Whose Good News?
"The good news depends on who you are"This was a comment on OpenSource Theology which I thought tied in nicely with a few comments that are dotted around on the SFT. So I thought it might make a nice new thread. The full discussion on OST can be seen here. This is the context for the above comment:
"The good news depends on who you are. Jesus showed us that salvation depends on who you are becasue different people need salvation from different things. For some people salvation was "sell all you have and give it to the poor". For others it was "go and sin no more". For some it was physical or mental healing and for some it was political/social justice. Jesus recognized that all of us need salvation from different things. The good news is that there is help through some sort of transformation process and it can be found in the message of Jesus."
Is this definition of the gospel sufficient?
posted by Jamie at Monday, March 06, 2006
3 Comments:
Brian McLaren has an interesting response to this question in an article in Sojourners mag. I think you have to register (free) to read it.
www.sojo.net/index.cfm?action=magazine.article&issue=soj0603&article=060310
This thread on Stuart Weir's blog ties in nicely with this discussion, and I've mentioned the Brian McLaren article (which is quite short and well worth a read) there too.
The way I see it, the comment on OST goes at once too far and not far enough. It goes too far in its total contextualisation of the gospel message. This results in "bespoke" gospels. Certainly Jesus recognised that "all of us need salvation from different things" but he also highlighted sin as the chief problem of all creation.
That is not to say that 'preaching repentance' should always be our first step in kingdom work. The entry point for the kingdom was (and is) certainly different for different people, but from these entry points the message of salvation is universally holistic, encompassing health, social justice, liberation and freedom from guilt for all creation.
In this sense, the comment I refer to above does not, I believe, go far enough. We all need salvation from different things, that much is correct, but this salvation comes as part of the total salvation from sin and its effects which is offered in Christ.
Thanks Paul (not least for the hundred new metaphors in your post - never seen the Jesus movement described as an exocet and boomerang before!)
Your focus on "good news tae the poor" is certainly a trajectory that Scripture seems to focus on (Is 61:1, Mt 11:5, Lk 7:22) but it must not stop there. Certainly the gospel should be good news to the poor, but it is also good news to the rich, the middle class, and indeed "all creation" (Mk 16:15).
Now for this good news to reach the rich, the oppressor, etc. it may have to go 'via' those they oppress. The way I see it, Jesus preaches to the poor not only for their sake but also for the sake of the rich - demonstrating new values and subverting economic division. He has a 'preference' for the poor in that sense, but it's no good if the rich aren't reached as well.
I agree that we have, at times, truncated the phrase (although just "good news" is used plenty of times in the Bible). Jesus speaks more often of the "good news of the kingdom". And this seems to mean more than help for the poor - it involves (Is 61 again) liberty for the oppressed, sight for the blind, release for prisoners, healing for the sick, comfort for the brokenhearted ... in fact it is "good news of great joy ... for all the people" (Lk 2:10).
I understand all these phrases both literally and figuratively. What we need to remember today is that it's anything but a message of "good news for individual souls", but an all-encompassing reality. "Thy kingdom come ... on earth!"
thoughts?
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