Summoning the fishermen
As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. "Come, follow me." Jesus said, "and I will make you fishers of men." At once they left their nets and followed him.
Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John. They were in a boat with their father Zebedee, preparing their nets. Jesus called them, and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him. Matthew 4:18-24
When God sent his only Son to this world to establish his kingdom on earth, don't you think he wanted to be followed by the most able people of his age? Do you think that God wanted only the outcasts of society to follow Jesus? Not at all! The failure of John the Baptist broke the link between the Son of God and the people. As a result, only fishermen, tax collectors, harlots, and lepers followed Jesus Christ. This brought great grief to the heart of God.
If the Lord is returning to the world today, is it not most log-teal that all the leadership of Christianity, the bishops, the cardinals, the pope, and all the evangelists and great ministers of the world should become the first group to welcome the Christ? If they followed the Lord and became his first disciples, the establishment of his kingdom would be infinitely easier.
You may say "Reverend Moon, by what authority are you speaking? What makes you so sure?" I do have the authority to say these things. God showed me the truth. I met Jesus. Jesus himself showed me these truths. And I met John the Baptist, too, in the spirit world. He himself bore witness to the truth of this testimony. After these extraordinary spiritual experiences, when I returned to the reality of this world, the same Bible I had been reading took on a whole new meaning.
From the speech of Sun Myung Moon: The Future of Christianity October 28, 1973
Even today in Korea, fishermen are poor and lowly people and not well respected. You can imagine how Jesus may have felt when he had to seek out ignorant fishermen 2,000 years ago.
Rejected by the prepared people, Jesus came as a laborer and as a friend of the fishermen. He shared his life, heart, and desires with them. He fought on with the determination that he would help satisfy their hearts' desires, even at the cost of his life. The reason fishermen such as Peter could follow him was because Jesus testified and fought with this kind of heart and mindset. What did Jesus do for three years after picking these uneducated disciples? In the same way that God had served and toiled for 4,000 years to raise the Israelites, Jesus chose them and served them.
Jesus had great hopes for the twelve disciples he had chosen. It was Jesus whom God had sent to influence Judaism and guide the priests and officials. His ideology was grand, his hopes were great, and his heartistic level was high. What did Jesus do while looking at these people? Through the three years of his ministry, Jesus passed through the same course as God, who had walked the path of sacrifice and service for the sake of raising the people.
Therefore, Jesus searched for disciples, forgetting food and drink. When he had something to wear, he gave it to his disciples, disregarding his rags. If there was some comfortable place to sleep, he let his disciples sleep there and sat in an uncomfortable place.
From the speech of Sun Myung Moon: The Incarnation of Jesus, a Pioneer February I, 1959
Good news to the poor
The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written: "The Spirit of the Lord is on me. because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor" Luke 4:17-19
It is in true love that humanity is able to meet God and enjoy eternal life. For this reason, true love is capable of over-coming all the world's problems. Through true love, by which we sacrifice ourselves in order to live for others, we can find the solutions to such problems as interracial conflict, violence, the conflict between rich and poor, and the various environmental issues. Families in which the individual members are united centered on true love can successfully combat the corruption of morals that has contributed to the downfall of so many of our youth.
When the individual, family, society, nation, and world become one through true love, then mankind can expect a very bright future.
From the speech of Sun Myung Moon: Fifth Summit Council for World Peace Founder's Address August 22, 1992
What do you think l was doing when I was 17? Even before I was given my life's mission, I always had the heart that I wanted to be a friend to the suffering people in my village. When I was a boy, there was a rich, arrogant boy who always received a hard time from me. But those who were unfortunate and suffering were always my friends. If I heard that some household had no money to buy groceries, I considered it an emergency and I did everything possible to obtain some money for those people. Until I had done that I could not sleep. I wanted to be more than a friend. I wanted to be someone who could serve and help others. Between the ages of twenty and thirty which is considered the prime of youth, people normally want to dress well, and have pleasant experiences in life. But I lived in exactly the opposite way I never wore a new suit. I always bought surplus clothing in thrift shops. My hair never looked neat and attractive.
During the prime of my youth I spent every day experiencing the most desperate, suffering situations in human life: working in labor camps, mines, poor farms, docks, and even begging. I looked at every aspect of human life, even the world of prostitutes. I studied all the miseries of human life... I always thought to myself, "What if this man were my elder brother or my father and he was suffering on my account, what could I do for him?"
From the speech of Sun Myung Moon: The Harvest Season of Gods Providence September 19, 1982
If I heard that some household had no money to buy groceries, I considered it an emergency and I did everything possible to obtain some money for those people. Until I had done that I could not sleep. I wanted to be more than a friend. I wanted to be someone who could serve and help others. Between the ages of twenty and thirty which is considered the prime of youth, people normally want to dress well, and have pleasant experiences in life. But I lived in exactly the opposite way I never wore a new suit. I always bought surplus clothing in thrift shops. My hair never looked neat and attractive.
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