The Personality of Jesus as it Affected His Mission in Luke
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Date
1998-02
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Tangaza University College
Abstract
One characteristic of final year students is that they like discussing topics of
their "Long Essays". Having heard my topic, a friend retorted: "So you are one of
those examining the mind of Jesus?" I do not dispute the fact that "Personality" is
one of the major branches of Psychology, yet I believe "Personality" encompasses
more than the mind of a person. It is the whole components of what makes a person
who he/she is — his/her convictions, beliefs, principles, his/her words and actions.
We perceive who a person is through the way he/she projects him/herself — words
and deeds, silence and utterances — towards others, in fact, his/her being in the
world.
The purpose of this work is to discover what really is the motivating factor for
the mission of Jesus. There is the temptation, after a cursory skim through this work,
to think that Jesus is a humanist or a mere philanthropist. The fact is that one
cannot be a good Christian without being human. The difference is that whereas the
humanist acknowledges and tries to absolutise the human worth, Jesus gives
priority to the human person as the means for serving God. The principle for Jesus'
unique personality in Luke is that we cannot reach God except through the ladder of
humanity. Thus, humanity becomes a necessary means to God but never an
absolute end in itself.
No other gospel could have helped us in our research than that of Luke. He
excels in placing the human person as the focal point of the gospel. In Luke, the
inaugural message is not the Beatitudes but a discourse on liberation and
restoration of human dignity. Luke shows no discrimination among people of
different nations. People from north, south, east and west sit with Abraham in the
Kingdom of God (13:29). Samaria is not out of the mission map (9:1-4; 10:1-12;
cf.Mt. 10:5); nor does Jesus call Gentiles dogs.
In chapter one we survey the broad-base programme of Jesus to discover
what it entails. Chapter two breaks it down for us to see how Jesus carries this out
in his own practical life situation. In chapter three, Jesus reinforces the witness of
his life with his teaching, still emphasising the point that one cannot see God any
more than he fails to see the image of God in his or her neighbour.
Our approach throughout this paper is to give some exegetical expositions;
we further show Jesus' attitude in contravention to the status quo, and offer some
comparisons with parallel passages from the gospels of Mark and Matthew. The last
part of each chapter is a reflection on mission activity today vis-à-vis the challenges
Jesus' personality poses to us.
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Keywords
Jesus, Mission, Personality, Spirit of the Lord, Parable