all hardships for 120 years to restore the expulsion of Adam and Eve. Jesus thought about how it was for the sake of the Messiah, Jesus himself, that Noah had lived such a life. Jesus must have thought about how hard Noah worked on the mountain, yearning for Jesus himself.
Reflecting upon the Loyalty of the Ancestors Who Had Been to the Mountain, Jesus Made a Determination
Next, Jesus had to think about Abraham, who headed for the mountain after he erred with the sacrifice and was ordered to offer Isaac. He could not help reflecting upon the tragic heart of Abraham, who deceived Isaac and took him to Mount Moriah. For whom did Abraham have to offer his only son Isaac as a sacrifice? Jesus must have reflected upon how this was, of course, for the Father and the Messiah.
Jesus then must have remembered Moses. Moses went through forty years in Pharaoh's palace and forty years of hardship in the wilderness of Midian. He must have imagined the scene in which God appeared to the sorrow-stricken Moses in the burning bush, by the foot of Mount Horeb, and made a new promise.
He could not help recollecting the scene in which Moses met God on Mount Horeb and formed an unchanging bond with him, as well as the scene in which God and Moses made a relationship, through God's providence to eradicate the enemy Satan from the universe. He could not help recalling the loyalty of Moses in serving the Will.
When Moses received the order to lead the people of Israel from Egypt to the blessed land of Canaan, he was an old man of eighty years, exhausted from his life in the wilderness. Yet his gaze and figure were consumed with the shimjung of Heaven. Jesus could not help remembering the standard of the heart of Moses.
Furthermore, after having taken the 600,000 people to the wilderness where there were privations, Moses had the responsibility to persist to the end and bring them to the land of Canaan. Worried that they might go the wrong way, Moses went to Mount Sinai. On the top of the mountain, Moses did a forty-day fast and prayed. After this, he came down with God's Word. Jesus could not help recalling Moses in this situation. He could not help reflecting that it was only for the sake of Heavenly Father, only for the sake of paving the road for the Messiah and of establishing a restored state through the chosen people that Moses did the forty-day fast and prayer on Mount Sinai.
For whom did Elijah confront the satanic priests of Baal on Mount Carmel? Jesus reflected that it was for the sake of God and himself that the ancestors went to the mountain top and prayed before Heaven in a showdown. Reflecting on such historical connections with mountains, Jesus felt a serious heart. Today we also should reflect on the world of the heart of Jesus.
The footsteps of Jesus as he was led away by Satan in the wilderness course were not taken with self-centered thoughts. As you know through the Divine Principle, Jesus went to the mountain top with the heartistic intention of restoring the individual environment and the world through such symbolic processes. We should know that Jesus followed Satan to the mountain top with the determination to face a great trial and with the heart to establish the tradition as the new ancestor of history and to inherit the heavenly shimjung.
Jesus had a more serious heart toward the Will than anyone else. We should know that he went to the wilderness with a burning heart to seize and subjugate Satan, with a firmer determination than any ancestor in history. We should know that Jesus stood alone on that mountain top.
When Jesus reflected on the historical course, he felt he had to make a serious determination. When he thought about the nation of Israel, he felt a historical sense of responsibility and a heart of inexpressible sorrow.
God sent John the Baptist to the earth and had him pave the new way for achieving the heavenly Will. Although he was sent to prepare for the Messiah, John did not believe in Jesus. As a result, the chosen people who were to carry out the responsibility of the age, representing the history of the people God had chosen, blessed and led for 4,000 years, the Israelites, disappeared. We should understand that Jesus had to regain the lost people.
In such a position, Jesus could not help being frustrated. Thinking of all the chosen people and groups, he could not help being stricken with sorrow. Examining the motivation and origin, however, and fathoming the historical shimjung up to that moment, Jesus felt that Satan was the one who caused such a complication. Jesus faced the satanic trial with a firm determination to win a decisive victory over Satan. You should never forget a scene of such gravity.
The Lonely Position of Jesus, Who Had to Go to the Mountain Again
Although Satan "showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor" and said to Jesus, "All these I will give you if you will fall down and worship me," (Matthew 4:12) Jesus resolutely rejected Satan. In this way he established the standard of victory in front of Satan. You should consider the situation of Jesus. In this fashion, he won the standard of the self who could connect to the sorrows of history and the age. Jesus then had to descend the mountain and look for the chosen Israel and the Jewish church, as the footing for the historical connection.
