By:
The
Catholic University of Eastern Africa
Department
of Religious Studies
Nairobi, Kenya.
*Paper Read at the International Meeting of the Society for New
Testament Studies (SNTS), in the Seminar Group 12: The Mission of the
Church: Exegesis and Hermeneutics, at the University of Bonn, Germany, July
29-August 2, 2003.
In contemporary times, experienced and
specialist missionary personnel have come to acknowledge that the word, mission
has come to mean different things to different people and in different
cultural settings. J. Verkuyl opines that mission is ¡°the specific activity of apostellein¡±
that is, to send (Verkuyl 1978:2). For Verkuyl, mission can, in an
applied science of the term, fully be understood as ¡°the missionary action of
God and the men and women he mandates¡± (Verkuy:2). Madge Karecki also defines
mission literally as ¡°to be sent¡± (1999:1). Donal Dorr in his study, Mission
in Today¡¯s World, expands the sense as he asserts that mission is ¡°a
process of evangelization – the attempt of the followers of Jesus to share in
the task of bringing good news to the world¡± (Dorr 2000:11). There is no doubt
that the notion of ¡°sending¡± underlies these definitions.
A close reading of the Gospel of Matthew reveals that the evangelist,
in his collection of the early Christian traditions, gives hint on two
essential levels of mission; namely the mission of Jesus under God and the
mission of the Matthean church under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the one
aimed at the Palestinian rural society and the other re-addressed to a church
made up of ¡°the little ones¡± in Antioch who lived in tension with the synagogue
(Carter 2000:27-32). What I mean here is that Jesus¡¯ mission to the bnaiya
Israel, the simple-folk of Israel had become for Matthew a model for
his church in the context of the actual field situation. In a later stage of
the development of the Gospel traditions, the empowerment, mission and work of
Jesus have become preached to a wider community as a prototype of the mission
of the Church. In other words, it has become a missio ad Gentes. The
mission of the Church is thus portrayed as having a scriptural foundation and
there is no other author than Matthew who has masterfully documented the
earliest trajectory of this missionary movement. From the exposition of some
passages, evidence will be provided to prosper the argument that the mission of
God in Jesus under the empowerment of the Spirit according to Matthew
translates into the mission of the Matthean Church. For Matthew, it is equally
right to argue that to say ¡°church¡± is to say ¡°mission¡±.
Mutatis mutandis, Jesus¡¯ mission has
significant bearing on the contemporary world Church. It is with this point in
mind that the pattern of the Matthean account of the mission of Jesus will be
used to promote the lessons mission of the Church needs to appropriate in order
to confront the challenges facing contemporary missionary activities;
especially in this postmodern age. In what follows, I wish to follow the
seven-structure made on the Gospel by the translators of The African Bible (1999).
Right from the opening chapters of the
Gospel, mission is portrayed as the heartbeat of the reality of the
incarnation of Jesus as the righteous teacher in his Church and the world.
Matthew espouses a Jesus who is the promised Messiah and whose mission ushers
in the dawn of the reign of God. This messianic mission is obliquely
established in the Infancy Narrative and later portrayed throughout the entire
Gospel. Firstly, the heavenly being, an angel is sent to a simple folk
man, Joseph to claim the responsibility of ¡°fathering¡± the incarnated Son of
God, the Savior of his people Israel and the world (vv.21-23). According to
Carter, from this point on, the mission of the Matthean church begins to
proclaim that Jesus is the one who manifests God¡¯s presence (Carter 2000:34).
The story of the magi opens with a journey,
a mission of discovery as they have seen a star at its rising (Carter:75). They
travel to the Holy City (Matt 4,5). In other words, these learned priests of
Persia, men of wisdom and astrologers discover the infant; recognize him as a
king and go to pay the king of the Jews oriental homage and adoration. They announce
his birth and mission to Herod. The magi and the star are dangerous, Carter
remarks. Their predictions and interpretations often associated with events
like the fall of kings and emperors and birth of new kings threaten people and
challenge political stability (Carter:74-76). They traveled back to
their country to proclaim the news of the birth of the king of the Jews, the
savior of the world to the nations. According to Gundry, ¡°the coming of the
magi previews the entrance of disciples from all nations in the circle of those
who acknowledge Jesus as the king of the Jews and worship him as God¡± (Gundry
1994:26). For Matthew, here and in the Passion Narrative, it is the Gentiles
who recognize Jesus¡¯ messiahship (Matt 27,54). It is the mission of
these representatives of the nations that destabilized the House of Herod and
whole Jerusalem that led to the horrendous slaughter of over twenty infants
(boys); an ugly incident that is attested to in the Gospel and the social
political history of the period (Brown 1979:166-201).
