Samuel Silungwe on sharing the Good News

The Good News has to be preached. From Luke to Acts we see Jesus and the Church bringing Good News, proclaiming freedom, restoring sight and freeing the oppressed. Jesus’ commission is also the Church’s commission and our commission. Was Jesus qualified to share this Good News? Yes, because the Spirit of the Lord was upon him. He was commissioned for the task because God anointed him.

Jesus said, speaking to his Father: ‘As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.’ (John 17:18) As the Father sent Jesus, he sends the Church, and we, as disciples, are an extension of Jesus’ mission in the world. The Church’s mission, and consequently our mission, if we form part of the Church, is to take the Good News of the grace and love of God to this world, which is engulfed in its problems of poverty, captivity, physical suffering and oppression.

Jesus came to bring Good News to the world. When unpacked, this Good News consists of economic justice for the poor, forgiveness and mercy for offenders, healing for those afflicted and political justice for the oppressed. Jesus had a mission to the poor, the captives, the blind and the oppressed – categories that indicate the breadth of his concern for people in need. Standing in solidarity with the oppressed, asylum seekers, migrants and refugees is not an extra option for the Church. Liberation theology, for example, urges the Church to care and serve the poor and to see Christ in them. …

Samuel Silungwe is the minister of three churches in the Kettering area, Northamptonshire

___

This is an extract from an article that was published in the July/August 2018 edition of  Reform

To read the full article, subscribe to Reform