Johannine Understanding of Ministry and Mission

Introduction

Johannine theology of mission is not as known as the Pauline approach to mission. But it is important to note that the gospel and letters of John too are a rich source to for contemporary reflection on what our mission is and should be as a church. John suggests that the ministry of Jesus embraces both vertical and horizontal dimensions. There is a wealth of wisdom that can be learnt from John and how He has portrayed the person and work of Jesus Christ. However, this paper talks about what the Johannine understanding of Mission and Ministry is and how it is different from the synoptics’ understanding of the same. It also deals with some passages that talk about mission and ministry and how it is relevant in our context, today in India.

1. Definitions

1.1 Ministry

Ministry” is from the Greek word ‘diakoneo’, meaning “to serve” or ‘douleuo’, meaning “to serve as a slave.” In the New Testament, ministry is seen as service to God and to other people in His name. Jesus provided the pattern for Christian ministry i.e. He came, not to receive service, but to give it. Christians are to minister to others out of their devotion to Christ and their love for others, whether the other people are believers or unbelievers. Ministry to others should be impartial and unconditional, always seeking to help others as Jesus would.^[1]

1.2 What is Mission?

Though at first it might seem straightforward, it is actually quite difficult to define exactly what Christian mission is. It is often said that the terms mission and missionary are not found in Scripture, though these are just Latin equivalents of the Greek verb ‘apostelo’ and its cognates. Historically, the Latin term mission tended to be used to describe the activities of the Triune God as described in John 20:21. The term missionary was first used in its current sense for envoys of the Pope and the royal families of Spain and Portugal who were sent to convert Native Americans and Asians to Catholicism and to bring them under the sway of the European nation.^[2]

1.2.1 The Trinitarian Life

In order to understand the theological meaning of “mission” it is necessary, first of all, to have some idea of what is involved in Trinitarian life i.e. the life of God Who is Trinity. Trinitarian life refers to the inner life of God, a life of deep, personal knowing and loving. The Father, through a perfect knowledge of Himself, generates the Son, one with Him in nature but a distinct Person. Knowledge elicits love and from the perfect love of the Father and the Son for one another there proceeds the third Person of the Trinity, the Spirit, one in nature with the Father and Son but a distinct Person.^[3]

1.2.2 The Mission and Ministry of the Church

In two passages, Jesus refers to the mission given to his believers. The first occurs in Jesus’ prayer in chapter 17. In the second part of that prayer (vv. 6–19) Jesus prays for those who have already come to believe in him, and in verse 18 says of them: “As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.” The second passage occurs in the gospel’s account of the second appearance of the risen Christ (20:19–23). The disciples are huddled behind locked doors fearful for their lives. Christ suddenly appears in their midst and says to them: “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you” (v. 21). The narrator then adds, “[He] breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit’.^[4]

Equally important in these two passages is the fact that the disciples are “sent” which is the same word John uses for God’s sending of Jesus (3:16), as well as John the Baptizer (1:6) and the Holy Spirit (14:26). Christ’s role as emissary or agent for God is the most frequent Christological title in John, however inadequate it may seem to be. What’s important is that Jesus’ commissioning of the disciples is an integral part of God’s whole saving activity among humans from Jesus’ forerunner to his successor, the Holy Spirit. The church continues the ministry of Jesus, the one sent by God. It is important to note how Jesus is sent by God. A definitive statement of God commissioning Jesus is found in the beloved verses 3:16–17. Note there that Christ was sent as a result of God’s love i.e. Agape, with the intent of rescuing the “world” by bringing “eternal life.” Verse 17 declares that Christ’s advent was not intended to “condemn”. God’s act of sending Jesus arose from love and was designed to provoke faith and life, that is, life as the Creator means it to be for creatures. The church today might well note that its mission, too, is based in love and is not to condemn the human condition but to rescue us from our own tendency to self-destruction.^[5]

