Scripture Passage

Isaiah 53:1-7

Sermon Text

Good afternoon, everyone. Today I’m gonna talk about the cross. No wonder, we are Christians, so I’m gonna talk about the cross. But also I’m going to talk about that desire, human desire as well, and then I’m going to make quite a bit of Biblical references so there’s going to be a lot of PowerPoint so I hope you can follow with me. The first human feeling, human emotion, human thought recorded in the Bible, you can find from Genesis chapter three, from the mouth of the first woman, Eve. It says, “So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise”

This was the first human beings thoughts and emotion and feeling: good for food, delight to the eyes, and desire to make one wise. So the first human emotion or thought that came from within a human being was desire. Eastern cultures like Korean or Japanese or Chinese, we write human beings like this 인간 (ingan) and that means, the Chinese character means, human beings find our identity between and among other humans. So the Eastern understanding of the human being is more like a social relation and understanding. But in Western culture, Latin writes human as humanus and then from hummanus came from the word hummus and nowadays we have the word human. It means earth, or dust. So we are just dust and earth.  That’s a Western kind of understanding from a long thousand years ago.

Beings of Desire

But the Bible understands it a little bit differently. In Genesis chapter two, verse 23, the first man, Adam says, “Then the man said,“This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; this one shall be called Woman, for out of Man this one was taken.”. ‘Woman’ and ‘Man’ came from the same word, ish. Ish means desire, or fire, or some would say passion, something like that, but desire, basically. The Bible understands human beings like me and you as a being of desire. What was on the tree is not our focus today. The focus is that the first human saw the tree and she desired. The Bible tells us more about the desire. The desire, if you look closely to the Bible reference, that desire wasn’t just generated within herself. Desire wasn’t just created within herself. She just didn’t bring up the desire. Chapter three, verse six says, “So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise“. Her desire wasn’t generated within herself but came from outside. Her desire came from the other. Her desire came from the outside.

We see this everywhere. You can go to, or any, any daycare or childcare, the younger, younger, the better. At the nursery school there is a kid who is happily playing with his toy for a while, but suddenly he sees that another kid is playing with a much, much more desired toy. And then this kid wants to have that toy. And then these two kids fall into rivalry. And then they have to resolve something. Even from really young ages, it’s just happens like that. Desire comes from outside, from the other. You desire someone who possess something that you desire.

Desire for the Other

You don’t just create your desire. You see someone, you see like a close relationship or far away, but you desire like a visible thing. Smartphones, computers, cars, houses, or invisible things like knowledge, fame, recognition, or happiness. That is why one philosopher once said that if you think your desire is original to you that’s a romantic lie. He said, if you think your desire is original to you, thats’s a romantic lie. Humans borrow one another’s desire. Because of their desire, Adam and Eve had to come out of the garden. And then they had two sons, Cain and Abel, and we all know the story. The sacrifice of Abel was accepted, but not Cain’s. Cain committed the first murder by killing his brother.  Just imagine if both sacrifices were accepted or both sacrifices were denied. There would be no competition. There would be no rivalry. There would be no killing. But one was not recognized while the other, the opposite. Cain was kind of consumed by desire and killed his rival, his younger brother.

Let’s look at the 10 commandments. The kids in Kids Church, they kind of know 10 commandments because during VBS one of the most favourite songs they’ve been singing every day was the 10 commandments song. So there is kind of a cool motions, I don’t want to show it, but they really liked the song. Number six to number nine, so simple, nothing that special. You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbour.

You shouldn’t do this. The commandments prohibits some kind of action that would destroy the harmony of the community. Suddenly the 10th commandment became really long and the object, the target was changed. You shall not desire your neighbor’s wife or male or female slave or ox or donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbour. So from six number six to nine, certain actions prohibited, but the 10th commandment prohibits human desire, not actions. The desire that comes from the outside, from your neighbor, which means outside the other, the otherness.

If I go back to 2000 or so, I imagine that there’s a law maker of the 10 commandments, he was trying to make the 10 commandments and he didn’t want the people to fight. He didn’t want for people to fight each other, and so he was trying to lay out the list, the list of prohibitions. But soon he realized after number six, seven, and eight and nine, he realized that the list went on and on and on. You have to list out everything. So he gave up. So instead of listing out the thing that people fight for and become violent, he decided to finish his work by talking about desire. Desire for that which belongs to the other.

