Mission as Integrated Witness

A Missional Reading of the Foot-Washing Narrative (John 13:1–38)

Jae-Suk Lee

• Publisher: Wipf and Stock
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9781725297548, 9781725297555
• eBook ISBN: 9781725297562
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblical Studies

This study aims to read Jesus's foot washing narrative missionally (John 13: 1-38). A missional reading is identical to a missional hermeneutics based on the literary-theological interpretation of the text. John uses sending language and formulae, and the frame of "as..., so..." throughout the whole Gospel, which clarifies Jesus's and his disciples' mission as integrated witness. In this literary context, the foot washing narrative signifies the integrated witness of Jesus and the disciples. The narrative consists of two parts: one, Jesus's symbolic action for his death, and the other, for its interpretation for the disciple community. Jesus's death, as his unique mission, results in purifying both his disciples and the world so that they might dwell in the holy union with the triune God. The disciples are sent into the world. Just as Jesus did, so must they proclaim Jesus and his teachings. Also, they should bear witness to him by living Jesus's life-pattern of self-giving, sacrificial love, and humble service. Their verbal proclamation as evangelism and life-witness cannot be separated to testify to Jesus and their identity. Finally, today's Christians, specifically Evangelicals, are invited to participate in the Johannine mission as the integrated witness of evangelism and life-witness.

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Preliminary Considerations on Missional Hermeneutics for John’s Gospel

This chapter aims to both define a missional hermeneutical approach to reading John’s Gospel, and to observe, in advance, the scholarly understanding of the Johannine mission and foot-washing narrative. Until recently, reading the Bible from a missional perspective has taken a variety of approaches. The first has been to interpret the Bible in order to provide proof for mission movements or to find biblical foundations for mission. The second has been an attempt to read either the entire Bible or individual biblical texts as a larger subject, or as the metanarrative of God’s mission.8 By evaluating these two approaches, I will delineate a missional hermeneutic for reading the Gospel of John. Finally, I will briefly discuss recent studies surrounding the Johannine mission and explain what further study is needed. In discussions with scholars, I will also look at the important missional elements in Jesus’s foot-washing narrative.

Approaches to the Christian Use of the Bible for Mission

Modern Christians have been engaged in interpreting the Bible through the lens of mission by way of three approaches: (1) proof-texting of the Bible for mission, (2) biblical foundations for mission, and (3) missional hermeneutics. These methods are associated with the questions of today’s readers: (1) will readers read the Bible verses as justification for missionary activities and strategies? (2) will readers read the entire Bible, or just an individual text, in order to find the theological meaning and implications of mission? and (3) will the Bible be read within the readers’ context?

Proof-Texting Method

Since the days of cross-cultural missionary movements, the proof-texting method has been useful in both motivating and justifying Christian missions on the basis of Jesus’s Great Commission (Matt 28:19–20; Mark 16:15; Luke 24:46–48; John 20:21): “go” or “send” and “make disciples of all nations” (Matt 28:19–20; John 20:21).

Prior to the Edinburgh Missionary Conference of 1910, Christian mission was involved in expanding the movement around the world. Gustav Warneck (1703–1791) and William Carey (1761–1834) suggest that the goal should be to save the heathens, according to the Bible (Matt 28:18–20; Mark 16:15; Luke 24:46–48; John 20:21; Acts 1:8; 4:15; 22:21; 26:16–18). They acknowledge that a missionary movement took place between primitive and modern church history in which Christians were sent far away so that unbelievers could be converted to Christ. The primary mission here focused on the pagan conversion to Christ from sin and idolatry.9 Warneck and Carey’s reading was restricted to a proof-texting of the Bible under the motto “go and make disciples” (Matt 28:19–20).10

At the Edinburgh Missionary Conference, participants expounded two aspects of Christian mission. The first intensified the mission movement concerning the “Student Volunteer Movement (Foreign Mission): World Evangelization of Our Generation,” in which participants explained the successful expansion of Christianity across the world (Committee II).11 The conference focused on the issue of delivering Christian messages to the non-Christian world, especially the “west to the rest.”12 The second aspect was motivated by the recognition of the challenge of Christian mission among non-Christian societies (Commissions I and IV).13 In order to motivate and justify Christian mission as the “urgent evangelization of the region,” mission leaders highlighted Jesus’s Great Commission.14 Their Bible reading is the proof-text, or selective approach, needed to provide relevance for the missionary movements and activities of Gentile nations. They believed that proclamation, witness, and teaching were the missional act...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• List of Abbreviations
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: Preliminary Considerations on Missional Hermeneutics for John’s Gospel
• Chapter 2: Mission as Integrated Witness in John’s Gospel
• Chapter 3: Understanding the Foot-Washing Narrative in Light of Mission as Integrated Witness
• Chapter 4: Missional Implications of John’s Gospel for the Future of the Evangelical Mission
• Conclusion
• Bibliography