(a Sunday painter in black sitting and facing Tokyo Station)
(the stone fence of a water moat of Imperial Palace Plaza)40 Days for Jesus, 40 Years for Moses, and 400 Years for Japan
(40 jours pour Jésus, 40 ans pour Moïse, et 400 ans pour le Japon)
SECTION 1: 40 Days for Jesus (40 jours pour Jésus)
According to the King James Version of the Gospel:
Mark 1:13 And he was there in the wilderness forty days, tempted of Satan; and was with the wild beasts; and the angels ministered unto him.
This is a holy proof that Jesus was a human being fully and completely.
Accordingly, He had to face attacks by the Satan and devils who, however, should have been destroyed the moment they would have tried to take on God or His Angels.
Significantly, He had to face threats from wild beasts of any kinds that should have been destroyed the moment they would have tried to take on God or His Angels.
More importantly, I wonder in what situations the God needs His Angels to serve Him alone, since He is omnipotent and perfectly perfect.
But, Jesus, though the all-time best man in the human history He is, had to suffer as the poor or the weak does under the attacks and threats from the Satan, devils, and wild beasts.
Jesus, as the all-time best man in the human history, could put an end to this difficult process in 40 days and nights, which are of course very short compared with any other man's case if so comparable, leaving behind a heap of gold coins, jewels, and emissaries, beauties and assassins sent by rich and ambitious aristocrats of Rome, Athens, and Alexandria which were then all disappearing in the wilderness as if they had been simply mirages.
SECTION 2: 40 Years for Moses (40 ans pour Moïse)
According to the King James Version of the Old Testament:
Exo 16:35 And the children of Israel did eat manna forty years, until they came to a land inhabited; they did eat manna, until they came unto the borders of the land of Canaan.
Abraham came out of the Sumerian world in Mesopotamia. But being descendants of the Sumerians who had built the first urban civilization was not enough.
Their descendants had to be baptized by the ancient Egypt Civilization.
Yet, they had to leave Egypt after having absorbed and digested the essence of the Civilization, so that they could return to and continue the living as descendants of Abraham at the advanced stage.
But it took 40 years even for Moses to purify himself again as an Israelite, though with full experiences and lessons in Egypt inside, after the Exodus.
And, the purification process needed 40 year wondering and eating specific foods in the desert around the Sinai Peninsula.
When Moses faced the end of his life, his families and members of the tribe were no longer simple descendants of the Sumerians but they advanced into the so called ancient Israelites of old Judaism.
Their state continued till they were forced to leave Jerusalem and Palestine by the Roman Forces, though the Israelites then had been fully influenced by the emergence of Jesus Christ in whatever covert way or as a reaction to direct followers of the teaching of Jesus Christ.
When they left Jerusalem and Palestine 40 years after the death of Jesus Christ, both the explicit followers of Jesus and the explicit non-followers were not simple ancient Israelites of old Judaism any more.
SECTION 3: 400 Years for Japan (400 ans pour le Japon)
There are some Christians among lawmakers of the Diet (Japan's parliament) just like among other notable people in the society.
( http://q.hatena.ne.jp/1138821235 )
Of course, some Japanese national lawmakers have a strong tie with certain Buddhist bodies of whatever sort. Yet, there seem to be some non-nonsense lawmakers holding a private academic seminar to study works of Buddhists, whether they belong to LDP (a capitalistic party) or JCP (a communist party).
Basically, as Shinto is a way of worshipping ancestors of the Japanese people, most of lawmakers like to visit Shinto shrines on any occasions regardless of their explicit association with any religion.
Though it is yet to see a (explicit) Muslim lawmaker in Japan, freedom of religion really flourishes in this society as you can see Christmas-tree decorations and illuminations everywhere in Tokyo and the rest of Japan nowadays.
But it is neither in 1945 when the US Military occupied Japan after WWII nor in 1868 when Japan started westernization after the collapse of the last samurai regime, but it is around 1600 that Japan faced serious influence of Christianity for the first time in its history.
So, please refer to "Samurai Mission to Pope in 1615" I wrote in EEE Reporter on February 10, 2007.
If the Tokugawa samurai regime had not sternly forbidden Christianity by force, Japan would have been the largest Christian country since 1600 to today in Asia.
And, taking into consideration the people's unusual fever of Christianity in those days and the nature of the Japanese race, Japan should have become a Christian autocratic country suppressing all other religions, and especially Buddhism.
But, to avoid such a biased attitude in accepting European Christianity and fulfill the need of further enriching and consolidating the unique Japanese culture so as to later cope with the European Civilization, the influx of the religion from Europe must have been stopped for a while, say, 270 years until the Meiji Restoration.
And, now 400 years after the Tokugawa's severe banning of Christianity, Japan is in the position to enjoy any religion without being influenced negatively or damaged at the core of its unique civilization, culture, and spiritualism.
Indeed, it takes 400 years for Japan to be prepared to lead the world with full of Israelites, Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Marxists, Taoists, and so on.
Truly, it is 400 years since "Ieyasu" of the Tokugawa clan started to build the castle in Edo (Tokyo), the territory he was foisted on by "Hideyoshi" of the Toyotomi Family who had first united whole Japan relying on harquebuses and gold by putting an end to the 100-year-lasting Age of Civil Wars in Japan which had been mainly fought to take control of Kyoto, the Imperial capital of Japan since 794, some 500 km west of Edo (Tokyo).
SECTION 4: 4000 Years for Poor Americans (4000 ans pour les pauvres Américains)
It is now 4000 years since Abraham, his father, and his tribe left Ur, an ancient great Sumerian city of Mesopotamia.
We must be fully prepared to find the answer why the God or Yahweh had chosen Abraham and his family 4000 years ago as a starting point of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
It is because Mesopotamia and Palestine are today still suffering the painful and sorrowful ravages of wars while they are remarkably situated in the center of the world map.
Politicians, priests, pundits, and celebrities whose minds are full of thoughts about money, drinking parties, other luxuries, and plots never look back at history.
That is why poor Americans should solely rely on God and Jesus Christ, since they can refer to examples of 40 days, 40 years, 400 years, and 4000 years of divine providence, now so clearly.
Asians and Muslims are really wondering if poor Americans are completely compatible with American politicians, priests, pundits, and celebrities getting richer and richer as the war goes on.
(Indeed, history is in a sense like a roller coaster.
Potential energy given at the start is crucial; each apex on the winding course also adds another potential and spur; but it has neither brakes nor accelerators.
Truly, history is running just on a roller-coaster course the God designed and set.
All we can do may be simply perform diligent maintenance and inspection of parts and components of the vehicle.
Categorically, any accident of a roller coaster should be noted, even if you love more white-knuckle performance such as fancy, bungee, kamikaze jumping from the Eiffel Tower, the Tokyo Tower, or the Empire State Building, since they all look like a Xmas tree.)
"...Jesus said, 'Young man! Get up, I tell you!'..."
(Jesus sagte zu dem Toten: "Ich befehle dir: Steh auf!")