Another spectacular aspect of mission in the
Infancy Narrative is the ¡°sending out¡± of the boy-child, Jesus with the father
and the mother to Egypt in the African soil to take refuge from the ¡°ethnic
cleansing¡± declared by Herod (du Toit 1988:236). By this story, Matthew is
saying that Africa still has a place in the history of salvation and mission in
the new dispensation. The legend that had grown out of this travel has
emboldened both the Coptic and Ethiopian Christianity to undertake great
missionary endeavors. In the return from Egypt, Matthew depicts Jesus¡¯
homecoming mission ¡°to the land of Israel¡± (Matt 2,19-23) this time
around, Jesus is settled in Nazareth of the Galilean province. It is from this
¡®messianic hometown¡¯ that the mission of Jesus heads down country.
II
(Matt 3,1-7,29)
While in Matthew, Jesus is the pioneer of the
Missio Dei, there are other personages who carry out mission in the
Gospel tradition. In this section, Jesus¡¯ mission and proclamation of the Reign
of God are preceded by the mission of John the Baptist (Matt 3,1-12). John¡¯s
preaching on the need for change of attitude and behavior in readiness for the
coming kingdom is a significant signpost in the Matthean mission trajectory.
John is sent to prepare the way for Jesus so that he can reach out to
people, places and situations. The daring mission of resistance John preaches brings
him in confrontation with Jewish religious authorities (vv.7-10). The baptism
of Jesus in the Jordan (Matt 3,13-17) by John is shown as the actual moment of
his spiritual empowerment and divinization for the tasks of the mission ahead
of him. In John¡¯s baptism, the old is linked with the new. For Matthew and the
other evangelists (vv. 16-17), Jesus¡¯ baptism marks the inauguration of a new
phase in the mission of God. When John was arrested and detained, it dawned on
Jesus that the new phase in his mission has arrived. The empowered Jesus is
tested by the devil; in other words, his mission also brings him in
confrontation with the interests of the evil one. For three times, the trial
raged on. In the end, Jesus emerges as the new Moses ever obedient to the
commandments of God (Manus 1998:21-40). Thus Jesus was tried and proven the
true Son of God. He emerges as a true missionary worthy of emulation by his
disciples. The ministration of the angels (v.11) fortifies his resolve to
launch his public mission.
Matthew starts him off from Galilee. And from
Capernaum, he commences preachment on the dawn of ¡°the kingdom of heaven¡± as
the age of liberation and one that calls for a U-turn that must be matched with
a change of mind and behavior. In the scenic shore of the Sea of Galilee, Jesus
recognizes the need to gather some disciples for the onerous task ahead; that
is, the first call to mission (Matt 4, 18-20). He invites four fishermen, one
Simon Peter and his brother, Andrew and later James and John, the sons of
Zebedee. At this juncture Matthew recounts how Jesus carries out his initial
mission in the service of a great multitude in Galilee (4,23-25). In this
region, Jesus fulfills the role of a prophetic missionary to his people. He
communicates the good news of ¡°life for ever with God¡±. Faith-healing, an
integral aspect of his mission dominates the narrative. He fights against all
types of illnesses, liberates people from all evils and casts out demons – all
to usher in a better quality of life for the people of God. For Matthew, Jesus
the founder of the church, is sent to demolish the powers of sin and evil,
liquidate bad spirits and heal all diseases.
