Jeremiah 51
3 I will tell these soldiers,
“Attack quickly,
before the Babylonians
can string their bows
or put on their armor.[c]
Kill their best soldiers
and destroy their army!”
4 Their troops will fall wounded
in the streets of Babylon.
5 Everyone in Israel and Judah
is guilty.
But I, the Lord All-Powerful,
their holy God,
have not abandoned them.
Luke 23
44 Around noon the sky turned dark and stayed that way until the middle of the afternoon. 45 The sun stopped shining, and the curtain in the temple[g] split down the middle. 46 Jesus shouted, “Father, I put myself in your hands!” Then he died.
47 When the Roman officer saw what had happened, he praised God and said, “Jesus must really have been a good man!”
48 A crowd had gathered to see the terrible sight. Then after they had seen it, they felt brokenhearted and went home. 49 All of Jesus’ close friends and the women who had come with him from Galilee stood at a distance and watched.
The Grieving Father, Son and Daughter as They Try to Establish the Kingdom of Heaven
Sun Myung Moon
May 17, 1959
The Unification Church was not meant to walk a rough path. When I see you coming into the Unification Church, I feel a worrisome heart rather than a welcoming one. I am looking at you like that. I have to look at you with a heart of reservation, rather than with a welcoming heart.
When one realizes the story of Heaven and its desperate nature as God searches to bring humanity back, not only would that person be unable to think about himself; he would have to deny himself. When a person can be led naturally to the degree where he will not criticize selfishly and subjectively, the way for him to walk this course is not only to feel the sorrow of such a deep level, but to subjectively comfort and console Heavenly Father. That is the only way an individual can walk this path.
Do not follow this path if you wish to lead a comfortable life. As I walked this path, I realized it is a lonely path without a friend, without a comrade, without an excuse, and without a place on which to lean. It is a path that cannot be trusted. Having walked such a path, I certainly could understand the heart of Jesus.
If I were to introduce Jesus today, I would like first to introduce the sad side of Jesus. Who in that age ever understood his heart and became his companion as he even forgot to eat, sleep, and was chased and driven out from town to town, having only his own lonely heart? Heaven was sorrowful. Even the saints, who wanted to represent Heavenly Father, were sad offerings. Heavenly Father, holding onto the will, must have truly been sorrowful when even Jesus had to die.
Who was Heavenly Father? We realize that He is our Father. We realize now that the relationship of God and humankind is that of a parent and child. We do not realize the sadness of our Father; but it is not God who is responsible for making us realize His sorrow. It is up to us. Jesus and the saints came to accomplish this.
God has been longing and questing after humankind. Those who want to be qualified to become the children of God have to fight and become victorious in place of Jesus, who walked the course and fought the battle of sorrowful faith. Humankind has not yet embraced a joyous and glorious day in this world. You will realize that Heavenly Father truly exists when you empathize with His sadness and call upon Him.
Jesus has shed countless unknown tears. You have to realize this. Although the Bible tells of this in only a few places, Jesus has truly shed many unknown tears. He felt responsible looking at the creation, looking at the scattered people and in relating with the infinite Heavenly Father. He was truly the prince of sadness; he was sad as he saw that some of his responsibilities could not be fulfilled. He was sad when he could not comfort Heavenly Father, although he was in the position to do so. He was sad at being unable to fulfill his responsibility as the Messiah to save humankind immediately.
The Jesus we believe in is not the prince of all princes, a prince of glory, or a prince of victory. He is the prince of sadness. We should realize that he was the prince of sadness for the will of God.
Saying such a thing may brand me a heretic, but it is a truth I have realized. The only way to be connected to Jesus is for you to have an overflowing moment of emotion and exclaim, “Jesus was a prince before humanity and history, the first ever to understand and fathom the sad heart of Heavenly Father!” That was not all. Jesus was also the prince of pain.