Jesus Restores John's Foundation of Faith
Jesus took on John's mission and restored through indemnity the Foundation of Faith to begin the second worldwide course of restoration. In the desert, Moses became angry and struck the rock twice (Num. 20:2-12).
Since the rock was a symbol of Christ (1 Cor. 10:16), Christ was symbolically placed in Satan's hand. Thus, Jesus had to take himself back from Satan before he could start his ministry and present himself as the living Word.
During his fast, Jesus experienced great hunger, and Satan said to him, "If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread." (Matt. 4:3)
If in the wilderness Jesus had been as faithless as his forefathers because of his great hunger, Satan could have claimed the stone again, and even Jesus himself.
The most important matter for Jesus was the stone, the Word of God, not bread.
Jesus had to restore himself as the stone, the reality of the Word. Jesus overcame Satan and restored himself as the Word with his declaration: "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God." (Matt. 4:4)
Jesus had restored the Word through a 40-day fast, just as Moses had received the Ten Commandments written on stone through a 40-day fast. Jesus was the reality of the Temple, and the purpose of his coming was to make all people God's temples, that is, God's dwellings. (1 Cor. 3:16)
Knowing this, Satan set Jesus on the pinnacle of the Temple and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down." (Matt. 4:6)
To throw himself down would have meant to give up his position as the Lord of the Temple. Jesus again defeated Satan by saying: "You shall not tempt the Lord your God." (Matt. 4:7)
Having overcome the first temptation, Jesus became the sole Lord in the world of the Principle. By this second victory over Satan, Jesus made it possible for all people to become God's temples, and thus symbolically to take the position of brides to Jesus and then to become children of God.
Through this victory, Jesus laid a foundation for the restoration of people to the status of a bride. Because of the human Fall, Satan became the lord over creation. (2 Cor. 4:4)
Jesus came to take Satan's lordship from him. Knowing Jesus' intention, Satan took him to a very high mount, showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory, and said to him, "All these I will give you, if you will fall and worship me." (Matt. 4:9)
Jesus defeated Satan a third time by saying, "Begone, Satan! For it is written, 'You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only shall you serve." (Matt. 4:10) Jesus declared that there was but one God and that Jesus was His sole representative.
In prevailing over Satan in the third temptation, Jesus laid a foundation for the restoration of humankind's dominion over the creation. (Matt. 19:28)
Young Oon Kim
The Kingdom of Heaven
Jesus successfully reestablished the Foundation of Faith by overcoming Satan's temptations. He thus inherited John's foundation.
Acting as his forerunner, Jesus approached the people at first with the same message that John was preaching.
Jesus and John both proclaimed, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." (Matt. 4:17b)
Just as Moses used God's power to do miracles to win the people's confidence to follow and believe in him, Jesus did miraculous deeds and healed many people so that they might have faith in him. (John 10:38)
Instead of uniting with Jesus and drawing people to him, John attracted official scrutiny by publicly denouncing the corruption of the ruling family of Herod Antipas. John soon ran afoul of Herod's authority.
In prison for denouncing Antipas' marriage, John remained uncommitted to Jesus. John sent two of his disciples to inquire: "Are you he who is to come, or shall we look for another?" This question disturbed Jesus, who answered:
"Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good news preached to them. And blessed is he who takes no offense at me." (Luke 7:22-23)
By declaring, "Blessed is he who takes no offense at me," Jesus implied the opposite: "Woe to him who does take offense at me."
Even if John had problems with Jesus' social background and his attitude toward the Law, John should have recognized Jesus at least by his works.
John was the most important prophet of all, in terms of his mission, for he was the very one to give direct witness to the Messiah. He, of all people, should have known the answer to his question.
By failing to follow Jesus and getting caught up in a political controversy that was not central to his mission as Jesus' fore-runner, John made a major mistake. He ended up in jail and was executed without making a commitment to the very Messiah for whom he was supposed to straighten the way. Jesus said:
"I tell you, among those born of women none is greater than John; yet he who is least in the kingdom of Gods is greater than he." (Luke 7:28)
In terms of serving Jesus, John was the least because he did not follow or attend Jesus as the Lord, although he had been chosen for that very purpose.