Desire Becomes Violence

From January this year, Kids Church has been using this new curriculum and it’s 52 weeks about Bible stories. We started from the creation story. And then today downstairs, they must have finished already, they are learning about the story of King Saul. And every Bible lesson comes through the short Bible movie clip, two minutes, three minutes, something like that. And almost every week, I realize there’s too much violence in the Bible. Every week. The stories are full of violence, filled with so much blood. Sometimes I worry about how much these young kids are able to digest, but the Bible says so, so I don’t know. Then I realized that that’s human reality and our history. Humans, we humans desire. And that desire comes from the outside, the other. That desire desires what you have not, but the other has. Then there comes jealous, competition, envy, and that makes rivalry. Then violence comes in many, many different forms.

You all know that in the story of Jacob and his brother Esau, Jacob desired what his brother Esau had. The privilege that only the first born son had and its blessings from his father, Isaac. Then Jacob’s desire together with his mom Rebeca’s desire led Jacob to a kind of a competition, a rivalry with his older brother, Esau. You can imagine it easily. Esau was not even years older than him, they were twins. And Esau was just born, I will say just a few minutes earlier than him. Then there came violence.

You all know that in the story of Joseph and his 10 older brothers, the 10 brothers desired their father Jacob’s attention, but only the youngest brother possessed that. If this situation continued, they wouldn’t receive Jacob’s blessing and inheritance. So the 10 brothers with one heart in harmony for one purpose made Joseph a scapegoat. They exercised their violence upon their youngest brother, Joseph, trying to kill him and eventually selling him as a slave to Egypt.

You all know, also, the story of Israel in the times of judges. The Israelites desired what they didn’t have, what other nations had. Every nation around them had kings, but they did it. So even though God didn’t like the idea, the Isrealites’ desire led them to, I would say a rivalry with God. Rivalry with God, the invisible God, and set one desirable person, King Saul on the throne. I don’t have to give you more examples from the Bible. We are full of desire, desire, rivalry, violence, over and over again.

We Do Not Desire God

But, even though we are born with desire, it seems like the Bible says we don’t usually desire God. We desire anything that the other possesses, but we don’t desire God. The first woman saw the tree and she desired it, but we see the lamb of God and we don’t have desire. Is because the lamb of God, the Messiah, doesn’t look that desirable. Today’s scripture said, “For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him“. His appearance is not desirable. Who can desire the scapegoat, right? Who could desire that? He has no form that we should look at him. He has no majesty that we should look at him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. The first woman saw the tree and we already read her burning desire, right? So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was a delight to the eyes and that the tree was to be desired, to make one wise. But if we saw the Messiah, the Bible may have been written this way. So then the man or woman saw that the Messiah was no good for our survival and that it was not a delight to the eyes and that the Messiah was not to be desired to make one wise.

The problem is the Messiah demands us to desire him. The Messiah, according the Bible, demands us to desire him. Jesus said, Then he said to them all, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me“. St. Paul said, “therefore, be imitators of God as beloved children“. But according to Isaiah, we humans didn’t desire the Messiah and rejected him and finally had him killed. “He was despised and rejected by others; a man of suffering and acquainted with infirmity; and as one from whom others hide their faces he was despised, and we held him of no account. Surely he has borne our infirmities and carried our diseases; yet we accounted him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the punishment that made us whole, and by his bruises we are healed.”

The Bible doesn’t use a backhanded way of saying it, of talking around it. The Bible just directly tells us that it’s us who killed the Messiah. Not you or some but us. Our desire killed him. So St James says this, “then, when that desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and that sin, when it is fully grown, gives birth to death“. And St. Paul says this, “since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God“. And also the prophet Isaiah in today’s passage says this, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have all turned to our own way“. We have all turned to our own desire. Often, when we are being consumed by desire, we become ignorant. We see the Messiah, Jesus Christ dying on the cross and say, “Surely he has borne our infirmities and carried our diseases; yet we accounted him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted“. When we are consumed by desire we don’t see what we have to see. That’s why the first saying of Jesus on the cross is this, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.”

Repentance

They don’t see what they’re doing because the desire is so hidden, deep, deep down in human existence. Conversion, repentance, I don’t think they are big things. Just to know that I’m a sinner, I’m a sinner just to see I’m responsible for killing the Messiah on the cross, that’s conversion and repentance. When I was in grade eight or nine in Korea, I went to a Hi-C retreat. And I didn’t want to go because I didn’t go to church at that time because I was in puberty here so I was just against everything. I was against my father, my mother, I was against society. I was against this institution of school, all kind of a rebellious ideas. Yes. Those were my grades, six, seven, eight those days and I didn’t go to church.