An outstanding Matthean portrayal of mission
of the church in his Gospel is the presentation of the magisterial role of
Jesus on the mountain setting as the ¡°new legislator greater than Moses¡±
teaching the crowd (Gundry 1994:7). The presence of the crowds (4,23-25) and
the re-utilization of the term in 7,28 confirm the fact that the sermon on the
Mount is the hallmark of mission executed in the Matthean church. As Gundry
notes, the crowds remain proper subjects, virgin lands for mission (10,23) and
they prefigure the church (Gundry: 28). It is a mission ad intra here
formulated by the evangelist as a teaching of his church to the faithful
disciples. Often, people are given to think that mission only means
winning new lands, new souls and building new churches. In Matt 5-7, the
evangelist impresses it upon us that mission involves prophetic criticism of
oppressive establishments as Judaism of the Second Temple Period and its
inauthentic leadership that cooperated with imperialist agents to exploit the
members of the Jewish society. He proclaims a Jesus who denounces the teaching
and traditions of the Pharisees, the Scribes and the Rabbis. He proclaims a
Jesus who is a teacher of righteousness and who legislates the law that his
disciples are to obey (28,30). The injunction to be ¡°salt and light¡± of the
world is a call to mission and evangelism to heed the anguished cries of the
oppressed. Here is an example of how Matthew narrates what should be the
relation between the good news of Jesus Christ and other religious systems that
do not acknowledge his Lordship.
III
(Matt
8,1-11,1)
In this unit, Matthew has gathered a catena
of eight healing episodes as if Galilee, the home region of Jesus is peopled
left and right by the infirm and the diseased. This is to portray Galilee as ¡°a
messianic hometown¡± (Gundry 1994:36). The narrative block opens with the
account of the cleansing of the Leper just after Jesus¡¯ descent from the
mountain (Manus 203:139-151). For the evangelist, Jesus¡¯ mission is marked by
miracle breakthroughs as sure signs of God¡¯s salvific intervention in history.
Matthew wishes to tell his readers that Jesus¡¯ mission reveals that the
eschatological age has indeed dawned. It is an age for people to have faith and
get set to allow God¡¯s reign take over their lives. Besides, in this localized
mission scenario, Matthew provides vent for understanding Jesus¡¯ mission
outreach as mission of the church.
Matthew does not demure in showing Jesus
extending his mission beyond the Jewish race and nation. Jesus restores the
health of a foreigner – the Centurion¡¯s servant (Matt 8, 5-13). The evangelist
is gratified to narrate to his church that the Centurion, a Gentile
professional soldier is the first to confess Jesus¡¯ divine authority (Cf. Matt
27,54) (Manus 1985:172-195). This missio ad extra is for him one of the
distinctions that characterize Jesus¡¯ universal mission. In Matthew¡¯s
understanding mission must press on the confession of Jesus as the Christ and
the Son of God (also in 16,16-19). In Matthew, Jesus did not disdain those
outside the fold as unredeemed and God-forsaken human rebels.
The unit is concluded with what I prefer to
call Operation First Deliver the House of Israel. At times, the mission
of the church in Matthew is parochial. This is attested by the warnings sounded
in the narrative that suggest resistance from local Jewish leaders. According
to Gundry, the Jewish mission is portrayed quite significantly by Matthew in
1,1;9,27;12,23 (Gundry 1994:8). Disciples are mandated to carry on a special
mission to the Jewish masses under the leadership of the twelve (10,
5-6;10,23;15,23-24;17,24-27). He confers them with the authority to do battle
with unclean spirits and all sorts of ill health that hold the people of God in
bondage. The names of those that are sent are given, twelve in all (10,2-4).
They are commissioned and instructed not to minister in pagan lands and Samaria
but they are sent ¡°to the lost sheep of the house of Israel¡± (10,6). The
Operation is to take Jesus¡¯ footsteps in mission. Mission in Matthew
involves rooting out all false disciples along with the devil and his angels
and giving them over to eternal punishment (Gundry:9). Robert H. Gundry further
remarks that a certain level of suffering characterized the mission among the
Jews as there are false disciples and false prophets from the Pharisaic groups,
who in attempt to avoid persecution, water down the high standards set by Jesus
(Gundry 1994:6). Disciples have had cause to flee for their lives (10,23).
Those who flee, become itinerant missionaries. Even though they lack clothes,
drinks, and are often sick and imprisoned, mission in Matthew is not stifled by
persecution. In the face of the persecution from Jewish authorities (5,13-16),
they still dare the authorities and preach the gospel publicly. In spite of the
situation, Jesus undertakes urban and neighborhood mission (11,1). And despite
the fact that mission is a dangerous undertaking, Matthew enjoins faithful
disciples to continue the aluta by obeying Christ¡¯s law and by
proclaiming it. I wish to agree some commentators that the insertion of the
Healing of the Centurion¡¯s Servant within a block dealing with missio ad
intra can be attributed to the evangelist¡¯s re-ordering of the received
Q-material into his original tradition (Gundry:10).
