I recently wrote an article, Muddy Footprints, where I suggest that Jesus was not so much a contextualizer of the faith, but an internationalizer of the faith. You are welcome, even encouraged to read that article, but I want to explore this a bit further.

Contextualization as a term has been around since the 1970s but has existed as a concept for centuries… arguably going back to the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15. One way of looking at contextualization is to break it down into three steps:

1. Internationalization. The process of identifying what is most important and making sure what is less important (such as cultural innovations) can be switched out when entering a new context.
2. Translation. The process of making something understandable in a new context. If internationalization is done properly, key meanings are maintained, while the message is put in the symbolic structure of a new context.
3. Localization. This arguably fine-tunes the process. reducing barriers to understanding and seeks to make the message natural within the new setting.

In the article, I used the example of video games— using the case of a video game made by Chinese developers for a Chinese audience, and having that video game reworked (contextualized) to be enjoyed by a Filipino audience, American audience, or whatever. The gameplay should stay the same. In fact, the setting should most likely not change either. The goal is not to create a new game or one that feels wildly different from the original. The goal is to make the game feel like it was created by designers in the second context, as much as it originally was felt by people in the original context.

Jesus did not focus on translation or localization of His teaching to non-Jews. He did minister to non-Jews— in fact, a surprising number of non-Jews. Nevertheless, there are times that it appears as if Jesus was really focusing on the Jews and no one else.

Craig Blomberg discusses this in his book, Jesus and the Gospels: An Introduction and Survey. In that book, especially in his discussion on the Gospel of Matthew, Blomberg notes the tension between the Particularism of Jesus (His focus, especially in Matthew, on the Jews for ministry) and the Universalism of His message (good news for all mankind… in no way limited to the Jews).

Blomberg suggests resolving it as follows:

“The best resolution of this apparent tension between Jewish particularism and multi-ethnic universalism sees Jesus’ ministry unfolding in two stages. Before the cross and resurrection, Jews, as God’s chosen people, were selected to hear Christ’s message first. Inasmuch as many of them, particularly Israel’s leadership, rejected the Gospel offer, Jesus’ followers were to go out after his resurrection and proclaim his offer of salvation to everyone. Jesus’ occasional contact with Gentiles during his lifetime foreshadowed this worldwide mission.” —Craig Blomberg, Jesus and the Gospels: An Introduction and Survey. 2nd ed. (B&H Academic, 2009), 149.

I can’t say I disagree with this. In fact, the Parable of the Wedding Feast (Luke 14:7–14) can be interpreted pretty much that way. The original guests reject the invitation, so the invitation is sent out to those not originally invited.

My problem is not with this assessment per se, but rather how it sounds. It sounds like (and I am sure Blomberg is NOT suggesting this) Jesus had the goal of ministering to the Jews, Plan A, but was forced to go to Plan B, due to the rejection by (some of) the former. There are fairly obvious problems with that. First, Jesus did not “just happen” to minister to Gentiles on occasion. At times, He intentionally went to areas that were “non-Jewish” such as Samaria, Phoenicia, and Decapolis. Samaria was home to Samaritans who were essentially Jewish in belief, but different in rather subtle ways. Reaching out to them may have been seen by Jesus as taking a broader viewpoint regarding the faith (as some Jewish leaders did in fact do at the time), and going through Samaria may perhaps be interpreted as a matter of convenience (the short-cut) rather than an intentional strategy. However, it is hard to see going up towards Tyre and then toward Decapolis in His ministry in any other way than an active choice to seek out Gentiles, or at least to train His disciples to reach out to them. Second, so much of the teaching of Jesus decontextualized (or internationalized) the Jewish faith, to me this suggests a very much intentional effort by Jesus to make the Gospel good news for all people… even when He was seemingly focused on just the Jews.

In the second post, we will look at how Jesus internationalized the Jewish faith. But for now, I would like to suggest that another way of addressing the seeming conflict between Jewish Particularism and Gospel Universalism is in terms of Internationalization. Jesus did, often at least, focus on the Jews, but the message He gave was one that challenges a narrow view of the work of God in the world. As such, Jesus focusing on the Jews was not simply about giving them “first dibs” because they are God’s Chosen People. If that was the case, He could have more fully embraced the roles that the Jews would expect, and mostly likely respond to— Pre-exilic Prophet, Post-exilic Rabbi, and Messianic King. His subversion of, and often ambivalence in, these roles pointed to something from the beginning that is beyond the Jews alone.

Jesus was training the Jews, preparing them for a great expansion of what it means to be God’s people. He was internationalizing the faith, and instilling this understanding to His predominantly Jewish audience, for them to be ready, as His people will translate and localize the message to Samaritan, Greek, African, and Roman contexts (among others). In my view, this understanding takes away the confusion. Jesus did not reach out first to the Jews as Plan A merely, but reached out to them to prepare them for Plan B. The work of Jesus as the internationalizer of the faith, made it possible for the expansion of the Church after Pentecost to occur.

That is my thesis, but obviously I jumped a major step— what is the evidence that Jesus focused on the internationalization of the faith. You can read this by CLICKING ON PART 2.