2. Johannine Understanding of Mission and Ministry

The theme, nature and scope of mission and ministry in John’s gospel are subjects of steady discussion.^[6] But that mission itself is a “foundational theme” of the Gospel is hardly a matter of dispute.^[7] However “mission” isn’t really utilized, a feeling of it invades the Gospel. Jesus characteristically designates his Father (God) as “the one who sent me” (oJ pevmya me pathvr). This insistently repeated motif occurs in different forms forty times in the Gospel, twenty-five times with the verb pevmpein (Pempein) and nineteen times with ajpostellein (Apostellein).^[8]

2.1 Etymology of the Terms

Etymologically, the apo- of apostellein suggests the beginning of the order. Subsequently, the action word apostellein adds to the thought of a designated authority comprising the ‘individual sent’ as the delegate of the source, or as an emissary. Pempein is the most general term for sending with no such authority, but just to send in one’s own service. In the Old Testament, the verb apostellein is used to mean sending of a messenger with a specific task (Is.6:8). In the secular Greek, it is used in the sense that sending takes place from a specific perspective linked with the sender either the person or the object sent. The verb pempein is used in a more general sense.^[9]

Thus, in the literal sense, the term apsotellein has to do with an authority whereas, pempein has no authority involved. Despite the fact that scholars have difference as they would like to think in regards to the significance and use of apostellein and pempein in the Fourth Gospel, the majority of the notable reporters of John like R.E. Brown, R. Schnakenburg, R. Bultmann, C.H. Dodd, C.K. Barret and so on, have the perspective that they are equivalently utilized in John for the mission of the Son and the disciples, with next to no evident qualification.^[10]

The semantic field study has demonstrated two fundamental parts of mission in the Fourth Gospel. The first part is a work to achieve a reason or a charge by a source or by sent ones. This semantic field contains terms meaning different methods of development, i.e., besides “sending” also “coming (into the world)”, “ascending” or “descending”, and a number of other terms. The second component of mission terminology in the Fourth Gospel appears to be a task, i.e., a certain kind of work that a given individual or group is seeking to accomplish. For example, much space is given in the Fourth Gospel to the discussion of Jesus’ work or works. The fourth evangelist develops the symbolism inherent in some selected work of Jesus while labeling them as “signs”.^[11]

Based on the above perceptions, the accompanying meaning of mission in the Fourth Gospel can be presented: “Mission is the particular task or reason which an individual or gathering tries to achieve, including different methods of development, be it sending or being sent, going back and forth, rising and sliding, gathering by calling others to follow, or following”.^[12]

2.2 The Trinitarian Foundation of Mission in Johannine

2.2.1 The Father as a Missionary God

One of the key verses of John that portrays the love of God towards the world is “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life” (John 3:16). Thus, the Father’s (God’s) love for the humanity forms the basis of mission. The terminology of sending in John emphasizes the role of the Father (God) as the sender. Jesus sending by the Father (God) is emphasized more than forty times in John. The Father is also the sender of the Holy Spirit (John 14:26) and of John the Baptist (John 1:6; 3:28). This makes a total of forty-four explicit references to the sending activity of the Father (God) in John’s Gospel.^[13] To Okure, “the Father is the origin and goal of the missionary enterprise, the unsent sender of the Son, of the Holy Spirit, and John the Baptist”.^[14] McPolin calls Father (God) as “the mission centre, the source from all missions derive”.^[15]