IV
(Matt 11,2-13,53)
Although the evangelist depicts Jesus¡¯
mission in a state of the art manner, all is not without difficulties. Like
John before him, Jesus engages in a mission of resistance and confrontation. In
the dialogue between him and the disciples sent by John who is now incarcerated
and languishing in jail, we encounter a number of verbal expressions suggestive
of doubts of the real identity of Jesus (Manus 2002: 117-118). We read that he
(John), ¡°sent ¡¦¡±; and that Jesus said to them, ¡°Go and tell ¡¦¡±. These verbs are
carefully chosen to convey very significant mission themes. What do the ¡°sent¡±
hear and see? Matthew¡¯s Jesus
charges them to go back to John to report that in the new phase of mission
launched by him,
The
blind regain sight; the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed;
the
deaf hear; the dead are raised; and the poor have the good news
proclaimed
to them (Matt 11,5-6)
The people of God are shown to acknowledge the laudable objectives of Jesus¡¯ mission in bringing people whole to God; especially the downtrodden. Matthew shows in a number of instances Jesus at prayer. He taught his disciples to pray to God as father. In his prayers, he recognizes God as his father (Matt 11,25-27). And he recognizes himself as Son of God. His assurance of divine sonship is fundamental to his mission.
The mission of the Matthean church is best
depicted in the emerging opposition the religious leaders meet out to Jesus
(12,1—8;9-14). The cure of the Blind and Mute demoniac (12,22-32), the Tree and
its Fruits (vv. 33-32) and the Sign of Jonah (vv. 38-42) – are all Matthew¡¯s
reflections on opposition to Jesus¡¯ mission. While they defend the Sabbath
laws, Matthew uses the occasion to portray Jesus as the re-interpreter of the
law in its halakhic context. For Matthew, Jesus has authority over the law. He
presents Jesus carrying out his mission with a denunciation of Pharisaic
legalism that suppresses the people of God than it liberates. The mission of
the church of Matthew brings about new forms of serving and worshipping God
than the Jewish rituals and observances.
In chapter 13, we are treated to a cluster of
parables; seven in all, indeed picture-talks that explain different levels of
crisis Jesus¡¯ mission encounters. The parables are gathered by the evangelist
to help edify the readers¡¯ understanding of a reality that is otherwise
imperceptibly obscure in meaning. But what are the values of the parables in
the mission of the church in the First Gospel? They reflect modes of reading
and re-interpretation of a hidden reality in the Matthean ecclesial
context. Jesus uses the parables to convey the message of the nature of the
kingdom he preaches. In the Parable of the Sower, for example, Jesus alludes to
the vicissitudes of his mission. It is an example of Matthew¡¯s post-Easter
narrative. In the face of hardships, failures and disappointments, the church
of Christ is likened to a tiny seed, so weak and insignificant, almost
invisible but which much later slowly but gradually blossomed into a huge
church. There is no doubt that it belongs to mission to make the good news
explicit by using literary and interpretative devices such as parables, idioms,
word-plays and even drama in the mission and evangelization of peoples and
their cultures particularly in Africa and other not-too literary societies.
V
(Matt
13,54-18.35)
In this unit, Matthew passes on specific
injunctions to stabilize the Matthean church, teachings that have made the
First Gospel be received over the centuries as the Gospel of the Church.
Matthew makes bold to show that despite the misunderstanding and rejection of
Jesus by his own people, the hidden and all-powerful God manifests himself
through his incarnation and mission (13, 54-58). Chapters 14,22-16.12 present
us with a series of miracle stories: narratives that prove Jesus as messianic
missionary. The miracles attest that God¡¯s reign is both present and imminent.
The miracles help silence the incredulity of the Pharisees and the Sadducees
who reject him and induce the others to disbelieve in him. In 15,1-20,
Matthew¡¯s Jesus disagrees with the Pharisees and the Scribes on the Tradition
of the Elders. He defends the disciples and accuses the opponents of gross
misinterpretation of the law on matters relating to justice to the common
people. Here is a mission of resistance and confrontation in which Jesus takes
a bold and courageous step to righten things. The story has its Sitz im
Leben in early Christian denial of the efficacy of traditional Jewish
rituals as a means of attaining salvation. While the conflict endures, Matthew,
once again, informs us of Jesus¡¯ mission outside the Jewish confines. In spite
of the narrow parochialism and clannish mentality pre-Easter Matthew expresses
in the statement: ¡°I was sent to the lost sheep of Israel¡± (v.24//10,6), the
Syro-Phoenician lady¡¯s demand is after all granted. For Matthew the mission of
Jesus knows no barriers and demolishes appalling racial and religious
inequality of persons as violations of human rights that must be redressed.
