「ダブル(?)スタンダードを捨てて」 八月第四主日礼拝 宣教 2024年8月25日
ヨハネによる福音書 John 7章14〜24節 牧師 河野信一郎
Praise the Lord! Good morning. It is already the last Sunday in August. We thank God that we are blessed to be able to praise and worship with you this morning.
As you may have heard, Typhoon No. 10 is heading toward Japan, developing into a powerful typhoon. According to news reports, the typhoon is expected to move across Japan from Kyushu to Hokkaido, with the Kanto area expected to be covered from Tuesday to Wednesday, and is said to be comparable to or even more powerful than the East Japan Typhoon that caused extensive damage in October 2019. The Japan Meteorological Agency has already issued a warning to be on the lookout for heavy rain and storms, so we believe that Wednesday’s prayer meeting should be cancelled. With the Lord’s blessing, let us pray that each of our lives will be protected.
The month of September, which begins next Sunday, is “Church School Month”. The churches of the Japan Baptist Convention grew from 1947 until around 2000, not only through worship services, prayer meetings, and evangelism, but also through church Sunday school, where the congregation was given rich fellowship and prepared as people who do the Lord’s work. In other words, worship services and Sunday school are two essential wheels for church formation and growth. In the short time from 10:10 to 40 minutes before the service, we read the Bible together with the attendees and share the blessings and lessons drawn from it. Please join us.
In September, the story of Joseph in the second half of Genesis will be the text. I was in charge of the “Daily Word” in the September issue of Seisho Kyouiku. With the guidance and encouragement of the Holy Spirit and the prayers of the church members, I prepared a month’s worth of short messages of only 120 words for each day. That being said, there are five Lord’s Days in September, so please try to participate in at least one of them.
Now, August is “Peace Month”. There have been many reports about the postwar period in Japan, Okinawa, etc. In Ukraine, the war with Russia has been going on for two and a half years, and there are no signs of it even ending. Even in the land where Jesus walked, war continues. The future of ceasefire negotiations between Palestine and Israel is also uncertain. The U.S. spokesperson insists that talks are moving forward “constructively,” but many people are still being killed in Gaza, and hostages remain unresolved. All over the world, skirmishes over expanding interests continue, and the situation is far from peaceful.
This should not stop us from praying to God for world peace. World peace is depended on the foundation for each of us to be reconciled to God and to live at peace with Him. In order to make peace with God, we must first acknowledge our sins and weaknesses, repent, believe in Jesus Christ our Savior, and be reconciled to God through Him. In order to be reconciled to God and to establish a healthy relationship with God, we must abandon all self-centered ideas, thoughts, values, and convenience that dominate our minds and listen to and obey God’s Word.
I have set the theme of this morning’s message as “Let Go of the Double Standard.” Those who believe in the Lord God and Savior Jesus Christ and are animated by His love for them should live by only one standard, “the Word of God”. Otherwise, very serious confusion, entanglements, and battles will arise in human relationships. The society in which we live is not a double standard. It is dominated by people with triple, quadruple, and sometimes even higher standards. The word “standard” could be replaced by the word “face”. In their relationships at home, at work, and in society, many people use two or three different standards, one for personal use and one for external use. Some people, who are wise and very dexterous, can use several faces to get around in the world.
But why do we carry around so many standards and faces? There are many reasons. Is it because we don’t have a firm idea of what we want, and therefore we are easily swayed by other people’s opinions? Is it because we leave too much of the important things and decisions to others? Is it because we are too afraid to say or do the right thing? Is it because we don’t want to be disliked by others or feel isolated or alienated from society?
What is wrong with using different faces at home, at work, and in society, you may say, but the question is whether a person is consistent in his or her attitude of mind. In other words, is the person always sincere to everyone, no matter where he or she is facing? We have likes and dislikes. Some people are difficult to deal with, while others are closer than family members. In other words, are there any prejudices in our hearts? If there are any prejudices, we must leave them to God and discard them, or there will be no peace in our relationships. Is this way of thinking out of line with reality? Is it too idealistic? I would like to think about it with you this morning.
This morning’s text is John 7:14-24, where the word “will of God” appears in verse 17. To summarize today’s message in a few words, unless each of us has an attitude of doing God’s will and a strong desire to do God’s will, there will be no peace, love, hope, or salvation. If we do not seek and pray to do God’s will, it will not be given to us.
Today’s passage might have been better read from verse 10, but the festival mentioned in verse 14, “when the festival was already halfway through,” is the Feast of Booths, one of the three major festivals of the Jewish people. It is an autumn harvest festival held from September to October, and is considered to be the most joyous of all. This year, the Feast of Booths will be held from October 16 to 23. The website of Shinsei Senkyoudan describes the meaning and purpose of the Feast of Booths, and I would like to quote from the article.