Why, why should I go to church? There’s a romantic idea, kind of a fantasy idea, I believed. And then my school friends, for two months, they’d been saying “let’s go” every day, every day. So then, okay. Okay. I liked my friends, so I went there. There were three nights in the retreat, so I didn’t want to go. I didn’t have any interest in any ladies or woman by that time I didn’t have any interest in swimming or the food or anything. So we had about 100 or 150 kids and I was always really back there sitting like this because we didn’t have chairs. We didn’t usually use chairs years ago, we would just sit on the floor. [grumbling noises] I had a “I don’t want to listen” kind of a kind of attitude.

And then the last night, last night, I still vividly remember the last night. The thing is, I just realized I’m a sinner. I don’t know where that came from. I don’t think it was a kind of ethical or doctrinal kind of confession. I just saw myself and I realized I’m a sinner. And then my second question was, what am I supposed to do? There was my question. And then there was cross was there so then something happened there. That was my conversion. I remember that I realized I’m a sinner. For a long time, I didn’t think I was a sinner. Why am I a sinner? Sometimes I lie, sometimes I use bad language, yes. Who wouldn’t? And it’s not a big deale kind of a stuff, but it’s not because of that. The more I looked into myself, the more I tried to go deeper in myself I had to say that I’m a sinner.

When the St. Peter he said, “Go away from me, Lord for I’m a sinful man“. The first thing St. Peter said. When the prophet Isaiah first met God, he said, “Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!” Therefore, when St. Paul first met God while he was on the way to Damascus to persecute Christians, he heard, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? … I’m Jesus, whom you are persecuting“. I know I’m a sinner. My two kids will not see I’m a sinner. My wife and my mom will not see I’m a sinner. They like me or love me, but they don’t see that I am a sinner, and also you don’t see I’m a senior right? Do you? But I know I’m a sinner.

The Old Rugged Cross

I know that desire conceived, it gave birth to sin and that sin, when it was fully grown, gave birth to death of the Messiah, the lamb of God, the innocent God, the innocent lamb of God. If I don’t see I’m a sinner, then I have a romantic fantasy or romantic lie. But if I see I’m a sinner, then I have the truth, nothing but the truth. Therefore, I desire the old rugged cross. I desire the cross that has no form nor majesty. I desire the despised cross. I desire the rejected cross. I desire the cross that has nothing in appearance that we desire. Someone says the Bible is like a cloth made with fur. Humans desire to see the outer part, the beautiful part, hairy part, smooth, and so warm. But the Bible flips the fur and lets us see the other side, the animal skin, red and blood dripping.

That’s the Bible, someone says. The cross, the sacrifice of the innocent lamb of God is the same to me. “He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth“. It’s not the fancy and the side of a part in the appearance of the cross, but the other side, the blood of the lamb of God. We have the cross. This is my favorite part of the sanctuary, the cross. We have this beautiful cross, but we have to see the other side of the cross. Even though it looks big, grand, or beautiful, we must see the other side, the blood of the lamb of God. Not the desirable part of the outer appearance, but the other side. But the good news is that the Bible doesn’t stop there.

The Bible is intention is not to accuse us. Even though Barbara says, you are responsible for killing Jesus Christ the Bible doesn’t trying to accuse us. You’re a sinner, but there’s more. “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us“. “But he was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the punishment that made us whole, and by his bruises we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have all turned to our own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all“. Our desire had crucified him. We hear not just “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? … I’m Jesus, whom you are persecuting” but we hear this gentle voice, ‘David, David, why you prosecute me? I’m Jesus, David, whom you are prosecuting’. And accept the grace of the cross and his forgiveness.

More and more and little by little not to live with the desire of the old self, but to live with a new desire for the cross. St. Paul said, “For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified“. I’m no longer just me. I am no longer just a sinner. I’m a sinner that is covered by the blood of the lamb. I’m a sinner that is covered by the blood of the cross. I’m a sinner whose sins are forgotten and forgiven. So I cherish the old rugged cross. So I desire to know nothing except Jesus Christ and him crucified. Lord, help us to desire you more.