Due to love (John 20:1-10)
Since the early times of Christianity, various heresies have arisen, including Gnosticism. Gnosticism asserts that to possess special and private spiritual knowledge is necessary for reaching salvation and they consider the body itself to be evil; thus, refuse to acknowledge that the Son of God came in the form of a body and believe that Jesus’ body that the people saw is just an illusion, not reality.
1.The Reason for Offering His Own Body
Jesus came to earth in the body and offered His body wholly to God to fulfill the prophecy of the Old Testament. When He completed God’s will, His body was torn. His love for us is not an abstract concept. He loved us as He did not spare His body for us by suffering all insults and flogging and finally, He died on the cross.
2. The Reason for Offering Our Body to Serve Him
How can we express our love for Him as the one who receives His love? Despite hardships to come, Arimathea asked for Jesus’ body, Nicodemus prepared a mixture of myrrh and aloes for Jesus’ burial, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb before dawn, and John ran to the tomb with all his strength. None of them penetrated the Lord’s salvation plan or knew that the Lord would be resurrected. However, they loved the Lord unconditionally, and He remembered their behavior.
3. Spiritual life that we make in the body
Many people consider a worthwhile spiritual life as pursuing special and private knowledge. However, the key to spiritual life is to demonstrate our truthful love towards the Lord. The path that our Lord took in the body is where we should go as His saints and the heaven where our Lord went in the body is where we should go in our body. Let us demonstrate our truthful love toward the Lord by offering ourselves to serve our church.
February 5, 2023
Overseer Sung-Hyun Kim