2.2.2 The Son (Jesus) as the ‘Sent One’ and ‘One Who Sends’

In the Johannine Gospel, the Son (Jesus) is presented as the sent one and one who sends. Jesus’ mission is the consequence of the God’s love (John 3:16). The Father God sent Jesus into the world so that the world might be saved through Jesus (John 3:17). John establishes the role of the Logos not only in human salvation, but also in the salvation of the entire cosmos. Jesus’ mission is the expression of the mutual love of the Father (God) and the Son (Jesus) as well as of their love for the cosmos.^[16] Jesus is seen as the central point of mission in the Johannine literature. The Christological focus of the Fourth Gospel is the key to understand its theology of mission, as it is for every other aspect of John’s message.^[17] The consciousness of a divine mission was fundamental to the life and activity of Johannine Jesus. Jesus Himself says that He is the sent one by the Father (God) constitutes His most fundamental self-definition in the Gospel. The Son is not only the sent one but also the One who sends. “As the Father has sent me, So I send you” (John 20:21; 17:18). Commenting on this R.E. Brown says, “The special Johannine contribution to the theology of mission is that the Father’s sending of the Son serves both as model and ground for the Son’s sending of the disciples.”^[18]

2.2.3 Mission of the Holy Spirit

According to John, the Father (God) sent the Spirit to Jesus, to remain with Jesus during Jesus’ earthly ministry (John 1:32; 34). “The Father loves the Son and gives him the Spirit beyond measure” (John 3:34f). In the same way, the Father will send the Spirit to the disciples, in Jesus’ name, to be with them forever and to teach and remind them everything (John 14:16; 26). Here it stands as a promise, which will be fulfilled later with the ascension of Jesus to the Father. This establishes the fact that the Spirit is the assistant both in the mission of Jesus and that of the disciples. The Fourth Gospel depicts the Holy Spirit as the dynamic force behind the mission of Jesus and the disciples. Jesus begins his ministry with the help of Holy Spirit (John 1:32) and the Spirit will bear witness to Jesus. St. Irenaeus seems to have assimilated well when he says that the Word and the Spirit are the two hands of God the Father, so that together they realise every aspect of the divine plan of salvation.^[19]

3. Purpose of Mission and Ministry in Contrast with Synoptics

3.1 The Revelatory Mission of Jesus

At the very outset of the Johannine Gospel, the Evangelist proclaims Jesus as the supreme Revealer, the link between God and human. Jesus is the unique Revealer of God, and Jesus can speak with authority because Jesus is the only begotten of the Father (God). Revelation appears as the primary role of Jesus as the one who unveils the divine glory of God’s presence in the world (John 1:14–18). Though in the Synoptics also Jesus appears as the Revealer, the theme seems to be more predominant in the John’s Gospel. Revelation is the central theme of Johannine theology. Even to a casual reader Jesus appears as the Revealer in the Fourth Gospel.^[20]

3.2 The Life Giving Mission of Jesus

The revelatory mission of Jesus shows that God’s self-revelation is a revelation of the gift of life to humanity. Even though Jesus is primarily the Revealer, since his revelation is a revelation about the gift of life, the ultimate purpose of Jesus’ mission is life giving. The revelation is to share eternal life. In Synoptics, as a teacher Jesus teaches the true nature of God’s kingdom, especially in parables and by inviting people to repent. But in the John’s Gospel, Jesus is mainly presented as the Revealer and Life-giver. As Grossouw has pointed out, the place, which the ‘Kingdom of God’ occupies in the teachings of the Synoptics, is assigned to ‘Eternal Life’ in the Fourth Gospel. John used ‘Life’ to designate the mission of Jesus.^[21]

4. Passage That Talks about Mission and Ministry

4.1 Biblical Passage of the Purpose of Jesus’ Mission

i) Sending of Christ : Its purpose is for Salvation/Judgement (3:16–17)

ii) Christ Coming into the world and returning to the Father: Its purpose is to reveal the Father (1:14, 18), Judgement (9:39); Salvation/Judgement (12:47); Abundant life/Salvation (10:9–10) and witness to the truth (18:37). The coming one: It’s the fulfilment Old Testament expectation (4:25; 6:14; 7:27; 31, 41–42, 11; 27; 12:13, 15).

iii) a. Christ descending: Its purpose is to give life (6:33, 40, 44, 47, 50–58). b. Christ descending and ascending: Through suffering to Glory (3:13; 6:62; 20:17).

