THE GOSPEL OF THE CROSS AND THE GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM
November 5 Entry
The last ten days were a whirlwind with a flurry of activities back to back to back. To a point where I did not have time to sit down, reflect, and journal. I am now back in Pasadena home. A day after we came back to the US, we hosted a group of Michael’s friends who were eager to celebrate with Michael for finishing his Masters in Occupational Therapy program. His loving girlfriend, Gloria, whom he will marry next year, was also present by him all day. As proud parents, we happily did the work of providing hospitality to our son’s friends whom we have known since their high school days.
Right before the uneventful flight across the Pacific, my last gig in Korea was to present a paper to Korean missions leaders on Why “Imago Dei” and “Hospitality” Matter in Global Missions Today. Going in, I had my fair share of doubts regarding what the response would be like. A pleasant surprise filled my day instead. After my presentation in the morning, many approached me and shared with me how relevant the message was and how they now see that missions can change foundationally as a result.
There were some earnest questions that came my way as well. One of the repeated questions had to do with when will we “preach the Gospel of Christ’s death.” Yes, the Gospel of Christ’s death on the cross. My short public response during the large group’s Q and A was that it was not a matter of whether we preach “the gospel of Christ’s death” or not but it was how we preach the gospel. I had a significantly longer conversation with a younger leader who came to me with genuine questions. It was not that he disagreed with my presentation, but he was stuck in the paradigm of the gospel being limited to the atonement of Christ’s death on the cross. My foremost point was that the Gospel is Jesus Christ himself including his death on the cross and resurrection. 1 Corinthians 2:2 reads, “I deliberately kept it plain and simple: first Jesus and who he is; then Jesus and what he did—Jesus crucified” (The Message). According to Paul, it was Jesus himself and what he did on the cross.
My next point was that we must read the Scriptures with Jesus’ lens interpreting the rest of the Scripture and that we cannot read the Scriptures with Apostle Paul’s lens. There is a sense of obsession and almost infatuation with Paul and for what Paul has written, especially for modern evangelicals. We cannot read Jesus from Paul’s lens as enticing as that may sound. We should be doing it the other way around. If we agree that Jesus Christ himself is the gospel, then how we live as his followers becomes clearer. We must follow the teachings, life, and actions of Jesus as the way, the truth, and the life. If we restrict the gospel as “Jesus died on the cross for our sins” and that what we must do is to acknowledge and confess with our mouths, then how we live on this earth is not as clear. Deciphering how we live as his disciples then is mainly about preaching the gospel of Christ’s death and not much more. Discipleship then is restricted to preaching and believing the right doctrine of Christ’s atonement on the cross. There is no compelling connection between what we believe and how we ought to live. This is the fallacy of modern evangelicals according to Dallas Willard in his magnum opus, The Divine Conspiracy: Rediscovering our Hidden Life in God.
Furthermore, in conjunction with my paper, my assertion is this, borrowing words from N. Tom Wright, in his book, The Day the Revolution Began, “His (Jesus) death, the climax of his work of inaugurating God’s kingdom on earth as in heaven was the victory over the destructive powers let loose into the world not simply through human wrongdoing, the breaking of moral codes, but through the human failure to be image-bearers, to worship the Creator and reflect his wise stewardship into the world” (italicized mine). Thus, our heavenly vocation on this earth is to reflect, embody, and live out the divine part of God’s “image bearer” as humans. And we do this by following the very footstep of the incarnation of Jesus Christ to a point of self-emptying love for the world.
The afternoon session was all about ministering to factory and migrant workers in Korea who are mostly from neighboring Asian countries. The half a dozen or so presenters were all practitioners who are actively working with the workers, and many emphasized the concepts of imago dei and hospitality in their field of work. I was humbled and affirmed by those active practitioners who are trying to embrace all peoples as God’s image bearers and practice self-emptying and freedom-giving hospitality.
Overall, I was encouraged by the willingness to slow down enough to question and evaluate some of the long-held assumptions of doing church and missions through the “pause” that COVID gifted to the Korean Church. This opportunity gave me a new seeing that provided a ray of hope and possibilities for what I can be doing in Korea in the future including providing safe and free space to younger people. Before the gathering, my main question was to discern whether I would still have a voice in the Korean missions world or whether I am far off the center, out on the edges. I realize from a small but not insignificant sample that I still have a voice left and that I need to continue to harness my marginal voice alive, which to me is a part of my heavenly vocation as God’s image bearer.