In chapter 18, generally known as an ecclesiastical
discourse, Matthew recounts a central theme in the Missio Jesu as
a mission to the people of God. Church leaders are taught to humble themselves
(18,4;23,12). They are enjoined to show love and to live by it. They are asked
to render service as opposed to self-seeking claims and to adopt the position
of the little persons in the church (18,3;23,11) (Gundry 1994:6). They are
reminded of their obligation to foster harmony, to recover those who
have gone astray and to forgive the backslider (18,18-35) (Manus 2003:159-161).
They are also enjoined to promote Christian commitment to conflict resolution
and to preach reconciliation (Manus 2003:136-137). They must be meek, like
Jesus, the persecuted teacher of righteousness, be willing to give themselves
for others (5,5;11,29;20,20-28;21,5) (Gundry:6). For me, Matthew projects
Jesus¡¯ mission as a missio ad intra in so far as he roots Jesus¡¯
ministry in the setting of the Church and thus portrays him as the one who gives
the disciples authority to replicate his mission in word and deed. They are to
teach the righteousness that surpasses that of the Scribes and the Pharisees
(Gundry:8). The mission of the church in Matthew comes out bold in the
disciples¡¯ role as teachers of Christ¡¯s law (13,52;23,34;28,20) and as
Christian healers and exorcists (10,1). In this mission discourse, the
understanding that ¡°resolution of interpersonal and communal conflicts demand
dialogue (negotiations), forgiveness and reconciliation¡± has become a conditio
sine qua non in order to give peace a chance in the contemporary broken
world (Manus 2003:138).
VI
(19,1-25,46)
In this section, Matthew plots Jesus¡¯ journey
downwards Jerusalem. His mission comes to grips with the spirituality of the
Holy City and its inhabitants perturbed by influence of antinomians,
backsliders and the legalism of the Scribes and the Pharisees. The kingdom of
God is proclaimed as ¡°a new age¡±, a reality that calls for a new attitude. He
starts with marriage and celibacy and proclaims both as means of grace in the
life of Christians in the reign of God. Matthew places here Jesus¡¯ mission to
the married. As the basis of every human family, marriage is the basic cell of
the Christian community. God had intended the union of man and woman in mutual
love to be a permanent one where the off springs benefit from the love of their
parents so that their security, guidance, care, home training and interpersonal
relationships can be enjoyed. Further in 19,13-15, Jesus goes to show the
significance of little children as concrete symbols of the humility that marks
entrance into the kingdom of heaven; an expression so unique in the gospel
which, as Gundry observes, the evangelist employs to stress the universality of
the dominion exercised by Jesus and his Father (Gundry:8). In the church of
Matthew, parents are enjoined to encourage their children to take active part
in the activities of their faith communities. The coming reign of God is
proclaimed as a gift. The Parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard (20,1-15)
indicates that the values of the kingdom are not the same as those of the
world. In the Parable, the evangelist stresses the significance of the free
gift of God¡¯s salvation and the equality of all persons in God¡¯s kingdom. In
the warning that the first shall be last and the last be first is embedded
Matthew¡¯s notion of the universal nature of the reign of God Jesus proclaims.
That Jesus is a missionary par excellence is explicit in the logion that he
came ¡°not to be served but to serve and give his life as ransom for many¡±.
Matthew¡¯s church adopts this theme to remind all that greatness is achieved
through service to others and not in the domination and suppression of others.
In the Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem (Matt 21,1-11), Matthew vividly depicts
the advent of a messianic royal figure in the person of Jesus who has come to
do battle against all the degradation the city of David has witnessed and
profanation the national cult has undergone (Manus 1993:181-187). His arrival
is seen by many of his contemporaries as a threat. Here, Matthew portrays a
Jesus whose mission, even though he was no priest, ¡°cleanses¡± the Temple. For
me, this is a reconstructive mission, one that has both spiritual and
social significance for the well being of the bnaiya Israel, the simple
folk of his day (Manus 2003:4,116-118). Above all, Matthew anchors the core of
Jesus¡¯ teaching ministry in his declaration on love of God and love of neighbor
as the greatest of the commandments in Christian Religion (22,34-40).
