The Good News: Good for Who?

Throughout February our focus is on Evangelism.

Evangelism: The Good News - Good for who?

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about how, in Ancient Rome, Emperors would have their subjects celebrate imperial 'good news'. This was usually good news mainly for the Emperor and his entourage, although I am sure hangers-on would celebrate with gusto, too. For the vanquished, conquered, or newly enslaved, it would have been decidedly bad news. For the vast number of humans who populated the far-flung provincial corners of the empire, it is hard to imagine the various reports made much of a difference one way or the other. 

There is a difference with the Good News of the Gospel. 

When Mark the Evangelist tells us that the start of his book records 'the beginning of the good news about Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God' we can rightly ask 'good news for who?'. 

There are lots of answers to this question.  

It would be fair to say 'this is good news for everyone'. We could also answer 'this is good news for those who put their trust in Jesus'. But the Gospels themselves offer a glimpse of an answer, which we will see in more detail this coming Sunday, when we read from St Luke 6:17-26 - but in short: 

Blessed are you who are poor, 
for yours is the kingdom of God.
Blessed are you who hunger now,
for you will be satisfied.
Blessed are you who weep now,
for you will laugh.
Blessed are you when people hate you,
when they exclude you and
insult you and reject your name as evil,
because of the Son of Man.

In the ancient world, the poor, hungry, weeping, and hated peoples were thought of not as blessed - but as cursed. They were to be scorned, not loved. The good news of the Gospel is that our hurts, brokenness, weakness, and even our sin, are not signs of God's absence - but they are opportunities to receive God's healing, restoring, strengthening, forgiveness. 

The Good News is that for every affliction, there is a solution in the death and resurrection of Christ. 

Evangelism into Action;

The Good News of the Gospel has the power to change us.

Thinking back to the verse we heard last time, from Romans 5:10, "For if, while we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life." we get a sense of progression. 

From the first moment we notice the Problem ("we were God's enemies"), and start turning towards Christ, so to find the Provision ("we were reconciled through the death of his son"); and into life in the fullness of the Promise ("we [shall] be saved through his life)  we discover ourselves changed. 

To accept the Gospel is an invitation to a life of deepening love, sustained by the Spirit. This means our behaviour changes over time. We become more prayerful, evangelistic, hospitable and generous. 

This means we seek out the poor, hungry, weeping, and hated offering them some token of the love of God, in which we now live. 

A Prayer of St Francis of Assisi

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me bring love.
Where there is offence, let me bring pardon.
Where there is discord, let me bring union.
Where there is error, let me bring truth.
Where there is doubt, let me bring faith.
Where there is despair, let me bring hope.
Where there is darkness, let me bring your light.
Where there is sadness, let me bring joy.
O Lord, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love,
for it is in giving that one receives,
it is in self-forgetting that one finds,
it is in forgiving that one is forgiven,
it is in dying that one awakens to eternal life.