The Family Is the Center of the Kingdom of Heaven

Jeremiah 23

23 You leaders of my people are like shepherds that kill and scatter the sheep. You were supposed to take care of my people, but instead you chased them away. So now I’ll really take care of you, and believe me, you will pay for your crimes!

I will bring the rest of my people home from the lands where I have scattered them, and they will grow into a mighty nation. I promise to choose leaders who will care for them like real shepherds. All of my people will be there, and they will never again be frightened.

Mark 12

35 As Jesus was teaching in the temple, he said, “How can the teachers of the Law of Moses say that the Messiah will come from the family of King David? 36 The Holy Spirit led David to say,

‘The Lord said to my Lord:
    Sit at my right side[c]
until I make your enemies
    into a footstool for you.’

37 If David called the Messiah his Lord, how can the Messiah be his son?”[d]

The large crowd enjoyed listening to Jesus teach.

Richard: Jesus was pained that the Jewish people did not understand that he was the one whom David spoke of, the long awaited Messiah.

Members Who Will Live In God’s Family

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
September 27, 1959

Matthew 12: 46-50

Fallen people have to pass through a time when they long for the words of truth. In history God has been moving the hearts of people to practice and live by the Father’s words.

What does it mean to live centering on the words? It is to live with the son whom God has sent as the heavenly embodiment. That son is the true father of humanity. Jesus came with that mission.

What did Jesus represent? Jesus was to become the true father of humanity who was lost due to the Fall. He came as the embodiment of the words established upon the substantial foundation of the words laid in history. He came to represent the Father. This is why Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one will go before the Father except through me.” (John 14:6) Only Jesus is the center of faith, mind and heart. Why? It is because Jesus has the quality of the Father. For this reason Jesus is the Savior of humanity and represents Heaven and earth. Christianity is the religion which seeks the appearance of the Father through the words, seeks the mind of the Father through the words, and seeks the love of the Father through the words.

Jesus came to the earth. He came with infinite ideals. If he had a wish, it was on God’s behalf. What was God’s wish? It was to realize the ideals and goals of creation. When Jesus came as an individual with this wish in his heart, the environment at the time was not good. The environment, which was not in line with the providence, bitterly opposed Jesus. Jesus had to leave a certain standard of the heart on earth even if he was to be struck down. This is why Jesus stressed that he was the father and humanity the children. To form parents there must be a true father and a true mother. After Jesus passed away, the Holy Spirit was the one who came as the mother figure.

Jesus’ sorrow was that he could not experience the day when as a physical and spiritual being on the earth he could bless sons and daughters. Jesus’ grief was not having spoken all the words he had to speak and not having established the standard of the heavenly family before he passed away. Since he could not form a heavenly family, he could not raise up members of a heavenly family, kinsmen centering on family members, a nation centering on the kinsmen, a country centering on the nation, and a world centering on the country.

Israel should have laid the national foundation. The Jews were the chosen people, yet the relationship was severed and Jesus was cornered by the Jews. Jesus was persecuted miserably as a traitor. In the end Jesus was betrayed even by his twelve disciples. Jesus’ sorrow was dying without forming a blood lineage connected to God’s heart on the earth.

Before constructing the family that God desires, there is no way to establish the people that God wishes for. Before establishing a people, there is no way to found a nation or a world. Therefore, when Jesus, who was fighting to establish a family, could not fulfill the will, he had to leave behind the concept that he was the bridegroom of humanity and that humanity was his bride. Ladies and gentlemen, do you know the significance of this? It means that the family is the center of the Kingdom of Heaven.



Leave a Reply