VII
(26,1-28,20)
Matthew closes in a climactic manner what he
understands of mission in the Passion Narrative. He places the plot to kill
Jesus in the context of the Passover feast and with the chief priests, elders
and Caiphas as key figures in the drama. The Matthean Jesus undertakes the
supreme mission; namely mission that involves real persecution: arrest, trial,
torture and execution on the cross. The cross, the great symbol of suffering
and victory in Christianity is portrayed a riddle in Jesus¡¯ mission. But the
resurrection occurs as the vindication and glorification of the crucified
Jesus. Matthew¡¯s narrative is designed to show how the God of life overturns
for good the condition of death and annihilation occasioned by human wickedness
and injustice. The Just One cannot be left to the power of death. Jesus¡¯ tomb
is empty. The Christ is indemnified with resurrection. This is the height of
mission that Matthew¡¯s church proclaims.
Now, the risen Christ is definitively
invested with authority from the Father whom he has so diligently served in his
People. He has received kingship over the oikumene – the whole world
(Manus 1993). He must return to the Father. The handing over of mission has
come. Matthew returns the eleven disciples to Galilee where Jesus¡¯ mission
started. The time to take over charge of the missionary task has arrived.
Galilee is again depicted as a locale for mission. It is from here that the
disciples are to begin their mission as did their Master. In Matthew, mission
is aluta continua. Before his ascension, the Risen Jesus commands his
disciples to:
Go,
therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the
name
of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them
to
observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you
always,
until the end of the age (Matt 28,19-20).
Matthew brings his gospel to a coordinated close:
the promise, ¡°I will be with you always¡± in 28,20 harks back to 1,23, Immanuel,
God with us. According to a veteran missiologist, J. Verkuyl, mission ¡°has its
source in the triune God Himself¡± (Verkuyl:3). For Matthew, Jesus, before
returning to the Father, sends the Church to continue the missio Dei
which he has begun in their company. As members of the People of God we are, by
this mandate, charged with the duty to go out there and proclaim the gospel, to
be evangelists with a mission, in other words, to be agents of change in order
to promote the reign of God in our time.
In sum, I wish to agree with the NCCB¡¯s
Statement that Matthew minces no word in telling us that ¡°Jesus was a
missionary and as the word of God, he is the light of all nations. As the word
made flesh, he brought God¡¯s own life in our midst. Before returning to the
Father, he sent the church to continue the mission given him by the Father and
empowered her by the spirit¡± (p.50).
According to Gundry, the command to make disciples of all nations has resulted in the Church being large and mixed. However true this may be, in Matthew, the church is a brotherhood (5,21-26,47;18,15-17,35;23,8;25,40;28,10). As the New Testament church had a duty to carry its mission to the little ones, the poor and the persecuted outcasts, the itinerant preachers fleeing persecution, the youth, the blind and the crippled indeed a mixed bag, there is no denial in our time that Matthew wants us to understand that Jesus¡¯ great commission to the first disciples is now addressed to the Church which exists in the contemporary world (NCCB:1986). Robert H. Gundry so well articulates the pertinence of the mission of the Church in Matthew in these words:
Whenever
the church has grown large and mixed, whenever the church
is
polarized between the extremes of latitudinarianism and sectarianism,
whenever
the church feels drawn to accommodation with forces that
oppose
the gospel, whenever the church loses its vision of worldwide
Evangelism,
whenever the church lapses into smug religiosity with its
attendant
vices of ostentation, hypocrisy, and haughty disdain for its
underprivileged and
correspondingly zealous members – then the Gospel
of Matthew speaks with power
and pertinence (Gndry:10)
Critically evaluating the data scooped up
from this study, what emerges is quite fascinating for the understanding of the
history of the development of mission themes transmitted in the Gospel. And
given the fact that the Gospel of Matthew is a major book in the Synoptic
tradition, it is germane to acknowledge the theorizations that have led to the
widely accepted hypothesis that Mark, the Q-Source and another special material
(M) lie at the origin of the Gospel (Streeter 1924:313). And in the light of
the fact that the canonical Matthew has come down to us through stages of
redaction, I wish to agree with many synoptic scholars that there could be
three or more levels of the development of the traditions of Jesus in Matthew
(Benoit-Boismard:1972; Boismard 1980). If everybody agrees with me, the data
exposed in my analysis impel us to recognize three possible redactional levels
of the development of the mission of the church in the gospel. The redactional
work of Matthew has long been upheld and is even recently defended (Stanton
1992:23-53).
