不要好高鶩遠 Don’t Be Ambitious

福傳系列之三：不要好高鶩遠（瑪10:1-7）

所謂「初生之犢不畏虎」，「好高鶩遠，不自量力」是初出茅廬的人容易犯的通病。十二宗徒也不例外，接受了耶穌基督賜予的驅魔治病權柄，心中興奮，豈筆墨所能形容。他們中沒有一個是醫生，也沒有一個是經師或司祭，治病和驅魔，肯定是一件新穎的事物。接過權柄之後，恨不得可以即時試用，看看有多大威力。這種心態，是人之常情。例如，福音另一處記載了七十二門徒歸來復命，因為魔鬼屈服於他們而喜歡（路10:17-20）。

主耶穌不愧是一個偉大的導師，在傳福音的同時，栽培那些傳福音的人。且看，祂派遣十二宗徒，是先往「以色列家迷失了的羊群那裡去」（瑪10:6），而不是外邦人。固然，為了兌現向亞巴郎的承諾，天主優先向以色列家宣講福音，是合情合理的。但歷史告訴我們，接受福音的是外邦人，是有自知之明的人，而不是自恃為天主選民的猶太人。天主選民雖然是最先的，卻成了最後的（20:16；路13:30），多麼諷刺！

除了兌現承諾外，首先向有相同背景的人傳福音，應該比較容易。因為向有文化差異的人傳福音，不但要克服溝通上的困難，還有一個「文化優越感」的誘惑需要克服！試想想，當我們帶著先進的科技（治病驅魔的權柄），到達一個落後的地方傳福音。我們熱衷於解決當地人在糧食上、水源上、醫療上、甚至政治宗教上的問題時，他們會供奉我們為「救世主」。到時，我們有沒有意識到自己不是在傳福音，而是在摧毀當地的文化呢？在傳教歷史上，能實踐耶穌基督「降生」精神的，能讓當地文化基督化而不被掃除，恐怕屈指可數！
天父啊！請賜我們一顆赤子之心，在尊重別人的前題下，宣講解放的福音。亞孟。
生命恩泉
圖片鳴謝：wikipedia

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Evangelization (III): Don’t Be Ambitious (Matthew 10:1-7)

As the aphorism goes, “A new born calf fears not any tiger”. Fresh graduates usually make the common mistake of being too ambitious. The Twelve were no exception. Their elation after being installed with the faculty to heal and to exorcize is beyond words. None of them had previously been a physician, not a scribe or a priest. Healing and exorcism must be something novel to them. After receiving the authority, they couldn’t wait to exercise it to test how powerful it was. The attitude was only too natural. For example, in another occasion which Jesus had sent out seventy two disciples to preach, they returned rejoicing because demons were subject to them (Luke 10:17-20).

Lord Jesus is truly a great teacher. He builds up the evangelists while they evangelize. For example, He sent the Twelve “to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matthew 10:6) instead of the pagans. Of course, in order to honour the pledge to Abraham, that God grants the house of Israel the first priority to receive the good news is reasonable. However, it turns out that the Gentiles are more receptive to the good news because they know themselves better while the Jews, who saw themselves as the Chosen People of God reject the gospel. Although God’s Chosen People come first, they become the last (20:16, Luke 13:30). How paradoxical!

Other than honouring His pledge, preaching the gospel to people with the same background is easier. It is because preaching the gospel to a different culture has to overcome two obstacles. Not only must missionaries overcome communication difficulties, but they must also overcome the temptation of “cultural superiority”! Just think about it, when we bring along advanced technology (the authority to heal and to exorcize) to a backward region to preach, we are eager to solve their various problems such as food, water supply, medicines, religious and even political problems, indigenous people would worship us like their saviours. By then, are we aware that instead of preaching the gospel, we are destroying the local culture? Throughout the mission history, only a handful of cases are able to put Jesus Christ’s incarnation spirit into practice, to Christianize local cultures without destroying them.
Heavenly Father! Grant us a heart of infants to proclaim the liberating gospel while respecting the others. Amen.