The missiological implications of a counter-cultural Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount: Reflections on six and a half years in Papua New Guinea

Abstract

The Sermon on the Mount is a profound critique of first-century Judaism's accommodation of culture. Cultural imperatives are turned on their head on two fronts. ( 1) Honour and shame: shame becomes the new honour in a series of antitheses that expose the external focus of Jewish religion. (2) Covenant: as far as the Jews were concerned, the Abrahamic covenant appeared to be compatible with culture. It was easy to equate cultural honour, that is, status deriving from wealth or position, with the blessing of God. That theology is largely reinterpreted, if not denied, by Jesus. The greatest blessing that the righteous can receive is persecution and shaming by cultural religionists. Jesus draws his covenant theology from Isaiah, Lamentations, wisdom literature, and the experience of the prophets. He understands that all who speak against cultural religion will be persecuted. From an honour-shame cultural standpoint, this is an enormously confronting teaching. In view of that, the implications of a counter-cultural Jesus for Christianity in Papua New Guinea are examined. Since I am a New Testament (NT) scholar and not a missiologist, parts of the second half of this essay will be anecdotal and based on what I learned teaching biblical languages and studies during a lengthy sojourn in Papua New Guinea.