The Direction of Missionary
When you hear the word “Missionary” then most probably you will imagine poor people, probably from Africa, or homeless and a group of good missionaries providing for them some food, medications and clothes. However, Christian mission is misunderstood when people reduce it in this charitable, and important, activity.
Christian mission should bear the entirety of the Christian message, in which the human physical needs are part of the big picture of the Divine Economy. At this moment, we will reconsider the image that comes to our mind about the missionary, and mission. Then won’t be directed only towards Africa or poor places, but to every part of this World because human beings are equally in need to be preached with the Good News. The richest parts of the Europe and America and poor places in Africa and South Asia will be alike. Even Christians and non-Christians will be alike, and the reason is that man is man everywhere, thirsty for God.
All societies today are in need of Christian values. Wars, injustice, and pain are everywhere even though they are in different shapes. Recently, the German Chancellor Angela Merkel released a very important statement coming from one of the giant economic and modern countries; she stated that “Germany is suffering from having too little Christianity”, and “We have too few discussions about the Christian view of mankind … We are Christians and this informs everything we do… We are for diversity but we will not abandon our basic beliefs.” In England, five prominent bishops and Lord Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, warned in a letter to The Sunday Telegraph that Christian beliefs are, “simply not being upheld”
Right for Hope
The “Christian view of Mankind” Merkel referred to is not only a matter of political decisions, but concepts related to the life of members of societies. Human value in Christianity was the center and the aim of incarnation. In the conversations between Jesus and the Pharisees, he was blamed for standing for human dignity. He was blamed for healing on Saturday (see Matthew 12: 1-15 and par.), sitting with sinners at the same table and sharing with them food and friendly talk (see Mark 2:14-17) and eventually proclaiming the glorification of humanity when he stated openly that his humanity is as holy as the holiest thing in the Jewish faith, the Temple at which Yahweh indwells Shakinah. (Jn 2:19), and even greater! (See Matt 12:6). Every time Jesus replies emphasizing the fact that humanity is more important than anything else.
When I moved from the countries I lived in in the Middle East, where wars and sectarianism degraded human life, to Europe and the United States of America, the most valuable experience I’ve ever had was seeing the same man who is yearning for love and hope. Maybe there are no wars and the needs could be different on the basic level of the necessities of life, but the question of hope and future is still the crucial question in the life of every human being. After the industrial revolution and the age of “enlightenment” launched in Europe, man was shocked that he can’t find an answer in the great economic and scientific systems for this question. It was understandable that man was reduced to be an intelligent animal, which led to the struggle for survival according to the law of the jungle.
This, which was later called sociological Darwinism, dropped the world into the horrible 20th century World Wars and destroyed the dignity of the human being who didn’t find a value for life because he couldn’t secure hope. Such a devastating ideology was confined into Atheism which strips man of hope as the desperate Nietzsche ended up with what he called “the Death of God”. Atheism has never been a fruit of knowledge, but the fruit of despair, hopelessness and weakness in the face of horrible wars driven by ideologies; this is what history of thought says.
On the other hand, hope gives life. People today have the pain of bodily and spiritual illness, the absence of the meaning of real freedom and human dignity, death and suffering and ideologies in the world justifying wars and murdering. What then can be more important than evangelism in the life of every person in the world today? To preach the message of incarnation is giving hope that in a point of history God came to share with us every aspect of life. “The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up” (Matt 4:16). The message of God by the angels to the shepherds says: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men” (Luke 2: 14)
Millions of people around the world, whether they were raised in a Christian family or not, need to acquire hope. This hope comes when our Lord penetrates into every corner in the life of man. Here in the United States, like in Africa, man needs to be secured with the happiness of sharing his life with God. Jesus lived the most difficult experiences that can man have, such as poverty, the hatred of people and pain. Even his soul was, “exceeding sorrowful, even unto death” (Matt 26: 38).
Every man has the right to know how precious his humanity is in Christ, and has the right to grasp his right in acquiring hope, not to be laid waste by the desperate hypothetical philosophies. The greatest experience for humans comes when they face the angel holding the message of resurrection: “Be not affrighted: Ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, which was crucified: he is risen; he is not here” (Mark 16:6). The women, who went to the tomb in the deepest moments of grief and hopelessness, sought Jesus the Crucified, and they got Jesus the Risen one.
Consequently, every man and woman has the right to know the message of Christianity and its values even if relativism and individualism stand against it.
I’d like to share with the readers the message of my New Testament Prof. Helmut Koester for Christmas:
“The giving of Jesus, the only begotten Son, the Word that became flesh, is God’s documentation of love. “Thus has God loved the world that God gave the only begotten son so that all who believe are not lost but have eternal life.” The First Epistle of John formulated that in the statement that the essence of God can be described with the one word “love,” God is love. Therefore, the disciples are left with nothing else but the new commandment that they should love each other. That is the work of Jesus and that his why he gave his life. If they love each other, then Jesus has returned to them, then they do the works of Jesus, and will do even greater works than Jesus. The farewell discourses state that this return of Jesus in the works of love of the disciples is something the world will not “see,” because works of love are not glory and love that glorifies itself has lost its justification, its very essence.
Love is as messy as the shelter for the homeless people in the basement of our church, as objectionable as trying to give support to the second and third child of an unmarried young mother, as disgusting as speaking out for criminals who suffer abuse in prison, and as questionable as the welcome to undocumented foreign workers. This, however, is the final message of this Gospel (of John) that has preserved very little information about the historical Jesus and yet has drawn Jesus into the flesh and into history more than any other Gospel. At the same time, the Gospel does not allow the disciples to glory in the finding of their otherworldly divine selves; rather, it also draws the disciples into the uncomfortable worldly business of love. And this is ultimately the message of the story of Christmas, even if we do not read the Gospel of John but the story of Jesus’ birth from the Gospel of Luke, where Jesus is born to a homeless couple and worshipped by shepherds, undocumented aliens who have come across the border to tend the sheep of the wealthy owners for less than minimum wages.”