iv) Calling to follow: Calling people to believe (1:37–43; 8:12; 10:4, 5, 27; 12:26; 21:19–23)

v) Gathering: Eschatological uniting of God’s people (10:16; 11:51–52).^[22]

4.2 The Great Commission

John 20:21 which says, Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” As Jesus the disciples are also sent into the world with the revelation of God.^[23]

J. McPolin gives four types of sending that occur in the Fourth Gospel.

i) John the Baptist is sent by God to testify about Jesus (1:6–8; 3:28).

ii) Jesus himself is sent by the Father to testify about the Father and do his work (4:34; 17:4).

iii) The Paraclete is sent by both Father and Son to give testimonies about Jesus.

iv) The disciples are sent by Jesus to do as He did (20:21; 17:18).^[24]

4.3 Ministry of Jesus

The Fourth Gospel suggests that the ministry of Jesus embraces both vertical and horizontal dimensions. The vertical dimension is the witness borne by Christ to the Father who has sent him (John 5:19). In essence, word, and deed, Jesus directs others to God, with whom he shares utmost intimacy. It is this that lends Jesus’ miracles in the Fourth Gospel their distinctive property as signs (2:11; 4:54; 11:4), through which the glory of God is made manifest. The horizontal dimension is the shepherding ministry of Jesus (John 10:11). Jesus’ ministry possessed a royal shepherd’s responsibility of safeguarding and unifying one’s entrusted flock (John 17:11–12).^[25] In John 13:1–17, the Fourth Gospel portrays Jesus’ modest behavior and also indicate the tone in which the ministry of Jesus is exercised, humility. This modest behavior of Jesus acts as a testimony projecting the divine love onto the shadows of human history in all its light.^[26]

5. Indian Perspective

The gospel of John is considered as one of the significant writings in the New Testament that appeals to Indian Spirituality and Asian ideals in multifarious ways. The aspect of the Fourth Gospel can be considered a paradigm in the multi religious, multicultural and pluralistic context of India. Raja Ram Mohan Roy placed the four gospels alongside the Upanishads. Sadhu Sundar Singh’s interpretation of the scripture is based on the metaphor of “water of life in an Indian cup”.^[27]

5.1 Meaning and Purpose of Mission

The term ‘mission’ is not found in Upanishads we cannot derive a proper definition for mission. Upanishads search for the ultimate reality, the attainment of amrta. Both the search for God and efforts for communication would appear in human initiative. In regards to the purpose of mission both Upanishads and Fourth Gospel conceived the attainment of eternal life or life union with God and sharing the experience with others as the supreme goal of human life and mission. Even though there are similarities, there are three differences,

i) The Upanishads focus is towards the Brahman/Atman whom the sages knew out of personal experience. In Johannine, it focus is on the Triune God revealed in human history in and through the Person of Jesus Christ. According to John, through Jesus Christ the fullness of life is offered to humanity.

ii) According to Johannine, the eternal life is a free unmerited gift offered to humanity in and through Jesus Christ. Where as in Upanishads, the realized person aspires and attains through their personal efforts under the divine assistance.

iii) According to Johannine teaching, God is a communion of persons and eternal life is the experience of entry into God’s community of love, which is a mutual indwelling relationship between God and man. But in Upanishads there is no explicit reference.^[28]

6. Reflection

The Gospel and letters of John unfold a vision of discipleship that is original, bold, and indispensable. Their portrayal of Jesus as God’s Word incarnate lies at the center of Christianity’s distinctive confession. Their testimony to love, as the power unifying God with the world and each of us with the other, penetrates to the core of Christian service. John envisions believers in Jesus as those who abide in an intimate unity with the Father and the Son and also as those whose lives are marked by the commission to represent Christ and bear witness to the Father. Michael Gorman calls this vision of the Christian life “mission theosis”. It is mission because the life of the believer participates in the Father’s commission to the Son (20:21) and it is theotic because it presupposes “transformative participation in the life of the Triune God”. He further says that disciples participate in the divine love and life, and therefore in the life-giving mission of God manifested in the ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus. As God’s children, disciples become more and more like this missional God as they become like his Son by the work of the Spirit.^[29]