The “Feast of Booths” is a festival during which people actually build a tent in their yard or in front of their door during the festival period (8 days) to remember how their ancestors, who were slaves in Egypt, lived in a tent in the wilderness for 40 years until they reached the Promised Land (land of Canaan) after they escaped from Egypt and were liberated about 3,000 years ago. The wilderness is a place where there is no water or bread, but people are given bread and water called “manna” by God. Therefore, the Feast of Booths is a festival of joy and celebration in remembrance of such blessings from God. The “Feast of Booths” is a festival of joy and celebration to recall such blessings of God.
The Feast of Booths is a time to rejoice and give thanks in remembrance of the truth that the Lord God walked with Israel in their midst, meeting the needs of His people and protecting and guiding them even during their 40 years in the wilderness. However, in the midst of such a festival, Jesus teaches the crowd and his disciples something very important. He tells them that the time of the Old Testament, the time of the Exodus, was the time of the New Testament, the time when Jesus Christ came to this earth, and that Jesus is the one who walks with us in our midst as our Savior, satisfying the hunger and thirst of our souls, providing salvation, leading us into the Kingdom of God, and expressing God’s love and truth. It is a time of grace, Jesus says.
On about the fourth or fifth day of the Feast of Booths, Jesus begins to teach the people such an important matter in the precincts of the temple. Jesus’ teaching was so wonderful that the people were amazed and began to wonder, “How can this man, who has not studied much, know so much about the Bible and the Law?”, says in verse 15.
To digress a bit, verse 12 says that some said that Jesus was “a good man” and others said that he was “a deceiver of crowds”. Verse 13 says, “But no one spoke openly about Jesus for fear of the Jews”.
The Sanhedrin, the assembly, had already decided to expel from the synagogue those who openly spoke of Jesus as a good teacher, and to expel them from the Jewish community, and those who feared being expelled from the community had to keep their thoughts and ideas to themselves and keep quiet. Fear of others prevents us from saying or doing the right thing, which is our standard. But it is God we must fear, and it is His Word, Jesus Christ, we must obey.
In verses 16 and 17, Jesus says, “My teaching is not my own teaching, but the teaching of him who sent me. He who seeks to do His will will know whether my teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own. He says that God the Father and himself are one, and that not only Jesus’ teachings and words, but also his deeds and works are in accord with God’s will and intention. Jesus said that only those who love God, seek God’s glory, and sincerely desire to do God’s will can understand this, not those who dexterously use several standards and pursue their own glory.
Let me continue to tell you a little more about this because it is important. In verse 19, Jesus says to the crowd, “Did not Moses give you the law? But none of you keep it,” he says to the crowd. What is the law? The Law is God’s teaching, will, and will of how He wants us to live. The two most important commandments in the Law are to love God and to love one’s neighbor. But people do not obey His will. Instead of loving, they criticize each other intensely, envy each other, judge each other, and to top it all off, they harbor hostility and hatred toward the Savior Jesus, who came to this world to show God’s love, and are planning to kill Him. Therefore, Jesus says, “Why do you seek to kill Me?”
Jesus says that if they truly understood God’s love, His will and will as revealed in the Law, they would accept Him and would not kill Him, but people vehemently object, “You are possessed by evil spirits Who would want to kill you?” People who have self-centered standards, values, ideas, and convenience are controlled by them, so they take precedence over them. Therefore, they get in the way and make it impossible to receive God’s love honestly.
Verse 22 says, “Moses commanded you to be circumcised. –But this did not begin with Moses, but with the patriarchs – that is why you are circumcising yourselves on the Sabbath as well. Circumcision is a sign given to the genitals of a male child when he is born as a sign that he belongs to Israel. Circumcision is performed on the eighth day after birth, and even if that eighth day falls on the Sabbath, circumcision is performed even though the Torah commands us to do nothing but worship on the Sabbath. This seems to be a double standard and a kind of contradiction, but the Jews do it even on the Sabbath because the covenant that Abraham and the subsequent patriarchs promised to obey God is more important to them than the law given to them through Moses.
In verse 23, Jesus says, “Do you resent that I healed the whole body on the Sabbath, while men are circumcised even on the Sabbath?” In chapter 5, we read of Jesus’ healing on the Sabbath day when He healed the sick man at the Pool of Beth-zatha, a man who had been sick and suffering for 38 years, and set him free from his suffering. This work is the same thing as circumcising on the Sabbath and making use of it in our relationship with God, and yet we ask the counter-question why circumcision is good and healing is not.
We get angry because we have strong egos, too many standards, values, and prejudices. Jesus says, “Stop judging based on appearances and judge righteously”. To judge rightly means to discern rightly. To discern God’s will, we need to listen to God’s Word. In order to discern and know God’s will, we need to continually listen to the Word of God, Jesus.