(Part one is here. 한글은 여기 있습니다)
The Jesus Paul Encountered
In the previous section, we explored Paul’s life, which was marked by a balanced centripetal and centrifugal phases, all centred on Jesus, living as a lifelong learner. Now, we turn to the event that radically transformed Paul: his encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus.
The Jesus Paul encountered on that road was none other than the cosmic “I AM” (YHWH), the same God who spoke to Moses from the burning bush. In that encounter, Paul moved through a stage of fear and trembling, eventually reaching a profound recognition of Christ’s sublime and majestic glory. This recognition led to a deep, enduring fascination and zeal. The “sublime” Jesus, enthroned in heaven, whom Paul first encountered, can be beautifully expressed through the following two poems:
Who, if I cried out, would hear me among the Angelic
from Rainer Maria Rilke’s Duino Elegies
Orders? And even if one were to suddenly
take me to its heart, I would vanish into its
stronger existence. For beauty is nothing but
the beginning of terror, that we are still able to bear,
and we revere it so, because it calmly disdains
to destroy us. Every Angel is terror.
And so I hold myself back and swallow the cry
of a darkened sobbing. Ah, who then can
we make use of? Not Angels: not men..
Lord Jesus,
When You first came to find me,
My heart then became a raging whirlwind.
It became a waterfall pouring down from a cliff,
A sudden rainstorm pouring down from the sky.Lord Jesus,
When You first came to find me,
My heart then was like a shimmering haze
On a day when thousands of magpies cried.
It was like the fish with gleaming scales swimming
In the green river’s waves,
Like baby clouds flying together in the sky.Lord Jesus,
Seo Jeong-ju’s “On the Bright Day Again” (Pastor Ko version)
Even now, You are alive in my heart,
And now,
The colour of my heart, blooming like bellflowers in the mountain valley,
Is Your love.
Isn’t it amazing? The Jesus Paul encountered was not just an ordinary person, but a cosmic being, the Creator of all. Just as that encounter completely transformed Paul, we are left to reflect on how deeply and fully a genuine encounter with Jesus can change us. Do you remember your first love with Jesus? Do you still hold onto that initial, burning passion? Or, like the church in Ephesus, have you lost your first love and caused the Lord’s heart to grieve? Or, like the church in Laodicea, are you being rebuked for your lukewarm faith? O Lord, let me recover my first love for You!
Theme of Jesus Academia: To Be Obsessed with Jesus Alone!
If I were to sum up the theme of this Jesus Academia in one phrase, it would be this: “Let’s get obsessed with Jesus alone!” And one thing I realised through this week is this: “Ah! Jesus is truly worth obsessing over with my whole life, for He is infinitely worthy! A life consumed by Jesus alone can be this amazing and wonderful!”
I see people become obsessed with many things. Women, money, alcohol, sports, hobbies—there are countless things, but one thing they all share in common is that there is a limit to how far one can go with them. No matter what we become obsessed with, if we obsess too much, our lives lose balance, we become totally spent, our relationships are broken, and we end up trapped in the chains of addiction, losing all freedom and ultimately becoming less than human, living like beasts.
However, the profound truth I realised through Jesus Academia is this: When we become obsessed with the cosmic being that is Jesus, the further we go, the more our lives regain balance, become richer, relationships are restored, and we experience true freedom in fulfilling God’s creative design and purpose.
When my life is fully filled with Jesus, when the tiny drop of my life is fully immersed in the vast, infinite, ocean of Christ, I become truly free, traversing through the vastness of the totality of Jesus, entering into a new dimension of experiencing a life beyond imagination!
Once again, I, Joseph Bae, have decided to get obsessed with Jesus alone.
The Teaching Format of the Jesus Academia: Storytelling
Through a deep exploration of the life of the Apostle Paul, we have received the invitation to “get obsessed with Jesus alone.” Throughout the week of the Jesus Academia, Pastor Ko shared the stories of historical pioneers of faith who were consumed with Jesus, unraveling them one by one.
