From Particular to Universal

1. Joshva Raja

2. Mission in the New Testament
 Construction of Historical Jesus in the four Gospels –
Evangelists/Communities used creative and
responsible freedom in retaining and adopting Jesus’
traditions
 Listen to the Past in order to speak to the present and
future
 Gaps and Connections – historical gaps – marginal
communities find similarities
Joshva Raja SOCMS 2

3.  Not Form, Redaction nor social rather critical
hermeneutics – Not looking for an Objective
statement of reality out there rather interpreted reality
 Correspondence between the self definition of early
Christians and todays
 Self definition of Early Christians lead to self
definition of Jesus
 Jesus and Israel – Greek and Roman influence – Jewish
Proselytes and God fearers – Qumran to evangelize
Jews
Joshva Raja SOCMS 3

4. Q/Logia
 Mission statement only to Israel
 Gentiles Mt 3:9; Mt 12:41
 Warning to the privileges of Jews –Mt 8:10; Mt 15:28;
Mt 8:11-13; Mt 21:31
 Gentile Mission is post-Easter discovery – Jesus
himself laid the foundation for Gentile Mission
Joshva Raja SOCMS 4

5. Jesus and Universal Mission?
 F Hahn (Mission in the New Testament) and four solutions
to the question – Was Jesus interested in the mission to
Gentiles?
 Answer (a) – yes Jesus was full fledged missionary to
Gentiles
 (b) Jesus did not inaugurate a Gentile mission during his
life time but that he did have such a program in mind and
after his resurrection, so instructed his disciples
 (c)Gentile mission was a product of the early church’s
reflection on the universal dimensions of Jesus’ teachings
 (d) Jesus’ resurrection convinced the early Christian
community that the final age of salvation has dawned.

6. Missio Jesus
 Incarnation Model (Salt)
 Healing Model (Physician)
 Preaching Model (Stones)
 Demonstration Model (Water)
 Transfiguration Model (Light)
 Resurrection (Wheat)
 Crusification (Wine)
Joshva Raja SOCMS 6

7. …there is only one foundation.
Joshva Raja SOCMS 7

8. Early Church and Mission
 Early Christians part of Jewish or separate
community? Gentile Christians to be circumcised?
 Hebrew or Greek speaking Jewish self-
understanding
 Between end time and not yet – eschatological
self-understanding
 Mission replaced by the expectation of the end and
mission itself an eschatological event
 Pharisees and Synagogue
Joshva Raja SOCMS 8

9. Post Jesus
 Apostolic model (sent)
 Martyrdom model (die)
 Social service model (share)
 Church model (relate)
 Letter model (command)
 Spiritual model (fill)
 Witness model (live)
Joshva Raja SOCMS 9

10. Jesus and Early Church practices Christian mission involves the person of Jesus
himself
 Early Christian Mission was political,
revolutionary and subversive
 Inter-alia new relationship between Jews, Gentiles,
men and women…
 Marana Tha (our Lord come) – Lived in hope and
not yet fulfilled – not utopians nor to establish the
reign
 Martyria witness with the blood of Jesus and
followers
Joshva Raja SOCMS 10

11. Paul and Mission
Context of Paul’s Mission
 Wandering preachers
 Greek Speaking Jewish Christians
 Judaizing Christian Missionaries
 Divisions and Communities
 Persecution of Christians
Joshva Raja SOCMS 11

12. Mission strategies
1. to preach Jesus where not yet preached Rom 15:23
2. A Sense of Urgency - being in Christ
3. Cooperative and Community based mission
4. Mission as function of the Church
5. Self-confidence and self-consciousness
6. A sense of concern to bring people to Christ – a sense
of responsibility to Gentiles – a sense of gratitude and
privilege to proclaim
Joshva Raja SOCMS 12

13. Paul Missionary paradigm
 The church as a new Community (Eph 2:15)
 Mission to Jews (Rom 9-11)
 Mission in God’s imminent Triumph
 Mission and Transformation of Society
 Mission in Weakness
 Mission with aims and goals
Joshva Raja SOCMS 13

14. Mission as Hermeneutics
 Particular to Universal a. temporal from creation to
eschatological –Mission is a movement into a future b.
spatial from one place to another place – mission is a
movement into new horizons c. people from person to
person and from people to people – mission is a
movement to new people. (Bauckham)

15. Examples
 Parable of the Seed – Mark 4:26-29 – Growing from
seed to harvest – eschatological
 Parable of the Mustard seed – Mark 4:30-33
 From one to Many – Abraham
 From Israel to all nations
 To all by the way of least

16. Particulars in tension

17. Antitotalizing Biblical Metanarrative
 J Richard Middleton and B J Walsh
 Biblical Narrative (p88ff) – Christian story works
against totalization!
 Two main cases are: 1. Radical sensitivity to suffering
that pervades the biblical narrative from the exodus to
the cross 2.God’s overarching creational intent that
delegitimates any narrow partisan use of the story

18. Atitotalising Mission of Jesus
 Be Holy as I am holy (Lev 19:2)
 Be merciful as I am Merciful (Lk 6:36)
 Jesus says love your enemies (Mt 5:43-44)
 Jesus declared temple as a den of robbers (Mt 11:17)
 Jesus movement as counter movement culmination at
the cross

19. Reading list
 Richard Bauckham Bible and Mission: Christian Witness in
a Postmodern World.
 Cumbria: Paternoster Press. 2003. pp.83-110
 J Richard Middleton & Brian J W Trugh is Stranger…pp.85-
142.
 The Bible and Culture Collective (George Aichele et el) The
Postmodern Bible. Yale
 University Press. 1997.
 A K M Adam Postmodern Interpretation of the Bible: A
Reader Chalice Press, 2000.
 David Jobling, Tina Pippin, Ronald Schleifer (ed) The
Postmodern Bible Reader
 Oxford: Blackwell, 2001.