The Samurai by Shusako Endo

A couple of years ago I read a wonderful book The Samurai by Shusako Endo, I think I read it as a part of a Book Club. I still think of that book. Very heavy, but very thoughtful. One that I would love to read again. I used it as a Thanksgiving mediation that I led at church that year. Here it is, very similar to what I am reading philosophically in Broken-Down House, but in novel form.

Premise (for the mediation that I lead):

We have come to believe that the blessings of God are deserved. Abundant life is then squashed under the weight of our expectations.

Having a Biblical Worldview means to change ones mind about major issues of life.

1. The Fall has caused life to be full of thorns and thistles.
2. The reality of life is much worse than we think it is.
3. American Christianity is in complete denial.
4. The Christian life, the abundant Christian life happens as we die.
5. We need a change of mind on what it means to live the “abundant” Christian life.

Christ’s Life:

Isaiah 53

Jesus; “was despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows acquainted with grief.”

Quote from; The Samurai by Shusako Endo

“At daybreak the guards wrapped the priest’s body in a straw mat and took it away. His arms and legs, which poked out from the mat, were as spindly as needles, covered with dirt and caked in mud. As I watched the scene with Luis Sasada, I had a flash like a revelation from Heaven. This was reality. No matter how much we try to camouflage or idealize it, the real world is as wretched as the dirt stained, mud-caked corpse of Father Vasquez. And the Lord did not avoid this miserable reality. For even the Lord died covered in sweat and dirt. And through His death, He cast a sudden light upon the realities of this world.”

“As I think back on it now, I feel as though the Lord gave me all those setbacks so that He could force me to look this reality in face. I t is as though my vanity, my pride, my haughtiness, and my thirst for conquest all existed for the purpose of shattering everything that I idealized, so that I could see the true state of the world. But, as the Lord’s death pierced that reality with light, in order that my death may someday pierce Japan.”