[AI translation] My Christian Brothers and Sisters! With the Word of God one is often like with people one knows: we often see each other, meet each other, greet each other, have known each other for a long time. But once I meet one of these acquaintances in such a way that I can start a serious, deep conversation with him, then I begin to really get to know him, and then I wonder at the richness and depth of this person, which I had not known before.So it is with the Word read. We have heard it so many times: what good is it for a man if he wins the whole world and damages his soul?! I think we are all familiar with this Word. But have we ever plunged into this Word, and grasped the deadly earnestness and infinite riches it contains? Have we ever felt what an unheard-of great thing is at stake here? On the one side the world, not only the sinful world, not only the material world, the sensual world, but the whole world, without any limitation or delimitation. On the other side, the soul - not all souls, but only one soul - only mine, only yours. And even here it is not about the whole soul, but only about some damage, some scratching of the soul, just as a porcelain ornament is damaged, cracked in a barely visible way, but still remains in the room to decorate it. What a contrast Jesus is expressing here: the whole world on one side, and on the other side a wounded human soul.
It is well known that Jesus loved to speak in paradoxes. It could almost be said that he deliberately exaggerated the contrasts in order to give greater emphasis to a truth. For example, when he says that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven; or, for example, even the hairs of our head are numbered. What is certain, however, is that the Word that is read is not a rhetorical exaggeration, but that it is to be taken literally. Jesus is therefore truly convinced that a small injury to the human soul is worse than the loss of the whole world.
This seemingly exaggerated claim can be proven. Recall the story of Jesus' temptation. Satan only asked for a very small place in Jesus' soul, only to get him to turn stones into loaves of bread - a miracle for individual interest that would have been a barely visible deviation from the divine line, a barely visible crack in Jesus' soul. But Jesus fights it to the end. And when the Tempter offers the whole world to Jesus, he drives him away: 'Depart from me, Satan! If, then, the little crack in the soul is so precious to Satan that he is willing to pay a world for it, then surely that soul is worth far more than the price offered. Here, in the wilderness, at the very beginning of his redemptive career, Jesus experienced the great truth that "what profit is it to a man if he gain the whole world and lose his soul?"
Let us not think that Jesus was free from such tempting thoughts, oh no, in fact that was His very struggle. The biblical story we read tells of such a case. In the story, Jesus consciously and with very firm steps moves towards Calvary. When he is at the height of his glory, so to speak, when his disciples have just recognised in him the Christ, the Son of God, when even his enemies do not know what to do with him: Jesus has already begun to announce to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer much from the elders, the chief priests and the scribes, and be killed and on the third day rise again. If these words had not so aptly expressed the temptation already lurking in Jesus' soul, he would certainly not have rejected Peter so vehemently: "Depart from me, Satan, you are an offense to me! - Behold, just a hair's breadth of tempting thought, and the glass bell, hitherto ringing crystal clear, would have cracked in a thin, barely visible way. And if there is a crack in the glass bell, no matter how small the crack, it will never ring quite clear again.
Indeed, the greatest loss of all is damage to one's soul. This applies not only to the soul of Jesus, who was sent by God with the special commission to be a heavenly glass bell on earth, to ring the crystal-clear sounds of the kingdom of God into the world and to make our souls sing with it. It is true not only for Jesus, but for all of us, that the soul is worth more than the whole world.
My Christian Brothers and Sisters, this statement sounds like a pious speech that people have become accustomed to hear from the priest's mouth from the pulpit. But what happens when it is not just a phrase, but a reality? What happens when it is not just a generalisation, but also applies to me? It means that then there is something in me that is so precious and valuable that I am truly richer than someone who can hold the whole world.
The whole world - it means a tremendous amount of value, it has everything we have ever dreamed of in our wildest dreams: wealth, respect, love, health, beauty, power, pleasure and so much more.
- Looking back on our lives now, we are sad to see that the price was not the whole world, oh no - it was something much lower, much more paltry, for which we have often risked our souls. A little nerve play, an unleashing of animal instincts - and there went our innocence, our purity. We bought a little comfort for ourselves with a lie, a little business profit with a process that barely exceeded the bounds of decency. We have paid for an amusement with remorse, a joke with annoyance. We are outraged when we read in the newspaper that a despicable villain was able to murder an old, defenceless woman in order to steal a few forints from her. He is capable of murder for a very small amount of money. But are we not risking much more when our souls are harmed for a few forints or for something even more worthless? Let us not forget that if one loses his money, he has lost something; if one loses his life, he has lost much - but if one loses his soul, he has lost everything.