Jesus went to the Israelites and the Jewish churches with the victorious standard from the wilderness course, yet they did not welcome him. Instead of welcoming him, they persecuted him wherever he went. He met with opposition and ridicule. Having to go the wilderness course after being rejected the first time was already enough to provoke hard feelings and anger. When Jesus saw the Jewish church and the Israelite nation opposing him, the one who had returned to them with a victory over Satan, his heart was consumed with inexpressible pain and sorrow. We should contemplate the position and situation of Jesus.
In difficult circumstances of persecution, to turn back the nation and church to God, Jesus prayed on the mountain top and fought against Satan throughout his three years of public life. Yet he saw no fruit. Consequently, he finally went up to the Mount of Transfiguration with the heart to awaken the ignorant people, even if he had to undertake his death.
After realizing that no human effort would bring about the result, he came forward with an ardent heart to save the people, who had the ties of history and the age and who were linked to the heavenly shimjung. He was determined, even if he had to die as a sacrifice and shed his blood and flesh, but the place he visited with such a heart was not a great palace. It was neither the house of a disciple who received him, nor the house of the people of the state, nor the house of a member of the Jewish church. It was a mountain, the Mount of Transfiguration. You should look carefully at the sorrowful heart of Jesus as he walked to and fro with no place to go.
Jesus had to take the woeful wilderness course, because the ancestors did not have faith and failed to carry out their responsibilities. Although he wandered about for three years looking for the one who could understand the heavenly heart, he failed and had to go to the mountain again. We should reflect on the sad heart and footsteps of Jesus today. When Jesus went to the wilderness, he set out to embrace the nation with the standard of winning over Satan. When he went to the Mount of Transfiguration, however, he discarded all previous resolutions and set out to give his body to the nation, determined to face death. If someone can imagine the figure and heart of Jesus as he climbed the mountain then, if someone can experience the sorrow as his own and behold Jesus with such a heart, he will be able to experience the sorrow of Jesus toward Heaven, the nation and the church.
The Background of Jesus' Ascent of the Mount of Transfiguration and His Serious Determination
When Jesus climbed the Mount of Transfiguration, he was accompanied by three disciples. Although they were chosen as representatives of the nation, they failed to establish any condition of support for Jesus on the mountain route.
When Jesus went to the wilderness, angels served him. When he ascended the Mount of Transfiguration after fighting for the nation, determined to die for it, even the three disciples failed to serve him. Considering this, we cannot help feeling that the life of Jesus, which started and ended in sorrow, was full of pathos.
Jesus knelt down and prayed to Heaven that he would follow His Will to the limits of his strength and with all his effort. Although he followed the three-year course of public life with greater dedication, loyalty, sincerity and effort than any ancestor in history, Jesus was driven out by the nation and the church. Even with no relatives or disciples standing by his side, he still lived a life of prayer in sight of Heaven.
You should know that Jesus' shimjung was such that rather than feeling sorrow for his lonely position, he regretted that the result of God's efforts for humanity during the 4,000 years was so meager and felt sorry to express his heart to Heaven. To Jesus, consumed with such a shimjung, resentment toward the nation, the church or the fallen Adam and Eve was out of the question. We should know that Jesus did not have enough leisure to bear a grudge against anyone.
In the past, the ancestors had received Heaven's consolation in their grief. Jesus realized that he could not express sorrow in prayer, even though he was in a position of sorrow. I think that, before a prayer, Jesus' knees were wet with tears. He cried as if he were the worst sinner in heaven and earth. Standing on the route to defeat, without having set the victorious condition for God, Jesus had to go to the Mount of Transfiguration, by himself, with sorrow and plead with Heaven. He could not open his mouth and pray.
Since that figure and situation were full of pathos, God sent Elijah and Moses to discuss Jesus' death in Jerusalem with him. Jesus knew that Heaven and his disciples would be stricken with woe upon his death. Worried about the people and their descendants, he grieved for the sake of the past, the present and the future. Wanting to save the Jewish people even through his death, Jesus appeared before God with a prayerful heart similar to that of Elijah's when he cried out, "Father, only I am left." Jesus' heart was truly mournful.