John, in his third letter, also gives some basic outline in regard to mission and ministry when he instructs His friend Gaius about the importance of supporting itinerate missionary evangelists which are as follow:^[30]

1. Concern for missions and missionaries is normal
2. Cooperation amongst local churches is encouraged
3. Knowing whom we ought to support is crucial
4. Support should be abundant
5. The motivation is love for the glory of Christ

Conclusion

According to the Johannine understanding, the mission of God compels missionaries to move into ‘diasporas’ i.e. scattered across the world and simultaneously draw people close to the reconciling and restoring relationship with God and the world. Jesus sent the disciples as the Father sent him, and at the same time, mission is also to draw people to a ‘Christocentric’ life. Johannine theology of mission calls followers of Christ to join in the ‘missio Dei’.^[31] A true “incarnational mission” relies on the guidance of the Holy Spirit, so Christians can live out a life of holiness and purity, and bears life-giving witness to the nations.

Bibliography

• Black, C. Clifton “Christian Ministry in Johannine Perspective,” Interpretation. January, 1990.
• Brown, Raymond E. “The Kerygma of the Gospel According to John: The Johannine view of Jesus in Modern Studies”. Interpretation 21 (1967): 389–392.
• Brown, Raymond E. The Gospel According to John, vol.2. New York: Doubleday, 1966.
• Forestell, J.T. The Presentation of Salvation in the Fourth Gospel. Rome: Pontifical Biblical Commission, 1969.
• Gorman, Michael J. Abide and Go: Missional Theosis in the Gospel of John (Didsbury Lecture). Vol 44, No. 3. USA: Cascade Books, 2018.
• Grossouw, W. Revelation and Redemption: An Introduction of the Theology of St. John. London: Geoffrey Chapman, 1965.
• H. Peskett, and Ramachandra.V. The Message of Mission. Leicester, InterVarsity Press, 2003.
• Hoope, Mary Anne. The Johannine Theology of Mission. Wisconsin, Marqutte University, 1970.
• Johnson, Andy. 5 Mission Principles from Scripture’s Shortest Book. accessed on 2nd September 2022.
• Kostenberger, Andreas J. The Mission of Jesus and Disciples according to the Fourth Gospel. Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1998.
• Kysar, Robert. The Fourth Evangelist and his Gospel: An Examination of Contemporary Scholarship. Minneapolis: Ausburg Publishing House, 1975.
• Kysar, Robert. “As You Sent Me” Identity and Mission in the Fourth Gospel. Vol XXI, No. 4. Minnesota, Word & World, 2001.
• McPolin, J. “Mission in the Fourth Gospel”, ITQ, 36. No. 2, 1969.
• Morton, A.Q. and S. Michaelson, eds. A Critical Concordance to the Gospel of John, Vol. 4. The Computer Bible: Bible Research associates, 1974.
• Namitha. A New Paradigm for Evangelisation in the Third Millennium: In the Light of Mission in the Gospel According to St. John and Early Uapnishads. Bangalore: St. Peter’s Pontifical Institute Publications, 2000.
• Nissen, Johannes and Sigfred Pedersen. New Reading in John. England: Sheffield Academic Press, 1999.
• Okure, Teresa. The Johannine Approach to Mission. Tubingen: J.C.B. Mohr, 1988.
• Rengstorf, K.H. “Apostello” in TDNT, edited by G.Kittel, vol.1. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1961.
• Senior, D. Biblical Foundations for Mission. New York: SCM Press, 1982.
  Thomaskutty, Johnson. “Jesus and Spirituality: Reading the Fourth Gospel in the Light of Indian Culture”. Religion 21, No.780 (2021): 1.
• What is Christian Ministry, accessed on 2nd September 2022.

