by Manik Corea, C4SO’s Global Consultant
“You say you care about the poor?
Then tell me, what are their names?”— Gustavo Gutierrez, Peruvian theologian
I have long been challenged by Gutierrez’s words. It has oft troubled and tested my claims to care for people. Knowing names and faces means it is now personal and real, not merely aspirational or professed.
Now, you can be sure that our omniscient Lord knows the name of every person in your street or city, poor or rich; including those who are down-trodden, oppressed, broken and far from Him today. Indeed, Jesus came to seek and to save the lost (Luke 19:10).
Simply put, lost people matter to Jesus.
Their crowds move Him to compassion, as we read in Matthew 9:36. In fact, the Greek word used there for the raw emotion Jesus’ felt is splagchnizomai — literally, Jesus was moved in His bowels — to the very pit of His stomach! This was no fleeting pity.
And His response was to call His disciples to two things:
1. They (and by extension, we) are to pray with great urgency and passion for laborers to bring in a harvest among them.
You can compare Matthew 4:17 and 9:35 with 10:1 and 7-8.
Then, in Matthew 10, Jesus appoints His disciples and sends them out to proclaim the same message and ministry as His.
2. The disciples were to pray for more workers, then go on mission to look for people of peace who would hear and receive the Kingdom message they were sent to proclaim and demonstrate.
Those forays into short-term mission by Jesus’ disciples could well be seen as dress-rehearsals for a greatest call to come. Indeed, it was perhaps not long after from a mountain in Galilee, the Risen Jesus would give them (and by extension, us) marching orders.
That is, to a comprehensive, world-wide, for-all-time-work of making disciples of every people, by baptizing into the name of the triune God and teaching all that Jesus taught (Matthew 28:18-20).
As disciples in a long line stretching back to those very Apostles, it behooves us likewise to major on those things that Jesus majored on.
Consequently, the seeking and praying for God’s kingdom to come on earth AND the making of disciples of all people must be the milieu and context of our mission on earth.
The Church must exist for the sake of others by bringing Gospel transformation to those within and without her walls. We must resist turning our parishes into cozy clubs for the converted.
Indeed, Jesus has a far nobler and comprehensive vision for His Church—we are part of God’s great search-and-rescue team, sent out on mission with Him into the world. We are His transformative agents to reach and renew the earth for His purpose—salt and light in the world, he called us in Matthew 5:13, 14.
If we are to know Him and make Him known, our Gospel will be more than simply a matter of personal salvation or treasured theological standpoints. It becomes the impetus for true societal transformation, one disciple made at a time. As the late Timothy Keller once challenged, the good news of Jesus is not just a wonderful plan for “my life” to the exclusion of God’s wonderful plan for the world.
To be sure, it is a plan that will certainly involve seeking God’s kingdom first, building each other up in our most holy faith, pursuing justice and peace, serving the least, healing the hurt and finding the lost.
In all things, it will give Jesus first place in everything. We will love all fellow disciples deeply as He commanded. And we will make the making of disciples a primary purpose and work of His Church.
In other words, lost people will matter to us too. And we too will know their names.
The Rev. Manik Corea is C4SO’s Global Consultant, tasked to support C4SO churches in global missions. He serves as the National Director of the Singapore Centre for Global Missions. Prior to returning to Singapore with his wife Maple and son Josiah, they served for 13 years as church planters in Bangkok, Thailand with the New Anglican Missionary Society (NAMS). Contact Manik.