Pastor Hirota, whom I very much respect, asked me to give you a sermon in his place. I thought 'this was too much of a blessed thing to pass up' so I accepted his request to serve you this morning...

As it is such a nice time of the year, I always remember a certain "haiku" (a very short poem representing a season of the year, and a person's emotion towards things happening around you), which says, "a little girl swinging in the beautiful green." I have a burden for little children and their education, so whenever I see little children and their education I just can't stop myself from making one of these haikus.

The other day, I heard it was very hot in Tokyo although it was only May, I made this one: "the Tofu man just passed through, then I found a morning-glory." In the summer, we eat tofu plain and uncooked, but in spring, we have morning-glories!

I have lots of chances to meet children in my occupation, and the other day, I met one boy whom my wife and I had ministered to before; introducing Jesus to him. We prayed and worked with him then, and he had accepted Jesus. Later, he had had a terrible accident which broke his leg and crippled him. And so, he had had to go through some hardship. With prayer, he is now a doctor and has experienced blessings in many ways; one of them is his father's conversion, which led to his wife's conversion. In his life no doubt, one can find God's blessings!

Another thing happened to me a few weeks ago; at the train station, I heard a voice calling out "Sensei!" Turning around, I found a familiar face. "Oh, Toshi-kun!" I replied. He said to me, "I still remember you and Jesus!" Hearing him say that made me feel a pleasant warmth inside [this is the joy of witnessing]. When he was still little, he used to come to our church's kindergarten, and there he believed on Jesus. Now, his family is living in a different town. His family changes trains, at the train station in my town, to go home. I was so surprised to see he is already a junior high school student! Time flies! It was when he had been very little that he accepted Christ.

After sharing lots of time with children, I have learned that we human beings need to know or get to know Christ when we are young [Remember the Lord in the days of your youth - Ec.12:1a]. Just like is written in the Bible, this boy had built a foundation on the rock in his life when he was very young, and has been able to weather life's troubles with Him until now.

I often get chances to visit children in jail, or in the hospital, too. I always try to introduce Jesus to them, hoping that they will accept Him. However, most people say that it is too early for them to know God -- No! I don't think so. In fact, the sooner a person comes to Jesus, the better! We are to know Christ as early as possible in life.

I know a boy who is very bright and also very bad as well. I met him in a jail that has been assigned for youth offenders. I spent a good many hours with him in there; just trying to listen to him as much as possible. Later, I was given a report from him which said that he had had a good time with me. He had been afraid that I would just try to force him to believe in Jesus. However, for him I didn't do so, and this kindness worked in him somehow. After several visits, I finally decided to talk about the Bible. Fortunately, he became interested in the story of King David. In one place, his imagination was caught. It was where David forgave King Saul -- inspite of Saul's attempts to kill him. This boy had been hating his parents; they had been running a huge company and were very wealthy, but they could not afford to give him the love him needed. Their work had been more important to them than their child. He, wanting them to turn back to him, studied very hard, and excelled in sports, but to no avail. They didn't. Instead, he was thrown into jail, at the age of 17, or 18. However, now he was listening to the story of David forgiving Saul! Just the other day, with the help of Bible study, he came to understand the love that Jesus had for us on the cross. How exciting that was for me! I have not seen him since then, but through his instructor, I have heard that he has changed in his attitude a lot. His instructor was wondering what it was that had caused this change, and I confessed to him that I was teaching him from the Bible -- Jesus' love changes people. I am very much looking forward to seeing this young man again this Wednesday.

Well, we are running out of time, let's get back to today's scripture passage: Luke 5:17-26. In this scene, people are gathering around Jesus for healing. Yes, he was a renowned healer, but His main purpose there was to heal them. In verse 18, we see that it was such a crowded place that one sick person and his friends despaired. There was clearly no way to approach Him through the crowd. However, there were a resourceful group. They removed part of the roof, and lowered him down. We would not try to do such a thing to a japanese house, but I learned from my visit to Israel that there houses can easily be broken and repaired. So it was not so strange as it would be elsewhere. It must have been very annoying to some people, but Jesus instead saw their faith. That man's friends were very zealous in bringing him to the Healer. They badly wanted to see him become well again, and begged Jesus. By following the Law, that person had been blaming himself fiercely. It was because he was a sinner that he had become a paralytic. He must have been suffering much more being so sinful than he was because he couldn't walk. Knowing this, Jesus said, "Your sins are forgiven you." With much joy inside his heart and faith in His word, that man could stand again. Without such faith in Jesus, he could not have gotten up.

This person, Jesus, redeemed us on the cross. He paid our debts for us. In saying that your sins are forgiven, we can find our salvation through the cross. Seeing the paralyzed man actually stand up and walk must have astonished many of the people there, causing them to give their praise to God. Jesus' deeds deserve our praise. As Christians, we are following the friends of that man in taking people to Jesus for healing. Just trust and believe Christ, then everything you need will be given you.

Read verse 24: "I tell you get up, take your mat and go home." This is an important verse, it tells you to break up your ego, and take God's words to heart in following Him. See Luke 4:40, Jesus puts His hands on each one of you. He cares for you.

I am an old retired man. But, I have been a principal of a pre-school where I have met many children. I have often been introduced to people as principal of a pre-school. But, this I say, I believe in education, and I believe in educating children with what Jesus said and did. I know this is the education that children need.

Translated by Junko Okamoto - Edited for the Net by Shido
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