We know well that our ancestors left a sad history as they worked for the sake of Heaven until today. God wanted the disciples on the Mount of Transfiguration to realize that they were of a sinful tribe and to worry about the sorrow of the nation with the same heart as Jesus. Although God wanted them to console Jesus and pray for his sake, their thoughts were different. This has been the reality of the historical course followed by our ancestors until today.
After he was notified of his coming death in Jerusalem, Jesus prepared for the day of death. He felt the day of death coming closer and closer, and the situation becoming increasingly chaotic. Seeing that one of his beloved disciples would betray him, Jesus seriously felt the need to conclude all his affairs on earth before going to the cross. His mind and body were immersed in such feelings.
Since he knew that he had the responsibility as the Savior to follow the path to death, he had to set the direction to take after death. Jesus worried that even after his death, the sorrows of history, the age and the future would not disappear but would remain. You should know that Jesus' heart was more serious than at any other time.
There was no one on earth who understood Jesus' heart. None of the disciples understood the situation. God was the only one who knew Jesus' situation. Thus, Jesus carried a sorrowful heart about which no one else knew, and he carried the grudge of history, the age and the future. He was put in miserable circumstances in which the walls of misfortune and dark clouds blocked his way, and he was driven to death. The heart of Jesus must have been more sorrowful and indignant than any on earth.
Father, if Possible
For whom did Jesus come to the earth? Although he came for the sake of history, the age, the nation and the church, his path was full of pathos. Since he knew that his sorrow would not end simply as his own, but would be expanded as the sorrow of history, the age and the future, he was consumed with anxiety.
For this reason, Jesus went to the garden of Gethsemane. We should be able to feel sadness about this matter. The place where Jesus, the Savior of all people and the King of Kings, shared his final sorrow was not in the home of a disciple. It was not in a Jewish church nor a palace of the Jewish state. The place to which he went to decide everything in consultation with God was the garden of Gethsemane, where there were no visitors that late night. We should know this.
We believers in the last days should shed tears of sorrow, for the sake of Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane. We should have a longing heart for the figure of this Jesus. You should know that only in this way can you make a connection with Jesus, who cried with historical sorrow for the sake of the age and the future, who cried three times with blood and sweat, in utter misery.
When Jesus prayed all night, "My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me," (Matthew 26:39) he must have been indescribably indignant and sorrowful. Considering that 4,000 years of history had collapsed, the nation of Israel had perished, the dispensational foundation of the 4,000 years had crumbled, and the Jewish church had fallen, Jesus' blood and sweat were what connected the distance of history. His blood and tears bridged the gap of history. We should know that the Jewish people then could not even dream of this.
The disciples of Jesus at least made a pledge to follow him wherever he went. Who inherited the sorrowful heart of Jesus? Who made a connection with his pathetic situation of blood and tears? There was no one on earth. You should know that Jesus performed this task alone. There was no one to inherit his shimjung.
Hence, confronted with death, Jesus prayed as many as three times before Heaven at the garden of Gethsemane: "Abba, Father, for You all things are possible; remove this cup from me; yet not what I want, but what You want." (Mark 14:36) This plea burst Heaven and earth. This grave word was uttered to prevent the world of darkness from coming with power and authority.
Thus, the prayer at the garden of Gethsemane will never end. Throughout endless ages and centuries, this heartbreaking and blood- stained voice of the final plea should always stay alive in the human heart. God is working hard, hoping for a day when your shimjung will resonate with the shimjung of Jesus, who cried out, "Oh, Heaven."
The believers in the last days should inherit the historical and grave shimjung of Jesus as he prayed on Mount Calgary and in the garden of Gethsemane. They should awaken the Christians who are in the position of the three disciples sleeping in the garden of Gethsemane. You should know that such an age is approaching. With the same shimjung as Jesus, who prayed in the garden of Gethsemane, "My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me," (Matthew 26:39) you should also pray, "Father, if possible, do not let our Messiah be taken to the cross."
The Mountain: Ground for the Blood and Tears of Jesus
When Jesus prayed three times, "My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me" (Matthew 26:39), there was no one who prayed with the same shimjung: "Father, if possible, let me be taken to the cross instead of Jesus." You should know that there was no chosen believer or person capable of offering such a prayer.
