Are Christians called to Evangelise?

October 1, 2023

Today’s Gospel reading is a continuation of that theme that repeatedly comes in Jesus’ teachings and which I reflected on last Sunday - namely the theme that the ‘sinners’ will enter the kingdom of heaven before the ostensibly ‘religious’ people.  However, as I said in the last reflection, each instance of this theme in Jesus’ teachings is nuanced and gives a slightly different take on this recurring motif. The nuance that Jesus stresses in today’s parable is that it is our actions and not our words (confessions of faith?) that are actually of value before God.  So, the first son says he won’t work in the vineyard, but actually does do so, while the second agrees to work but does not actually do so. To translate this into a modern example, one could say that an atheist who in effect says NO to God, but in actuality does what God wants of us  - even if he or she does it not because of any belief in God, but because of his/her own understanding of what is good, - such an atheist is far more on the road to salvation than those who may publicly profess Jesus but do not do the will of God.

This parable then ought to make us pause to reflect, especially those of us who believe that Christians are specially privileged in the eyes of God because we are followers of Jesus. And so, like Paul told the Philippians in today’s second reading, we may need to develop a certain humility, so that we have the same mind that was in Jesus, who humbled himself even though he came from God.

 

Let me explore this further. The first reading starts with the statement that the Jews considered God’s ways as unfair.  To understand this statement, we must realize that the Jews considered themselves to be a people chosen by God, a God who had told them: I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt to the land of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, to a land flowing with milk and honey” (Exodus 3:17)  In other words God had promised them that he would help them overcome all their enemies and give them abundance in a land of their own.  But in actual fact, there were numerous periods in their history, including at the time of the prophet Ezekiel, that they were often conquered and even at times enslaved.  And at the time when the first reading of today was written, many prominent Jews, including their King, were in captivity in Babylon.  So the Jews believed that God was being unfair because he did not keep his promise to them.  

 

But Yahweh reminds them that it is not being selected as the chosen people that makes them dear to himself, but whether they actually DO what is right.  This is important to remember since there are many of us Christians who believe that being baptized, and publicly professing our fealty to Jesus in our confessions of faith, automatically ensure that our salvation is assured, or at the very least, that we are automatically a few steps closer to God than others.  In fact, many fundamentalist Christian preachers push this idea quite forcefully.  But aren’t the first reading and the Gospel reading of today reminding us that this is a gross misunderstanding of how God works?

 

All these and many other teachings in the Gospel clearly seem to indicate that really there is nothing special in being baptized Christian, but what really makes a difference is how we live our lives.   So, the obvious question is why get baptized at all? Why should anybody try to convert anybody to Christianity at all?  On the other hand, isn’t it our duty to proselytize, i.e. to convert and baptize others? -  in accordance with Jesus’ teaching: Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. (Mathew 28:19).

 

But does evangelization mean proselytization (i.e. converting others) and baptizing them so that they become Christian officially?  Pope Francis said something very interesting in one of his talks (Vatican Hall, Jan. 11, 2023) when he stressed that "to be a missionary, to be apostolic, to evangelize, is not the same thing as proselytizing.”   He even quotes his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI (a much more conservative Pope) when he stated that "the church does not proselytize, but rather she grows by 'attraction'" to the beauty of God's love. And so, Francis continues:  "We are the ones who announce the Lord, we do not announce ourselves, nor a political party or an ideology. Put people in contact with Jesus without convincing them. Let the Lord convince them."  He shared a story about a group of Korean women religious who came to Buenos Aires, Argentina, to run a hospital. Although the women did not speak Spanish, the hospital patients were pleased with them because their gaze "communicated Jesus."  And Pope Francis concludes: "This is attraction, which is the opposite of proselytism."

 

So, proselytization or trying to convert others is not the same as evangelization.  Evangelization comes from the word euangelizo, which means "to proclaim the gospel" - and ‘gospel’ means ‘good news’.  We are called to proclaim, announce the good news, that God does not sit there as a judge but as a loving Father, and that the ultimate and only really important commandment is to Love our Neighbour. Everything else, including our confession of faith, our sacraments, the entire Church structure and rituals, and everything else, are only meant to be ‘means/aids’ to help towards fulfilling this important commandment, which incidentally is the ONLY criterion, according to the Parable of the Last Judgement, by which anybody will be saved.  

 

Then what did Jesus mean by the quoted teaching to baptize all?  First of all, we need to remember that the Apostles did not believe that they were expected by Jesus to start a new religion.  That is why they continued praying in the temple (Acts 2:46) and considered themselves to be Jews who believed the Messiah had already come.  In fact, Peter himself initially taught that those who came to accept Jesus should also be circumcised (Galatians 2:11-21) because he saw them as becoming Jews. Later, of course, these Jews who preached Jesus the Christ (the Annointed One) were thrown out of the Jewish synagogues for propagating the teachings of Jesus and claiming he was the Messiah. Gradually others started to identify them as those who followed Jesus, and so they were first known as Nazarenes (after Jesus of Nazareth). Later another name, Christians, was given to them at Antioch (Acts 11:26) after the title Jesus the Christ, (Christ means Annointed One), and this name caught on and became more popular.  However, history records that, in fact, for the first century, and even into the second century, many of those who accepted Jesus identified themselves also as Jews. If this was the case then one cannot interpret Jesus’ teaching on baptizing all, as meaning that he was asking that others should be converted to become Christian, as the concept of Christianity itself, or becoming a member of this Christian Church, just did not exist at that time, and certainly not in the time of Jesus.  As I have said repeatedly in previous reflections, understanding a Scriptural text involves understanding context.  

 

Secondly, we must remember that John the Baptist also told people to get baptized.  But as John said: “I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire” (Mathew 3:11).   So, baptism was not an entry into a NEW religion, but a ritual that attested to the fact that the baptized person was going to live his/her life in a completely new way. But such a change in one’s way of living demanded much courage and strength, which John was saying/admitting he could not give.  However, he did say that Jesus’ baptism, unlike his own, would give them the fire of courage to change their lives completely.  This ties in with the story of Pentecost, where tongues of fire came to rest on the heads of those present and suddenly weak and frightened disciples found the courage to go out and challenge the world.

 

So, it would seem that by asking his disciples to go and baptize the world, Jesus was asking them to go out into the whole world and give people the courage (baptism of Spirit and fire) to choose to live a new kind of life.  For Jesus, it was always the DOING of God’s will that was for more important than confessing our fealty to Jesus himself or to God - and that exactly is the message of today’s parable.

 

First Reading: Ezekiel 18: 25-28

Yet you say, “The way of the Lord is unfair.” Hear now, O house of Israel: Is my way unfair? Is it not your ways that are unfair? When the righteous turn away from their righteousness and commit iniquity, they shall die for it; for the iniquity that they have committed they shall die. Again, when the wicked turn away from the wickedness they have committed and do what is lawful and right, they shall save their life.  Because they considered and turned away from all the transgressions that they had committed, they shall surely live; they shall not die.

 

Second Reading: Philippians 2: 1-11

 

If then there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy, make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others.  Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death— even death on a cross. Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

 

Gospel: Matthew 21: 28-32

 

“What do you think? A man had two sons; he went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work in the vineyard today.' He answered, 'I will not'; but later he changed his mind and went. The father went to the second and said the same; and he answered, ‘I go, sir’; but he did not go. Which of the two did the will of his father?” They said, “The first.” Jesus said to them, "Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are going into the kingdom of   God ahead of you. For John came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him; and even after you saw it, you   did not change your minds and believe him.