Reconsidering the Task,Methods,and Aims of Reading the Gospels in the Present Myanmar Context

Abstract

The confessional doctrine of the exalted post-Easter Jesus, divine saviour, planted by nineteenth-century missionaries, has a long tradition in Myanmar churches. In order to equip these churches for the current Myanmar context, it is time to decolonize the Western heritage of confessional reading of the New Testament. It is essential to reread the Jesus tradition recorded in the Gospels in the specific contexts of then and now. Thus, this paper argues that in the current context of the critical situation in Myanmar, the exalted Christian saviour does not save the suffering citizens from life-threatening war or injustice, nor churches from being destroyed by abusive authority. This exalted heavenly Christ does not liberate the suffering people from the physical, spiritual, and mental sufferings inflicted on them. Nor does he liberate them from the homelessness or IDP camps or from their status as outcasts. What is needed instead is a contextual reading of the life of Jesus, within the Jewish context of second temple Judaism. This theopolitical Jesus encourages Myanmar Christians and the citizens of Myanmar; he becomes a sympathetic figure sharing comparable troubles and an example of how to stand up for the people who suffer injustice and to engage in the work of restoration.