Jesus' main concern in life was to keep his soul pure. If he was tempted by something in the world, he matched that something to his soul, and he knew immediately what he had to do.- We often treat our souls carelessly, thinking that our clothes are not clean anyway, that a few more stains and seals don't really matter. And so our clothes become dirtier and dirtier, the vitality of our souls diminishes, the sound of the glass bell becomes more and more faded, because the crack in it penetrates deeper and deeper. No wonder then if our religion does not satisfy us, if our prayers are not answered, if there is no peace and happiness in our souls. For we are willing to sacrifice our greatest value for something trivial.
Are we not all like that, my brothers and sisters? Although we know that our souls have eternal value, do we show any sign of having a value that the whole world cannot equal? And let us remember well: such is the unheard-of value that we have in ourselves, each one of us individually. We possess a richness that no other richness can match. But with wealth comes obligation. Anyone entrusted with such wealth as we are should take much better care of himself, should simply live differently.
If a bank clerk is entrusted with hundreds of thousands of pounds to take somewhere, he will certainly not be walking around the fairgrounds with the value entrusted to him. Or if he has an expensive crystal vase in his hand, he won't take it out into the crowd or slip on the ice. But we, who have been entrusted by God with an immeasurable value, an eternal soul, walk calmly everywhere, unafraid in the crowds of the fair, nor on the many flat roads. We are on our guard against all pickpockets, but we open our doors and windows to the most dangerous thieves, who seek to steal our souls, and then take advantage of our carelessness. For he who has once lost his innocence can be tortured to death and never regain it. A sea of tears have been wept for this in the world - in vain. And the soul! Is there any ransom for it in the world?
There is a German proverb which says that if a man wants something at all costs, he will go after it like the devil after a poor soul. Indeed, there is no more tempting prey for Satan than the human soul. Therefore, Satan will pay any price. That is why I can never again buy back the value of my soul. What can a man give in exchange for his soul?The only answer can be nothing, nothing at all. If it were not for someone who could pay a much higher price, who could offer a more valuable ransom, we would be irredeemably lost. Behold, that is why he had to die on the cross and go down to hell, because a lesser price would not have been enough for the human soul. "For God has not redeemed us with vain things, with silver or gold, but with precious blood, as of the spotless and undefiled Lamb, Jesus Christ." 1Pt1,18-19 Do you realize, my brother, how much you have cost God, and how much I have cost God, behold, so precious and so precious is this life here in us?
I am convinced that Christianity remains so desperately ineffective and ineffective in people's lives because man today takes absolutely no account of his own soul or of the soul of another.
- Let us remember that when Jesus met a sick person, the first thing he said to him was: your sins are forgiven you. That is, he healed his soul first; and only then did he say, "Arise and walk. Jesus saw very clearly that where the spiritual sickness is healed, the physical sickness no longer plays any part. We are of the opposite opinion. I believe that if the majority of the sick and suffering were given a choice between forgiveness of sins or physical healing, the majority would choose the latter without a second thought, and would quietly postpone forgiveness in the hope that there would be another opportunity later. This shows how little we take our souls seriously.
The only way to truly understand the whole of Jesus' ministry, His teaching, His actions, His death, is to remember for a moment that He placed the value of the human soul above all else. For this soul he died on Calvary. If that is so, then I should take my own soul and the souls of others, and all the harm that can come to them, deadly seriously, and then I can no longer go on taking more care that a glass is not cracked than I do to take care that my own soul or the souls of others are not cracked. - If this be so, then we must see in every man the bearer of a soul of eternal worth, and whoever he may be, we must make him feel that we take him seriously for his soul, for that soul is a piece of God's eternal world, and we must therefore have a proper reverence for it. We must make the other person feel that we take the word of Jesus seriously and value the human soul above the whole world. So where the goods of one soul are at stake, the whole world must take a back seat.
It is for the good of souls that all the efforts of our Church, and especially the plan to build a worthy and suitable church house, are intended. My Christian brother, if you have understood the Word of God, you must also take part in this work. You must put your individual comfort and tranquillity before the cause of the two thousand Reformed souls who are displaced from here, for of those two thousand souls, one soul is more precious than the whole world - we do not want to build a bigger house for ourselves, for we who are here can fit here - but we must build it for those who are far away. I am convinced that when our church house is built in the summer, the mere sight of this building will stir the souls of many people. Many people who have not cared about their own souls will wonder and think to themselves: if my soul is taken so seriously and valued so highly by strangers, then my soul must be very, very precious.
Would that the Holy Spirit of God would convince us all of the great truth that "what profit is it to a man if he gain the whole world and lose his soul?" Do you believe this, my Christian brother? If you believe it, you will know what you must do.
Amen.
Date: 20 March 1938.