Firstly, I find notable ideas on mission in
the setting in life of Jesus. This is comprised of Jesus¡¯ Galilean ministry and
his preaching of the dawn of the kingdom, the role of John the Baptist and his
disciples and their work, Jesus¡¯ healing miracles, exorcisms and some of the
parables on the nature of the kingdom. At this level, mission of Jesus is a
mission of resistance and confrontation with the religious leaders of his time,
their cronies, and the agents of imperialism. At this stage, mission is focused
on the ¡°lost sheep of Israel¡±. The second is the engagement in active mission
in the setting of the Matthean church, perhaps in Antioch during which time the
traditions of Jesus had become treasured and preached as church patrimony. This
is the setting in which the post-Easter Christians of the Matthean community
accepted the challenges of mission ad intra and in spite of persecution,
stood up against all antagonistic opposition in the way of realizing the dawn
of the eschatological reign of God preached by Jesus. Here, among others,
mission is focused on discipline in the community, catechesis, leadership
education, correction of backsliders and the role of the church as peace-broker
in conflict situations, their resolutions and reconciliation.
At the third level, there comes the idea of
mission that is so creatively developed by the evangelist in an a - b- a1
narrative structure. For the evangelist here, mission is a journey, a
travel. The opening scenario about the journey of the magi, oriental
missionaries to the House of Herod and their own nations re-echoes as Matthew
goes further to tell us that Jesus and his parents travel to Egypt in
the African soil. For me, the journey/travel motif is craftily utilized
to frame the mission ad intra and ad extra to culminate into missio
ad Gentes. This travel motif is fully utilized in the last portion
of the evangelist¡¯s treatise.
The initial Galilean mission of Jesus is
rehabilitated. Galilee takes on a fresh significance in mission. It becomes the
place of sending out the disciples ¡°to go¡± and to teach all nations with
authority. The key to understanding mission in the gospel is Jesus¡¯ commission
to his disciples to travel to the whole world to make disciples (Smith
1993:589-603). This is told to accord with the universalization of mission already
indicated in (M) but this time it becomes ¡°a universal imperative of¡¦
disavowing borders ¡¦¡± to teach all nations, observes Musa Dube, a Botswana
feminist and post-colonial critic of the Bible (Dube 1998:230). As Dube
auspiciously asserts, here, ¡°Matthew also espouses a Jesus who, in the way of
other kings and emperors, sends forth his servants to establish an empire and
to teach the subjugated to obey everything he has commanded (Matt 28,18-20).
According to the spirit of v.19, the mission of the church in Matthew is to
make disciples; persons who are called to follow Jesus and who have encountered
God¡¯s reign in Jesus¡¯ preaching and actions and are willing to witness God¡¯s
presence in their lives (Carter: 552). Now, granted that this picture points us
up to what seemed to have happened, what lessons may we learn from the mission
of the church in Matthew¡¯s Gospel?
While Matthew¡¯s style of mission will not absolutely be considered normative for mission today, there is however abiding lessons we can learn from his patterns that can help us fine-tune the pursuit and significance of mission of the Church in the contemporary world (van Engen et alii. 1997:27):
While Jesus¡¯ public mission
started from Galilee, he still found it necessary to first evangelize the
region. Galilee therefore stands as an example to us that the church of Matthew
was both mission-sending and mission-receiving, a theology that has to become
acknowledged as very significant for contemporary mission strategies of of the
Church today.
In his Sermon on the Mount
and in such parables as those on watchfulness and Prayer, the evangelist draws
our attention to the importance of self-examination of motives and interior
dialogue with the self in the life of persons who feel themselves called to
become evangelist and followers of Christ, the pioneer missionary. Mission
calls for self-immolation.
Jesus¡¯ injunction to the
disciples to go first to the lost sheep of Israel (10,6) though parochial and
nationalistic, underlines the fact that, even in mission, charity begins at
home. To flee one¡¯s country to go and teach other nations must nowadays be
re-thought; especially now that Western missionaries are getting aged and many
are dying away.
