Author: Richard Urban

Jesus Grave Shim Jung

1 Corinthians 16

13 Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be courageous; be strong.14 Do everything in love.

John 5

1 Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. 2 Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda[a] and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. 3 Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. [4] [b] 5 One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?”

7 “Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.”

8 Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” 9 At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.

The Sorrowful Heart of Jesus as He Went to the Mountain

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
January 25, 1959

Matthew 17: 1-8

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. Continue reading “Jesus Grave Shim Jung”

Try to Understand Jesus’ Heart

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1542

A perfected human being should
become a citizen of the one global nation
that is also God’s kingdom. Which coun-
try do you belong to? Among those of
you gathered here, some may be Amer-
ican, some German, some Korean, and
so on, but where is God’s kingdom? This
world, earth, is your nation as well as
mine. Where is our hometown? This
world is our hometown. We are not con-
cerned with national boundaries and
things like that. Neither are we con-
cerned about the differences between
blacks and whites. All of us are God’s
children. (79-247, 1975.8.24)

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1763

When the sexual organs are sancti-
fied, they can be connected to heaven.
Their importance should be taught from
elementary school. The goals pursued by
man and woman are the sexual organs
of love. They are shaped as concave and
convex for love. Why were the genitals
shaped differently? For the sake of love.
Which love is it for? It is for true love, God’s
eternal and unchanging love. (278-271,
1996.5.26)

The Sorrowful Heart of Jesus as He Went to the Mountain

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
January 25, 1959

Matthew 17: 1-8

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. Continue reading “Try to Understand Jesus’ Heart”

The Israelites and Jewish Churches Did Not Welcome Jesus

Book Review:  The Rod of Iron Kingdom by Hyung Jin Sean Moon

Revelation 11

12 Then they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, “Come up here.” And they went up to heaven in a cloud, while their enemies looked on.

13 At that very hour there was a severe earthquake and a tenth of the city collapsed. Seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake, and the survivors were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven.

Proverbs 22

Start children off on the way they should go,
    and even when they are old they will not turn from it.

7 The rich rule over the poor,
    and the borrower is slave to the lender.

8 Whoever sows injustice reaps calamity,
    and the rod they wield in fury will be broken.

9 The generous will themselves be blessed,
    for they share their food with the poor.

The Sorrowful Heart of Jesus as He Went to the Mountain

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
January 25, 1959

Matthew 17: 1-8

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. Continue reading “The Israelites and Jewish Churches Did Not Welcome Jesus”

Don’t Forget the Gravity of Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration

Book Review:  The Rod of Iron Kingdom by Hyung Jin Sean Moon

Cheon Seong Gyeong 2260

The family on earth is the horizon-
tal entity whose purpose is to create the
heavenly kingdom. Reproduction is not
possible in the vertical world. The num-
ber of children expands in the horizon-
tal world and they become God’s citi-
zens. When members of royal families
who are God’s citizens multiply, they
are all citizens except the firstborn. They
become relatives. Those citizens become
clans. There must be a firstborn among
the clans, right? Among tribes, too, there
needs to be the firstborn that ties all the
tribes together. This is Adam and Eve.
Adam and Eve were to be the king and
queen of the eternal tradition. In a dem-
ocratic world, all this disappears. Then
what is the spherical shape? The founda-
tion for producing the citizens of heaven
is not the family foundation in Heaven,
but on earth. To bear children is to pro-
duce citizens of the heavenly world. (234-
165, 1992.8.10)

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1123

The human portion of responsibility
was lost. Then, what is that portion of
responsibility? It was entrusted to men
and women, so that they could both
mature, men taking the east side and
women taking the west side…. Men were
born for the sake of women and women
were born for the sake of men, so they
must mature and marry. Where would
they meet? At the meeting point made
by perpendicular lines. When plus and
minus meet love explodes, and becomes
the foundation for God’s love, life and
lineage. This becomes a root so secure
that even if someone tries to pull it out
he will not be able to do so. As human
beings we are to be born centered on the
origin of absolute love, life and lineage.
(196-222, 1990.1.1)

The Sorrowful Heart of Jesus as He Went to the Mountain

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
January 25, 1959

Matthew 17: 1-8

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. Continue reading “Don’t Forget the Gravity of Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration”

Jesus and the Historical Course

Book Review:  The Rod of Iron Kingdom by Hyung Jin Sean Moon

Exodus 12

12 “On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn of both people and animals, and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the Lord. 13 The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are, and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt.

Psalm 59

You are my strength, I watch for you;
    you, God, are my fortress,
10     my God on whom I can rely.

God will go before me
    and will let me gloat over those who slander me.
11 But do not kill them, Lord our shield,[d]
    or my people will forget.
In your might uproot them
    and bring them down.
12 For the sins of their mouths,
    for the words of their lips,
    let them be caught in their pride.
For the curses and lies they utter,
13     consume them in your wrath,
    consume them till they are no more.
Then it will be known to the ends of the earth
    that God rules over Jacob.

The Sorrowful Heart of Jesus as He Went to the Mountain

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
January 25, 1959

Matthew 17: 1-8

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. Continue reading “Jesus and the Historical Course”