Afterward, Luke reported, Jesus "went on through cities and villages, preaching and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God." (Luke 8:1)
Jesus sent out his disciples, urging them to preach that the time was at hand. The time was so urgent that Jesus commanded: "Leave the dead to bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God." (Luke 9:60)
Then he said, "No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God." (Luke 9:62b)
In teaching his disciples how to pray, Jesus' first petition to God was: "Thy kingdom come." (Matt. 6:9-13) Jesus proclaimed the arrival of the reign of heaven because he was the one by whom it was to be established.
The kingdom of heaven was the central theme of Jesus' teaching. He gave many parables about the kingdom. He compared it to sowing good seeds in various soils; to a tiny grain of mustard seed which would grow into a large tree; to leaven hidden in meal; to a treasure hidden in a field, which a man found with joy and then bought at the cost of everything he had; to a merchant who, finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it; and to a net thrown into the sea. (Matt. 13)
Young Oon Kim
Jesus had to speak in symbols and hide the fact that he was the Messiah because at that point, he was still endeavoring to win the people over to his side and establish the Foundation of Substance from the position of John the Baptist.
Jesus said that it was not easy to enter God's reign. One must be like a child, showing that quality of obedient acceptance. For a rich man, it was particularly difficult, so Jesus compared a rich man entering the kingdom to a camel going through a needle's eye. (Luke 18:15-30)
Jesus came to bring God's rule in the real world, and not merely a spiritual kingdom in the hearts of his followers. Because the foundation for this had to be laid during Jesus' lifetime, its establishment was imminent and urgent.
Therefore, Jesus directed his followers to "seek first his kingdom and righteousness," without giving undue thought to what to eat or wear. (Matt. 6:25)
In the Beatitudes, Jesus described the nature of those who would enter the kingdom of heaven. (Matt. 5:3-11) To enter God's realm, one must be "perfect." As Jesus said, "You, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect."
(Matt. 5:45) According to the Principle of Creation, after a human being attains completion or perfection, he or she comes under God's Direct Dominion in a marriage blessed by God. Perfect men and women do not need forgiveness because they have in themselves no sin.
Descendants of such parents will be born free from original sin, and therefore will not need a savior. Jesus came to completely subjugate Satan (John 12:30), thereby freeing mankind from evil and original sin. He came to raise people to perfection—to establish a worldwide society of heaven on earth.
This was to be much more than the reign of God in people's hearts. He meant to establish a tangible, visible society of God's ideal. It was to be built by the efforts of men and women filled with divine love and truth.
It was to be a Garden of Eden in which true families of perfected parents would live with God in a full relationship of reciprocal love. Since Jesus lacked an "Elijah," 7 he could not approach the people directly as the Messiah.
This is the reason that he referred to himself by the prophetic title "son of man," 8 rather than Messiah, and told his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Christ. 9 Matthew states:
Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, "Who do men say that the Son of man is?" And they said, "Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets." He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?" Simon Peter replied, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." And Jesus answered him, "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jona! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.... Then he strictly charged the disciples to tell no one that he was the Christ. (Matt. 16:13-17, 20)
What was Jesus' mission as the Messiah? The Messiah comes in Adam's place to restore the lost Garden of Eden, to establish the kingdom of heaven on earth.'° Thus, Jesus came as the True Parent of humanity.
Jesus referred to himself as a bridegroom. (Matt. 9:14-15) As the new Adam, Jesus was to take a bride who would become the new Eve. Together, they would have become the True Parents of mankind. Starting with the chosen people of Israel, they were to adopt all people into their extended family (Luke 13:34).
Thus, all humankind would have been reborn, cleansed of the original sin, and would have become one with God in heart. They would have restored their original, God-given nature and built the kingdom of heaven on earth in Jesus' day.
By taking a bride, Jesus would have restored the original trinity of God, Adam, and Eve.
