Spoken by Supreme Master Ching Hai, Costa Rica, Dec 24, 1990 (Originally in English)

Two thousand years ago, a great being was born among us. He is so great that we have no words to praise Him. Only God knows His greatness. We mortals cannot understand. We can understand only when we become as great as He is.

Now we often ask ourselves, "Why is it that Jesus had to die so quickly when He had just reached the peak of glory in his mission, that is, to spread the message of God?" If He had not left the earth in such a short time and in such a tragic way, probably, His name would have been forgotten by now. God sacrificed Him in this way so that the whole world would remember, so that we would treasure a messenger of God, by whichever name he came.

Since ancient times, our world has always been in trouble. People always err and forget God. So, God always has to send messengers to remind us. But Jesus was one of the most remembered because of His greatness, and also because of His very short stay with us, and the way He left us and was resurrected. Now we say, "The great Son of God, He had such great power and did so many miracles. Why didn't He change His own destiny? Why did He have to die in such a tragic way?" But He had to do it, otherwise we would not be shocked out of our sleep. We would think the world is forever or the Master is forever.

There were also some other Masters before Jesus, but now people do not remember them as much as we remember Jesus. When we remember Jesus, we remember God, and we derive some blessing because Jesus was the Son of God. In other words, Jesus was God personified on earth. He had to leave us very early. He had his purpose. He wanted to shock us out of our slumber.

Many thousands of years later, we are still shocked, if we remember this story, because of the ephemeral nature of our existence on earth. Even the Son of God had to die! Everyone must go, eventually. If even a man as great as Jesus cannot preserve this ephemeral body and also cannot be protected from the violence and ignorance of the people of this world, how can we feel safe? That is why He submitted Himself to the punishment which He did not deserve. He suffered for the sake of everyone!

If we say Jesus used His blood to wash away our sins, it is not exaggerating. It is the truth, because each time we think of Jesus, we learn something. At least we remember the ephemeral nature of our world and our body, or at least we learn humility, because such a great one had to suffer in such a way. He was so humble that He surrendered Himself to God and said, "Whatever God wills must be done!" Otherwise, He could have escaped. We know that He had a lot of magical power, including the power to be invisible, but He chose to obey God's arrangement. So when we think of Him, we can say, "Who are we to be proud, to forget God's will and not to surrender?" But these lessons are hard to learn. If all people can learn these lessons well, then Jesus' sacrifice was worthwhile and we are worthy to be His followers and worshippers.