Gospel

If a young person asked you “What is the gospel?” How would you respond? You could say it’s good news, of course, but that’s hardly enough.

So what is the good news? In my younger days I would have happily passed on what the church passed on to me in Sunday school, Easter camps, sermons, creeds, hymns and liturgies: Jesus died to take on himself God’s punishment for our sins and open the way to an afterlife of eternal bliss with him in heaven. That would fulfil the ultimate purpose of our existence.

I couldn’t say that today. If I did, my questioner would probably switch off. Too much has changed.

That’s not to deny that in past ages that interpretation of Jesus’ death, sin and our destiny carried huge conviction. Innumerable theological tomes were built and buttressed around it. It dovetailed perfectly with the way people understood the universe to be, including a real physical heaven above, a real fiery hell below, and the centrality of sin and God’s love in determining which it would be for each of us. It answered their deepest questions about life, purpose, meaning and destiny.

But for most people it doesn’t cut the mustard in the world as we know it today. It needs to be rethought in terms of a world where our modern understanding of the universe and the way the world functions have evolved beyond recognition.

For starters, it helps to go back to the time when the earliest followers of Jesus first used the word “gospel”. In the first two centuries of the Christian era, the Greek word for “good news” was euangelion (which became evangelium in Latin). That spins through to our “evangel”, “evangelist” and “evangelical”.

Back then it carried two diametrically opposite meanings. In the life of the Roman Empire, an euangelion was an official government announcement of some particular good news about the mighty empire. It might be news about how the power of the saviour emperor had destroyed his enemies somewhere, made everything right with the world, and brought peace. Around the Mediterranean everyone could live in security because civil war had ended, roads were safe to travel on, everyone could take pride in their magnificent cities, their aqueducts, their thriving trade. What’s not to like about the pax Romana?

Well, quite a lot if you were a conquered people or not part of the prosperous upper crust. For the conquered, the empire brought much oppression and exploitation. You had to live cautiously or you’d pay the price.

Yes, there was good news if you knew where to look. But it didn’t come from an empire built upon violence and military conquest. It came in spite of the empire in good relationships, local communities, the support people gave and received. It came from generosity and compassion.

And in Jesus’ century many such groups in Palestine and the eastern Mediterranean – a handful of people here, a dozen there, lots of them – began to form around the teaching and inspiration of Jesus.

Reflecting on Jesus as the Anointed One – that’s how they saw him – gave such groups a very different focus for living, and so for what constituted good news. Theirs was a resistance movement: where the empire demanded that people worship its divine emperor, they said no, for us ultimate worth lies elsewhere. Salvation (another word for that is wholeness) doesn’t lie in exalting the emperor but in being freed from the seductive power of corruption (another word for that is sin), and Jesus as the Anointed One (another word for that is Christ) shows us the way.

It lies in living an alternative lifestyle that values everyone, including the very least of us. It encourages freedom and sharing – the Jesus people shared meals together regularly. It grows out of Israel: they think of themselves as joined at the hip with Israel and its traditions but now they have a new focus in Jesus, the Anointed One.

As trust in the way of this Christ grew, so did their confidence. Trust and confidence blossomed in faith, and they experienced that faith as good news, euangelion, gospel.

With those origins in mind, here’s my answer to the question I began with, tuned to our modern secular setting: “The gospel is grounded in Jesus and in the Christ within as archetype of love, grace and transformation. The good news is that this Christ opens the way to live life abundantly, and live it whole.” What’s yours?