Footnotes

1. What is Christian Ministry, accessed on 2nd September 2022, www.gotquestions.org/what-is-ministry.html
2. Peskett, H. and Ramachandra, V., The Message of Mission (Leicester, InterVarsity Press, 2003), 29.
3. Mary Anne Hoope, The Johannine Theology of Mission (Wisconsin, Marqutte University, 1970), 1.
4. Robert Kysar, “As You Sent Me” Identity and Mission in the Fourth Gospel, Vol XXI, No. 4 (Minnesota, Word & World, 2001), 371.
5. Robert Kysar, “As You Sent Me, 372.
6. Robert Kysar, The Fourth Evangelist and his Gospel: An Examination of Contemporary Scholarship (Minneapolis: Ausburg Publishing House, 1975), 160-165.
7. Raymond E. Brown, “The Kerygma of the Gospel According to John: The Johannine view of Jesus in Modern Studies”, Interpretation 21 (1967): 389-392.
8. A.Q. Morton and S. Michaelson, eds., A Critical Concordance to the Gospel of John, Vol. 4 (The Computer Bible: Bible Research associates, 1974).
9. K.H. Rengstorf, “Apostello” in TDNT, edited by G.Kittel, vol.1 (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1961), 392.
10. Namitha, A New Paradigm for Evangelisation in the Third Millennium: In the Light of Mission in the Gospel According to St, John and Early Uapnishads (Bangalore: St. Peter’s Pontifical Institute Publications, 2000), 5.
11. Andreas J. Kostenberger, The Mission of Jesus and Disciples according to the Fourth Gospel (Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1998), 40-41.
12. Kostenberger, The Mission of Jesus and Disciples according to the Fourth Gospel, 41.
13. Teresa Okure, The Johannine Approach to Mission (Tubingen: J.C.B. Mohr, 1988), 2.
14. Okure, The Johannine Approach to Mission, 23.
15. J. McPolin, “Mission in the Fourth Gospel”, ITQ, 36 (2, 1969): 114.
16. McPolin, “Mission in the Fourth Gospel”, 117.
17. D. Senior, Biblical Foundations for Mission (New York: SCM Press, 1982), 283.
18. Raymond E. Brown, The Gospel According to John, vol.2 (New York: Doubleday, 1966), 1038.
19. Namitha, A New Paradigm for Evangelisation in the Third Millennium, 14.
20. J.T. Forestell, The Presentation of Salvation in the Fourth Gospel (Rome: Pontifical Biblical Commission, 1969), 1.
21. W. Grossouw, Revelation and Redemption: An Introduction of the Theology of St. John (London: Geoffrey Chapman, 1965), 40.
22. Kostenberger, The Missions of Jesus and The Disciples According to The Fourth Gospel, 91.
23. Johannes Nissen and Sigfred Pedersen, New Reading in John (England: Sheffield Academic Press, 1999), 214.
24. Nissen, New Reading in John, 216.
25. C. Clifton Black, “Christian Ministry in Johannine Perspective,” Interpretation, (January, 1990): 31
26. Black, Christian Ministry in Johannine Perspective: 30-31.
27. Johnson Thomaskutty, “Jesus and Spirituality: Reading the Fourth Gospel in the Light of Indian Culture”, Religion 21, No.780 (2021): 1, accessed on 01. 09.2022, https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12090780
28. Namitha, A New Paradigm for Evangelisation in the Third Millennium, 182-183.
29. Michael J. Gorman, Abide and Go: Missional Theosis in the Gospel of John (Didsbury Lecture), Vol 44, No. 3 (USA: Cascade Books, 2018), 17.
30. Andy Johnson, 5 Mission Principles from Scripture’s Shortest Book, access on 2nd September 2022, www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/5-mission-principles-from-scriptures-shortest-book/.
31. Stanley H. Skreslet, Picturing Christian Witness: New Testament Images of Disciples in Mission (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 2006), 92.

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