Blessings and the blessedness: Globalization of the Cross

Happy Chinese New Year!

That’s right, the year of dragon is around the corner. While Japanese do not celebrate this ancient oriental lunar calendar system any longer, the Chinese New Year, or the Korean New Year, is the time when everyone wishes good luck and blessings to others. Forget the hardships, misfortunes, and sad events of the year before. Look ahead toward a bright new year with hope and anticipation for more happiness, more success and for more fortune. Please the good gods and they will bring you good luck. Appease the bad ones, so they don’t get angry with you. That is the bottom-line of the earth-bound eastern spirituality (or animism and shamanism). Good luck, fortune, prosperity and happiness. That’s the traditional meaning of the word, 福 (fu in Chinese, and fuku in Japanese and bok in Korean).

Gospel comes from a Greek word, εὐαγγέλιον (euangelion), where we get the word, evangelical, and it means good news. Or big announcement that the King of the heaven and earth came into the human history and fixed everything once for all. It is indeed good news, true happy news that the King of all kings is coming again and the earth will receive her king again!

Gospel is translated to 福音, good sound, or good news in Japanese, Chinese and Korean. It is the gospel of Jesus Christ, on which the meaning, purpose and direction of happiness and prosperity is set eternally and it tells you who the Giver of all good gifts is. One of the biggest discoveries on the journey of Fukushima disaster recovery has been our learning of the historical meaning of the name, Fukushima and the rich Christian history in Japan just few hundred years ago (See the blog entry, Fuksuhima, the Land of Good News here. Scroll down to listen to the interview in the same entry).

However when the gospel was first introduced to this part of the world several centuries ago, it did not come through easy ways. After the work of Francis Xavier in Nagasaki in the mid 16^th century, Christianity started growing rapidly and Japanese used to call those believers Kiristan (see the map here where thriving Christian communities were). We do not hear about this history at all because it got all silenced violently for about 200 years after one tragic event. And for some of us, who are evangelicals outside Japan, have tucked away this important history that took place before the modern evangelicalism we know now rose in history.

On February 5, 1597, twenty six Christians (3 Jesuits, 3 Franciscans from Europe and Mexico, and 20 Japanese) were crucified by the order of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, at the height of his political career as the national leader. He once was in favor of Christianity in the hopes that he could get new weaponry from the West through Christians but he soon realized that was not what Christianity was about. Hideyoshi and other politicians who followed him saw Christianity as a greater threat than anything they had seen in building their earthly kingdom of fear and sword because Christians did not fear anything but their heavenly King who brought true peace and true prosperity. Christians had a transcendent view of life, an abundant and truly blessed life.
 

Christianity in Japan was spread through and the church was built on the blood of martyrs basically. The church went underground in Nagasaki and other places, and some of the Christians, with help of Jesuits, fled to Macau, the Portuguese colonial and trade base in the Far East of that time.  They took refuge among Macanese and built houses and settled down (Jeremiah 29).  They helped the church in Macau by their trade and craft skills. They helped building the very first Western University and theological seminary in Asia under the leadership of Italian Jesuit architect between 1622 and1642. Most of the building was burned at a fire in 19^th century, but the beautiful façade still remains at St. Paul Cathedral.

Less than two decades ago, the Portuguese government restored many historical sites in Macau in preparation of handover to China. In St. Paul Cathedral they discovered crypt with a massive pile of bones in it. Some of the relics belonged to the twenty-six martyrs of Nagasaki. The crypt is now converted to a musem of sacred art and there is this amazing painting covering one side of the wall as you see below. The original painting was burned at the fire mentioned above and this is a replica.

Globalization of the Cross. 

This painting was done by an unknown artist around 1640 and clearly shows the globalized world through the gospel and the cross a few hundred years before our time. A very different kind of globalization than what we see today which is globalization of power, money and greed. The work of Gospel in the 16^th and 17^th centuries was a converge between the east and the west where the heaven was extended to earth through these martyrs who had unwavering faith in Christ Jesus alone. They knew there was life after death. That Easter hope kept them alive even at the moment of death. They knew what it means to be blessed.

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.

This hope of new humanity found in Christ is now being rediscovered and retold among local churches in Fukushima as they continue to walk humbly before God and love mercy and doing justice among their suffering neighbors. History always illuminates enough light to navigate the future. 

A common myth about Japan and evangelism held by many modern missionaries from the West and from Korea is that Japan is a hard soil to sow the Gospel. I think people say this because they did not dig deep enough to touch the deep roots of the church of these fearless forefathers and foremothers in faith. We forgot how seriously these early evangelicals took the Gospel and shared with their neighbors fearlessly. This good new is still good and true for the whole earth and humanity today amidst dark, chaotic mess of natural and man-made disasters we face today.  

These powerful testimonies are well preserved at Twenty-Six Martyrs Museum in Nagasaki 

(http://www.26martyrs.com/ ).