“Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their
synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease
and sickness.” (Matthew 9:35)
When I first met my wife Alice, she had been a professional artist
for around 15 years. Many a day I have
stood in the doorway to her studio, amazed at the images that poured forth from
her brushes. She sits there, eyes squinting down at the canvas, deftly
adding brush strokes as she happily creates new life and redesigns the world
with her paints.
Her paintings brings forth life and purpose, and always seems to be
born out of a mixture of passionate determination and a longing for beauty.
Her brushes are more than artist’s instruments; they are tools that will
her creations into being and make them into inspiring expressions of life.
If you know an artist, you know what I’m talking about. You
know the willing of chaos into order; the transformation of nothingness into
beauty, and the bringing forth of a dream that lives only within the mind’s
eye.
There is often a strangeness in the lives of artists, with a cost
to themselves and to those around them. My wife’s commitment to her art
comes before everything. It is her passion, and she is sold out to it.
This image of the willful, determined artist may not be too far
from the beautiful, biblical image of divine mission. God is on mission
to repaint our world, to recreate out of the fallen chunks a new world.
The image of God’s first creation lies in ruins where beauty and goodness
once stood. Our world is not the world God intends, so we engage in
mission.
Our mission, the work of joining God in what He is doing, is our
ultimate response to the study of the end-times. Christian mission born
out of a deep conviction of Christ’s return, is mission with the power to
change the world and our own lives in the process. Mission is not merely modifying the world in
which we live.
Ours is not the work of pressing out the wrinkles of life, of
giving a nice little religious boost to the lives of those we seek to reach.
God’s mission is to make all things new. In pursuing this mission, we see the radical
commitment God makes to achieve His goal. God is determined, above all else, to repaint
the world and establish an everlasting kingdom of joy.
Ours is the privilege of joining with God in establishing His reign
where it is not present. It is an
end-time work that brings the dream of tomorrow into the nightmare of today.
Our mission is about joining God in His passion of making all things new.
Whenever we witness times of suffering and injustice, we are
reminded of the need for mission. Exploitation, abuse and neglect, death
and disease, destruction and displacement; the sufferings we witness in this
world cause us to dream of another one.
Suffering and injustice causes some people to lose faith, to doubt
the existence of a world other than this one. But others have confidence
in the reality of another, better world, and it motivates them to put their
lives on the line. It inspires great acts of bravery and heroism; it
drives them to give their all to reach for the dream. History is filled
with the stories of millions who hoped against hope for another world and who
risked their lives to establish justice in their pursuit of joy.
The passion of God includes us, our efforts, our passions and our
risks, to establish his dream where it is not found. The passion of God
is not merely a future reality. It is a reality that we can touch, taste,
feel and live today, if only we would reach for it together. Throughout the history of the church, this has
been the foundation of biblical mission.
A person’s passion can literally change the world, as we saw in the
life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. We often use the concept of someone’s
wish, a desire or a hope. Real change, however, comes through conviction,
passion, power and action.
Jesus says that the Spirit’s work within Him enables Him to
proclaim the good news to the poor. The proclamation of God’s good news as we
see throughout the Bible revolves around the work of Christ, His death, His
resurrection, His rule and His return to judge the living and the dead.
However, what made the announcement of Christ so significant was the fact that
it was to the poor. The poor are at the heart of mission, because their
poverty is an expression of evil, of brokenness; it is antithetical to the
dream of God.
In the announcement of the passion of God in Jesus’ first public
message, we see the end of time. We see God’s passion unleashed on a
world of pain and suffering. In this, we see the foundation for all
missions, a passion that goes beyond justice, beyond salvation, beyond rescue.
We see restoration and flourishing. And in the end, we see the joy
of the Lord!
“After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming
the good news of God. The time has come, he said. The kingdom of God is near.
Repent and believe the good news!” (Mark 1:14-15)
