Missions
Part 1 | Return to Missions
When you hear the word “missions,” what thoughts or feelings come to mind? In our context of moral relativism, the thought of telling someone else what to believe or how to live is seen as offensive. Or, the thought of sharing our faith with a classmate might be an emotionally loaded idea. When we reflect on the last few centuries of missions work, there is substantial evidence for the devastating connections between missions and colonialism. Based solely on these sentiments, one might conclude that missions may just be the imposition of power over others. At its best, perhaps it is something for uniquely spiritual Christians.
Yet as we engage with the Bible, we get the sense that missions is not something the Bible talks about just once, or even twice – in a sense, missions is what the Bible is about. The Gospels recount words from Jesus to His disciples:
“Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” Matt 28
“Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.” Mark 16
“As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” John 20
The Bible tells one cohesive story of a God who longs to restore all peoples to Himself, the source of life.
What is the point of missions?
When we hear good news, what do we naturally do? We share it. To open our hearts towards the Bible’s narrative of missions, we must deepen our conviction of the gospel of Jesus Christ as good news. At every point in history, there are many gospels. In the 21st century, we are constantly inundated and evangelized with varying gospels of what leads to meaning and salvation—whether that be the gospel of progress, the American Dream, freedom, or health and wealth. In our context, perhaps one of the easiest ways to learn what form of the gospel someone is living under is to ask, “what does it mean to live a good and meaningful life?”
In the beginning, God created this world. Tragically, humans rejected God’s offer of life. We decided to choose life based on our own wisdom, leading to the chaos, brokenness, and evil we learn about in school and still see in our world today.
“The time has come,” Jesus said. “The Kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!” The Greek word used in the New Testament for good news, euangelion, was a royal announcement about a king and a kingdom. In our context, the closest relatable announcement might be the announcement of a new president or voted official. When Jesus announces this, He is announcing that the reign of God has been inaugurated through Him.
“The good news is that the one true God has now taken charge of the world, in and through Jesus and His death and resurrection…God’s plan to put the world right has finally been launched…The ancient sickness that had crippled the whole world, and humans with it, has been cured at last, so that new life can rise up in its place. Life has come to life and is pouring out like a mighty river into the world, in the form of a new power, the power of love. The good news was, and is, that all this has happened in and through Jesus; that one day it will happen, completely and utterly to all creation; and that we humans, every single one of us, whoever we are, can be caught up in that transformation here and now.” - NT Wright
Jesus came “to seek and to save the lost.” Underlying the Bible’s narrative of missions is the sense that people are lost without Jesus. Despite the initial emotional response it may raise in our cultural context, lost is a dignifying word. To be lost does not mean one is unintelligent, bad, or immoral. It simply indicates that one is not where they were meant to be. From the beginning to the end of the Bible, God reveals Himself as a God on mission to reconcile and restore all of creation, and He does that through you and me.
The movement of missions
If you’ve ever been part of a Christian community, chances are that your picture of missions involves going out somewhere, whether that’s to another community or place. In the Old Testament, God establishes a relationship with a person, Abraham, whose descendents become the community we come to know as Israel.
“I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and will give them all these lands, and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed.” Genesis 26:4
God promises that, somehow, all nations will be blessed through Israel. We see a pattern of other nations being drawn towards Israel throughout the Old Testament, perhaps in the same way that we might bring someone to our favorite restaurant.
As the Bible transitions to the New Testament, we see Jesus and His disciples follow the same motif – only this time they are going outward. Rather than drawing people towards God by bringing them towards Israel, Jesus seems to go from town to town, even sending His disciples out.
So how far out does this go?
Think about the reality that we have been invited to live in Jesus’ Kingdom, over 2000 years later, on the other side of the world from Jesus’ geographical location. Through the pattern of disciples of Jesus going outward, you and I are given the same invitation to be reconciled to God and one another.
“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Acts 1:8
These were Jesus’ words to His disciples after His resurrection. After His ascension, the disciples start in Jerusalem, but are scattered throughout Judea and Samaria after persecution breaks out. Throughout the rest of the book of Acts and the New Testament, the gospel goes forward to the Gentiles (non-Jews).
For Jesus’ disciples, it seems that His commands were literal: go from Jerusalem, to Judea and Samaria. But we don’t live in proximity to Jerusalem, so what wisdom is there for us in His words? We can have some insight into what Jesus meant by looking at the story of Jesus interacting with the Samaritan woman at the well in John 5:
Samaria was not far away geographically—yet when Jesus spoke to this Samaritan woman, He faced a cultural obstacle, and His disciples were bewildered.
They spoke similar enough languages to have a conversation, but her very first reply replied on the significant difference between the Jews and the Samaritans. “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan.”
It seems that Jesus is not merely talking about geographical distance, but about cultural distance. Yet Jesus was able to cross these three barriers:
Jerusalem: The only barrier is crossing between Christian community vs. non-Christian community.
Judea & Samaria: A second barrier; groups of people who speak languages that are a little different or who are involved in culture patterns sufficiently in contrast with our own to make communication more difficult.
The ends of the earth: Greater cultural difference. Live, work, talk, and think in languages and cultural patterns utterly different from those native to the evangelist.
Imagine a major city comprising communities A and B. These two communities live geographically close to one another, perhaps community members are even neighbors and shop at the same grocery stores. However, there are major cultural differences; what is normal for one community might appear offensive to the other. Even if there’s a church in community A, it is unlikely that community B will engage with the gospel unless someone crosses over the cultural barriers that exist to share the gospel in a way that community B understands. As modeled by Jesus, this kind of crossing cultures requires sacrificial and suffering love. Participating in this missional pattern is not only an invitation to others, but an invitation for us to become people of love, generosity, and sacrifice.
We can each identify the “Jerusalem,” the “Judea & Samaria,” and “the ends of the earth” in our lives. What is “Judea and Samaria” for one person will be “Jerusalem” for someone else. There are individuals and communities that would require us to cross cultural barriers to invite into the Kingdom of God, whether that’s a classmate, or a demographic on campus, a neighborhood across the city, or a people group on the other side of the world.
The beauty of God’s pattern is not that we are to bring everyone to Jerusalem; Inviting others into the Kingdom of God has and never will be about assimilation. Instead, the new pattern of going out establishes different expressions of the Kingdom of God in the local context, culture, and language. As individuals and communities are transformed from the inside out by life in the Kingdom, there can be varying expressions of a renewed and restored humanity, belonging to the same family. A Christian community at Yale might look different from one on the West Coast, from one in Africa, or from one in Asia. And one day, there will be “a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people, and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb.” (Rev 7:9)
So even today, every disciple of Jesus is invited to live into this redemptive story: to see the other as loved by God and worthy of belonging in the Kingdom of God, to participate in sacrificial love in crossing the cultural barriers that separate individuals and communities.
Reflection Questions
When you hear the word “missions”, what thoughts or feelings come to mind?
Through whom (individuals, communities) did the gospel of Jesus come to you?
What are versions of the “gospel” that you hear around you?
How has your understanding of the gospel of Jesus as good news deepend?
How do you feel about the idea that God wants to partner with You?
What is your “Jerusalem, Judea & Samaria, and the ends of the earth”
Part 1 | Return to Missions