Matthew 24:13-14 – “But those who endure until the end will be saved,
and this good news of the kin-dom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world
as a testimony to all nations. And then the end will come.”
There are two different 'ends' in this passage. They cannot
be the same end, because the word ‘then’ signals a sequence of events. The end
of torture and death will come, the good news will be proclaimed, and then the
end will come. Presumably this second end is the close of the age referred to
earlier.
Where are we on this timeline? Well, we still have wars and
rumors of wars, false prophets and conspiracy theories, false leaders and
corruption. Clearly, we’re not at the end; possibly not anywhere near it.
Although, the good news has been proclaimed throughout the world. Most of it
anyway. Rather than waste time and words trying to calculate our current
position, I’m more interested in what this good news is that has been
proclaimed.
It’s no surprise that there are many different versions of
this good news as there are Christian groups – and there are a lot of Christian
groups. My denomination is one of nine different Presbyterian groups just in
the US. It stands to reason that some of the good news that has been proclaimed
is not what Jesus thought of as good news. Indeed, if the good news we proclaim
has no love for God, ourselves, or neighbors, it is not the good news. The good
news of Jesus is that God loves all of us. He showed this by healing people, by
listening to them, by sticking up for them, by teaching (or trying to teach)
others. We have a hard time imagining this all-encompassing love, so we
substitute ideas that we can grasp, that we can wrap our brains around easily.
By coincidence or not, these substitutions ask less of us than Jesus did.
When Jesus taught, he also healed. He cared about the
circumstances of everyone’s life. Before he healed people, he listened to them
or to the person requesting healing. He even learned during his ministry that
arbitrary exclusions – I was only sent to the lost sheep of Israel – were not
in God’s plan. If we want to be Christians, we must follow our teacher. We too
must care about the physical, mental, financial, and spiritual condition of the
people we preach to. A person who hasn’t eaten in three days will not be able
to hear your carefully-crafted sermon over the
rumblings of their stomach. Proclaiming the gospel necessitates that first we
humbly listen to those who come to us. Spreading the good news is not a one-way
relationship; we do not condescend to give something to someone we judge needs
it. No. Spreading the gospel is a two-way relationship. Both parties give and
both parties receive.
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