Experiencing the Man of Sorrows in Tokyo, Japan

I had an opportunity to stay in Japan for six months in a city near Tokyo during Sept.2009 to March 2010 with my sons family. We could experience the helping hand of God in all our events there.Though the people there do not speak English, and we did not know a single word in Japanese, God provided  wonderful people as our interpreters and they went out of their comfort zone to help us in all matters.Our hearts are full of gratitude for those wonderful people and during this time of their calamity, our prayers are with them.

They showed us much concern and love during our time of need in the hospital when my daughter in law gave birth to her first child and when this grand son was hospitalized for about three weeks due to some illness.

They provided us warm clothing for the winter and they honored me  by inviting  me to give a talk about India in their meeting and appreciating my talk. They also invited us to their Year end party. They honored us by attending our Christmas party in our house.The main aim of this party was to impart the Message of Christmas.We pray that the seed sown will bring forth the fruit.

Two of these friends took me to a tourist place to give me a taste of Japan.One lady accompanied me shopping and we had nice times together. The highlight of her help was when she helped us in conveyance  with our packages in getting the early morning train to the Narita Airport  when we left Japan. This help she again repeated when my son , daughter in law and grand son left the country three weeks later.What can we do to pay back all that she had done to us.We will be always  indebted to her .I sincerely pray that she and also the other friends there  find salvation that comes through belief in Jesus Christ.They are really wonderful people and may the Almighty God bless them all.

When we were there , we visited the Tokyo tower. In its third floor there is a wax museum and we visited it.In one room , there is an exhibit of  our Lords  Last Supper.I was thrilled to see this exhibit where Lord Jesus with His disciples  was having His Last Supper and establishing His  New covenant that He is offering His flesh and blood for the salvation of many and whosoever eats of His flesh and drinks His blood-- believes He is our Sacrifice Lamb--- will not perish but will have life eternal.

The thing that struck me most  from the exhibit was the sorrow in the face of Jesus. He looked heavily laden with an unbearable burden. I could feel the  heaviness of  His heart. I had never imagined Him like that and it was  a new insight to me that He bore such a burden. I just blurted out loud why  Jesus should be so sad and why His face should be so full of  such sorrow. My son replied that it was just the previous day to His death on the cross. Even his reply did not answer me. Then slowly all the verses regarding the Man of Sorrows came to me.

He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him,and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.  Yet it was the LORD’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer. LORD makes his life an offering for sin, For he bore the sin of man and made intercession for the transgressors.

After the Last Supper, Jesus went to the Garden of Gethsemane with His disciples to pray. He knew that He was going to be betrayed, captured , and to be sentenced to death on the Cross.The agony He went through is seen in reading the following verses.

He knelt  down and prayed,  “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.”  An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him.  And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground. He said to His disciples, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.”   Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will. Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. “Couldn’t you men keep watch with me for one hour?” he asked Peter. He went away a second time and prayed, “My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.” When he came back, he again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy.  So he left them and went away once more and prayed the third time, saying the same thing.

On the cross the heaviness of His burden of the sins of mankind becomes so unbearable that He cries out in a loud voice,  “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”).
Surely, the Man of Sorrows is Jesus Christ who was the Lamb of God who bore and took away the the sin of the world. 

The above passages are from Isaiah 53rd chapter and from the four gospels, NIV.
The Word of God says cursed is the man who does not love the Lord Jesus.He became a man of sorrows to fill our hearts with the glory of God and joy unspeakable.

Japan is not a Christian country; but the Gospel is being spread through this wax tableau and the message is continuously being read out in the Japanese language in that room.I praise God for those artists who wanted to introduce the Man of Sorrows to the visitors of this wax museum..