"At your young, ripe age, how do you define and discern beauty?"
Such was the question posed by Reverend Harold Kim, the senior pastor of Christ Central of Southern California, to an audience of some 650 Korean American college students on Saturday.
The students were gathered for Korean American Campus Mission (KCM)'s second annual Gospel Renewal Night, one of the largest inter-campus events of the ministry and the first major event of the school year. KCM is a Korean American para-church ministry of Southern California and has a presence in eight college campuses.
Kim was featured as the main speaker of the event, which took place at Living Hope Community Church this year. Worship was led by All Nations Church's worship team, and Young Park, the chief of staff at Christ Central of Southern California, shared his testimony.
A video was shown towards the beginning of the event, and had various cuts of people, nature, and other scenes, with a voiceover that discussed how something could be described as beautiful. The video set the tone for the night -- a night that focused on beauty.
Indeed, Park's testimony, as well as Kim's sermon, emphasized the fact that Jesus redeems what could be considered far from beautiful -- mistakes, hurts, and scars -- to become truly beautiful.
Park shared that after becoming a believer in high school, he started serving vigorously in church, eventually going to seminary and serving at church as a pastor. However, he described himself as having been "self-righteous and arrogant" at the time, serving not to pursue God but to pursue himself. Eventually, Park decided to step down from his ministerial position from burnout, and soon thereafter, he stopped attending church on a regular basis. He then married a woman with no counsel or guidance from anyone else, which ended in a divorce after two years. He expressed regret as he said during that time, he "forgot how to be transparent," "didn't seek counsel," "avoided community," and was "unable to lead or help [his wife] spiritually."
But Park's story did not end there. Park said after these progression of events, he felt deep shame about what had happened in his life. However, the people around him -- his parents and friends -- embraced him as he was. And it was at that point in his life that he understood that "the gospel covers his shame," and that "God restores and rebuilds when we submit to him," he said. He is now once again an active part of his local church, and has been remarried for five years, and has a son and an adopted daughter.
"God redeems the hurts," Park said, swallowing tears. "He is never early, never late. He is always on time."
Reverend Harold Kim's sermon was focused on the beauty of Jesus. He said that in his day, people found in Jesus "a beauty that no one expected." His divine beauty, Kim said, was in his sufferings and his scars.
"Jews at the time would have said yes and amen to Isaiah 52:13," Kim said, referring to a verse that says the Messiah will be "raised and lifted up and highly exalted."
"Isaiah starts this way but takes a radical turn," he continued. The very next verse describes the Messiah as one whose "appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any man and his form marred beyond human likeness," and that "many were appalled at him." The next chapter describes Jesus as having "had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering."
The fact that Jesus' beauty lies in his sufferings, Kim said, has implications for us as well.
"Everyone is scarred," Kim said. "But in 2 Corinthians 4:16-18, the Apostle Paul tells us that all of the scars -- the hurt, abuse, rage, trauma, affliction -- can prepare for us an eternal glory. Jesus will take every pain and those things will be the means for future glory and beauty."
Kim said that Young Park, who shared his testimony, "looks far more beautiful and more like Jesus today -- not in spite of, but because of what he went through."
"It's in and through the scars that Jesus will sanctify and purify you. The astounding thing about Jesus is that he chooses to keep the scars [from the cross]. Why? He just rose again from the dead, couldn't he have gotten rid of the scars? But even for Jesus, the scars became a part of his eternal beauty and glory."
