Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!
Mark 11:9
Dear members and friends,
It took me a long time to accept Jesus as Divine Incarnate and the Redeemer of humanity. My struggle with the Christian belief in Jesus mainly centered on the idea that he was the Savior of humanity, and thus the one who saved me. After a public confession followed by baptism, the church announced me as “saved.” Yet, I did not feel or notice any change within me! What made it worse was a simple question that haunted me afterwards: “From what did Jesus save me?”
I was only sixteen, but already knew that simply believing in Jesus would not make any fundamental change in my troubled life. And that was proved to be true. What happened already happened, and I just had to live with the consequences of actions chosen by my parents. Further, the change I wanted was not entirely external, but more internal. It had to do with my mentality and inner attitudes. The possibility of transforming those inner aspects seemed more accessible through the teachings of Buddha and Lao-zi.
Emanuel Swedenborg places strong emphasis on the mission of Jesus as redemption rather than salvation. It took me a while to understand the reason for this distinction. According to Swedenborg, redemption was a one-time thing—meant to reclaim what humanity had lost or surrendered—whereas salvation is an ongoing process. It’s the lifelong work of reforming our inner selves to reflect the image and likeness of God, and thus, the image of heaven.
Humanity lost their spiritual freedom due to their selfishness and attachment to the physical realm. This, Jesus incarnated into a human body to restore that spiritual freedom. But this act of redemption is not a guarantee for a ticket to heaven for those who believe in it, or in Jesus as the Divine Incarnate. Rather, each of us must actively and willingly engage in the cultivation of our inner selves, striving to be reformed into the image of heaven. This transformation does not happen by merely simply believing something to be true, but through our daily practice of the values Jesus taught.
My brothers and sisters in God, let us take a moment of prayer and reflection on this Palm Sunday. Then, let us deeply and sincerely reflect on the message of Jesus. What matters is not how much we know or claim to believe, but how much we are willing to live out in our daily lives.
Blessings, Rev. Junchol Lee