Jesus¡¯ commission in Matt
28,19-20 enjoins us, among other things, to recognize and affirm the importance
of dialogue ad extra such as with major religious and spiritual
traditions of the world as Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism,
Taoism and African Traditional Religion. To ¡°go and teach all nations¡± does not
mean the use of force, indoctrination and religious intolerance. But unlike
Matthew¡¯s church, there is need for openness in the Church¡¯s mission and this
must involve the extension of a hand of reconciliation and dialogue to people
of other faiths so as to find a common ground for conflict resolution in the
world (Glasser 1984:726).
Mission must
equip contemporary Christians with strategies to cope with the
enormous challenges posed by
the need for ecumenism on a trilateral level involving Jews, Christians and
Muslims in our time. Peace without peace among the religions is unthinkable.
In contemporary mission, ¡°new and pressing challenges¡± have been identified (Door: 11-12). Encountering these can often become formidable if mission is not re-defined appropriately. Mission should therefore take cognizance of:
the need for inculturation, that is, the process of relating the gospel message to
the rich variety of the cultures of the peoples of the world. In Africa, this still has to be recognized as a crucial task of mission and evangelization, in other words, there mission cannot succeed without inculturation.
the need to
proclaim reconciliation. Conflict resolution and reconciliation is top
in Matthew¡¯s
church mission. Matt 18, 15-22 informs us how the evangelist
involved the
elders of his community in the management of conflict resolution,
reconciliation
and forgiveness. Today, the world is shattered by great and
horrendous happenings:
September 11 (9/11), acquisition and misuse of weapons of mass destruction
(WMD), ethnic cleansing, Governments of mass pauperization of their citizens
and the insoluble crises still arising from the unfinished job of institutional
racism in Africa.
the need for
mission to engage in poverty reduction programs. Mission must
address itself to a holistic
option for the poor. The church can derive a lot from the Matthean community¡¯s
constant recognition of the poor as heirs to the kingdom. The teaching on the
parable of the lost sheep according to Matt 18,12-14 that the poor and the
confused should not be lost should be of great concern in contemporary mission.
the need for
pastoral handling of the immense moral challenges of the rapidly
globalized world
of today; especially in the areas of politics and bad governance,
economics and
social justice. Here, the nexus between religion, ecology and the
environment must
be seen as so thin; especially the manner in which oil
technocrats from
the West are depleting and degrading the earth in different
regions of the
Two Thirds world and particularly in Africa. The case of the
exploration and
mining of Colton in Congo (DRC) for its high-tech value in
Mobile Phone
productions are well known.
the need for
mission to address fearlessly, like Jesus did to the oppressors of his
day, the proliferates of
arms and their trade, to producers of weapons of mass destruction. Contemporary
mission must address the good news to those who sponsor persons and
institutions that support and abet urban, national and international
terrorisms.
There is need,
given the reconstructive Christology in which Matthew presents
Jesus¡¯ mission, for mission
to target, in our time, ¡°unreached peoples¡± in their struggles against
violations of human rights, their bid in the transformation of human societies
and the war against social injustice.
Mission
must reach all and sundry: the rich, the privileged and the downtrodden.
The rich invited Matthew¡¯s
Jesus to banquets. He reached out to those who had maintained the worst
reputation: the tax collectors, and excise agents, groups who collaborated with
the foreign occupying power. He was not an ascetic as such and was free to join
in parties and festivals that made him receive the mockery of the pious (Matt
11,19).
Even though
Matthew¡¯s Jesus hands on the commission to carry the gospel far
and wide; still ad intra,
mission cannot afford to neglect addressing anxieties of the moment such as
the decline in churchgoing in Western societies. The situation in Britain and
the rest of Western Christendom is alarmingly deplorable. Serious effort must
be made to mission-ize the aged groups in the society and bring them
back to the fold.
Mission must
explore ways and means of improving on the relationships between
the older people
and the church. Mission must outline strategies for the Church¡¯s
re-invigorated attitude
towards older people in the twenty first century. Matthew¡¯s injunction in 18,18
behests the Church to spend more energy to seek out, attract and nurture older
members to live and die well in the Church.
Never
before has the Church been challenged to become one global family that
ought to allow her many
cultural and ethnic members to contribute their own gifts to enrich the world
Church. Former patterns of domination need to be removed. Fresh insights into
mission in the technological age and into the ways in which the Western
missionary movement had often accomplished things, both for good and for ill,
have to be reviewed.
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