After reading the first part of my reflection, my wife pointed out something important. She said that while the explanation of various concepts was good, the most crucial part was missing. She personally thought that among all the teachings over the week, the stories Pastor Ko shared (like the Beethoven story, etc.) were the most memorable to her.
She’s right. If we were to summarise Pastor Ko’s teachings in one word, it would be “storytelling.” From his elementary school years, God had specially trained Pastor Ko to be a “storyteller” (this biographical detail would take too long to elaborate, so I’ll skip it), and because of this, Pastor Ko’s storytelling has a powerful captivating force that draws people in. Through his storytelling, we find ourselves transcending time and space, diving deep into the world of the narrative in every lecture.
The Turning Point for Pastor Ko’s Obsession with Jesus: “But Jesus must have been there too, right?”
Pastor Ko, who has spent 50 years traveling the world for global mission work and leading the Korean World Missionary Conference movement, experienced a life-changing moment that shook him to his very core. After successfully finishing the conference in Chicago, he was, as usual, praying in gratitude with his mother in the empty venue. His mother asked how many people had attended the conference, to which Pastor Ko replied, “About 5,000 in total.” Then she asked how many missionaries had come, and he answered, “Around 1,200.” But it was the next thing his mother said that struck him like the voice of God, shattering his spiritual conscience like an axe breaking through ice.
“But Jesus must have been there too, right?”
His mother had meant this as a simple, thankful remark, assuming that Jesus had blessed the conference by being present. However, to Pastor Ko, it sounded like the very voice of God. While he and the 5,000 attendees, 1,200 of them global missionaries, celebrating with joy, realising that the fire of mission had ignited, he suddenly wondered: If Jesus had not been there, what would we have truly accomplished this week? That day, Pastor Ko made a firm resolve: whatever he did from then on, he would stake everything on Jesus alone. Living a life absolutely centred on Jesus Christ became the driving force that has guided Pastor Ko’s life.
Thomas Aquinas: Struck Silent by Awe!
Among those who have had the ecstatic experience of encountering the heavenly Jesus throughout church history, there is the the towering figure in theology that is Thomas Aquinas (1224–1274). He is often referred to as the father of Western theological thought, leaving behind an immense body of theological works. His seminal work, Summa Theologica, solidified his place as a pillar in the field of theology.
However, just 90 days before his death, Aquinas had a mystical experience. On the morning of December 7, 1273, during Mass on the feast day of Saint Nicholas, he had a direct encounter with the glorified Jesus. How did Aquinas, who had poured out such vast volumes on theology, respond to this experience? Did he describe it in beautiful, eloquent prose? No. His response was silence. “Awestruck dumb”—he was struck speechless in awe. Yet his face was radiant.
Afterward, Aquinas confessed that everything he had written in his lifetime, including all his theological works, was as nothing compared to the ecstatic moment of brushing against the hem of Jesus’ garment. His words can be summed up as this: all his theological reasoning and study were but straw in comparison to one glorious moment with Jesus.
The concept of “human response to overwhelming transcendence” is explained by Rudolf Otto in his book The Idea of the Holy. Otto, a professor at the University of Marburg (the oldest Protestant seminary), visited a Jewish synagogue in Marrakech, Morocco, in 1911. There, while observing rabbis praying and chanting “Kadosh, Kadosh, Adonai” (“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord”), he suddenly had a divine experience. This experience inspired Otto to document the process of moving from “fear and trembling” to “sublimity and grandeur,” ultimately leading to “fascination and zeal.” He later introduced the concept of the “numinous” to describe this encounter with the divine.
It is precisely this direct encounter with the sublime Jesus (the numinous) that empowers us to live a life of true mimesis, free from the violence of diegesis.
To be continued (again!)
According to Pastor Ko’s deep research, the following three individuals are representative figures who beautifully represent the majestic, sublime, and mighty Jesus in their respective fields:
- Ludwig van Beethoven (Music)
- Fyodor Dostoevsky (Literature)
- Søren Kierkegaard (Philosophy)
Even after all of the above, I still haven’t covered all of what I learned during the week from Pastor John! I will take a break here again and follow up with Part Three to conclude my reflections.