Through creating a first restored family with themselves in the position of True Parents, Jesus and his bride would have established the base of four positions and fulfilled the three great blessings intended for the original human family. At the same time, they would create the model for all other people to follow.
By engrafting themselves into Jesus as the "true vine" (John 15:5) and being adopted into his extended family (Eph. 1:5), his disciples and eventually all mankind would form their bases of four positions through Jesus' blessing on their marriage. They would then be able to multiply goodness by giving birth to children free from original sin and Satan's accusation.
Once such families populated the earth, the kingdom of heaven on earth would be established.
If the Jewish people had been moved to believe in and follow Jesus, they would have paid restitution to remove the fallen nature and would have established the Foundation of Substance for the second worldwide course of restoration.
The foundation for the Messiah would thus have been laid. Standing upon this foundation, Jesus would have advanced from the position of John the Baptist to the position of the Messiah.
Young Oon Kim
How Was He Received?
Like Moses, Jesus demonstrated absolute faith and sacrificial commitment to bring the message of the kingdom to God's people.
However, because of John's failure, a basis for satanic accusation existed, in that there was no "Elijah" to make the way straight for the Lord. Jesus had to apologize for this fact.
After John's death, the disciples asked Jesus,
"Then why do the scribes say that first Elijah must come?" He replied, "Elijah does come, and he is to restore all things; but I tell you that Elijah has already come, and they did not know him, but did to him whatever they pleased. So also the Son of man will suffer at their hands." Then the disciples understood that he was speaking to them of John the Baptist. (Matt. 17:10-13)
Because of John's failure, Satan could accuse Jesus of being an impostor. And because John himself had already denied that he was Elijah, it was difficult for those who took the prophets seriously to accept Jesus.
Moreover, Jesus' words of truth brought judgment on many people—from the families whose younger members left their professions to join Jesus, to the more conservative of the Pharisees who held to a strict interpretation of the Law," to the Temple authorities who collaborated with Rome and were threatened by any messianic claimant.
Satan devoted his full effort to finding a way to stop Jesus from continuing his mission. Finally, one of Jesus' disciples betrayed him. When Jesus restored the Foundation of Faith by fasting in the wilderness, the Bible reports that Satan "departed from him until an opportune time" (Luke 4:13).
Through Judas Iscariot, Satan found his opportunity. Jesus desperately sought to establish a shield against Satan's attack. However, this would require absolute faith not only on Jesus' part but also for Jesus' closest disciples. Drawing his disciples close to him, Jesus said:
"Let him who has no sword sell his mantle and buy one...." And they said, "Look, Lord, here are two swords." And he said to them, "It is enough." And he came out, and went, as was his custom, to the Mount of Olives; and the disciples followed him. (Luke 22:35-39)
Sensing the danger, at the Mount of Olives, Jesus entered the Garden
of Gethsemane and told his disciples to keep watch.
Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples,
"Sit here, while I go yonder and pray." And taking with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, "My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me." And going a little farther, he fell on his face and prayed, "My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt." (Matt. 26:36-39)
Jesus prayed desperately for God to allow him to fulfill his primary mission as the True Parent. Three times, Jesus returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. He roused them and urged them not to fall into temptation, saying the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.
Three times, Jesus implored God to let the cup of suffering pass from him. Three times God refused. When Jesus returned to his disciples for the third and final time, he declared:
"Are you still sleeping and taking your rest? Behold, the hour is at hand, and the Son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us be going; see, my betrayer is at hand." (Matt. 26:45-46)
Although Jesus commanded the disciples to rise and flee with him, it was already too late. Even Jesus' closest disciples could not fully unite with him, defend him, or even warn him at the crucial hour.
Because of this, Satan was able to penetrate even Jesus' inner circle through Judas Iscariot and thus take hold of Jesus' body. From this, we can see that the Foundation of Substance could not be established between Jesus and his disciples.
With that, the second worldwide course of restoration came to an end. Jesus now had to go the way of the cross.
Young Oon Kim