The life of Jesus was a continuation of grave events like those on the mountain, without any joy. Whenever he was lonely, Jesus visited the valleys of the Mount of Olives. Whenever he was sad, he gave a silent sermon, with the quiet forest as his friends. We should know that he never had a free place where he could share the depth of his heart with anyone.
Whenever Jesus came to the Father on the mountain top, he came with sorrow. Amid this anguish, however, he had hope. What must it have been? Thinking that all the mountains and streams were linked with God's tears and with the pitiful hearts of the ancestors, he hoped that the mountains and streams could form an altar of joy and glory and offer songs of victory, rather than being places of sorrow and tears. This was Jesus' hope.
What should we feel, looking at the mountains? Considering that our ancestors tried to end all the sorrowful history on mountains with grave determination, you should be able to feel that the mountains hoped that the ancestors would win over the satanic world. You should consider that the mountain is where Jesus prayed to establish a standard of victory at every scene. He must have waited for the day when he could set up an altar of victory and glory on the mountain and say, "Father, receive glory through me." Realizing this, when you see a mountain, you should feel that it was the ground of Jesus' blood and tears.
Perhaps Jesus even pleaded with one blade of grass and with one rock at the garden of Gethsemane. Hence, the grass and rock could make contact with and be immersed in the shimjung of Jesus, who prayed all night. Yet the people then could not. We should understand this.
Furthermore, deploring our having become people of sorrow, and realizing our shame before all things and mountains, we should never be like the Jewish people, who expelled Jesus to the mountain, when the Lord returns to the earth. We should serve the Lord in the family, society and state. We should serve him in all places: in the fields, mountains, and even on the tops of the mountains. You should serve the Lord as people of joy and glory in the presence of Heaven. You should know that you have the responsibility to create an environment where the words of the Lord can be words of joy and love, rather than ones of sorrow.
The mountains have traces of God's tears, who lamented over the history of sorrow, calling out, "Mountains! Mountains and streams!" Whether it is the earth, all things, the historical course or this age, there is nothing God does not see through His eyes of sorrow. God treats any being on the earth with a woeful heart.
Ladies and gentlemen! You should understand the trials of Jesus, who started out on the mountain and walked and walked toward another mountain. Jesus had a victorious condition from the mountain top and in the living environment. You should know that Jesus hoped for the day to serve God on the mountain.
This was the historical shimjung of Jesus, his walk during his age. It was the hope of Jesus, who went to the mountain and prayed to establish the standard of victory. We should know this. Furthermore, we should fight against Satan, in place of Jesus, in today's wilderness course. We should be able to fight with our lives for the sake of the nation and the world in place of Jesus, who fought on the Mount of Transfiguration. We should be able to cry out to Heavenly Father with the heart of Jesus, who made a historical connection to face death at the garden of Gethsemane. With a shimjung that will burst our hearts, we should inherit the shimjung of Heaven, who desires to make a connection with this earth. You should remember that unless you establish yourselves as ones who can connect with God's shimjung, the efforts of Jesus on the mountain will come to naught.
Prayer
Father, we know that in search of religion, humankind needs beautiful and great mountains. We know well that the great figures of history had relationships with mountains, sharing their situations with mountains and determining the standards of life and death and victory and defeat on mountains. We have learned that Jesus visited the top of a mountain as the representative of humankind and there pleaded with Heaven from the depths of his heart.
As we have realized the historical connections with mountains, please allow many sons and daughters of God to appear on the mountain tops of the peninsula of the 3,000-li. Guide them to be proud people who can return the glory of victory to You and indemnify the historical grounds of resentment over what took place on the mountains.
To be such people, we know that besides our individual selves, our families, our societies, our religions, nations and world must all go to the mountain top. Please guide us to resemble the heart of Jesus, walking up and down the mountains for the sake of heaven and earth, and to follow in his footsteps. Allow us to become the children who can fight with fidelity until the day we set up a victorious altar on the mountain top and sing "Hosanna." Let us fight without exhaustion or retreat.
Father, we know that if we have such a determination, You will help us. Lead us to go through any complications with single-mindedness. Make us true sons and daughters who can, upon Your request, come and take the responsibility to connect to Your heart in the service of Your Will. We pray all this in the name of the Lord. Amen.