ACADEMY OF INTEGRATED CHRISTIAN STUDIES

PAPER PRESENTATION
ON
SYNOPTIC GOSPEL

TOPIC : Praxes of Jesus in foreseeing the basilica of God :

Formation of Inclusive Community

PRESENTER : ISRAEL LALRAMLUAHPUIA

ROLL NO : 12, BD-II

RESPONDENT : T. NONDY LALHMINGSANGA.

CONCERN LECTURER : MISS C.CHEMTINGLA SANGTAM.
INTRODUCTION:

Praxes is a theological language its means Practical or practice. A transliteration of the

Greek word, praxis is a noun of action that implies doing, acting, and practice. 1 The basilica of
God also means Kingdom of God. Jesus was the perfect example of valuing and including
others. When He chose His Apostles, He didn’t pay attention to status, wealth, or lofty
profession. The Bible’s message emphasizes God’s mercy and God’s movement to bring healing
out of brokenness to all who trust in God. The Bible portrays God’s welcome of people made
vulnerable by social prejudice and exclusiveness as central to God’s merciful movement toward
human beings. So, the discussion of this paper will be praxes of Jesus for the formation of
inclusive community foreseeing the basilica of God.

1. MEANING AND CONCEPTS:

a. Basilica: Basilica is a Greek word, meaning a kingdom, royal palace, royal power, a
territory subjected to the rule of a king.

b. Inclusive community: Inclusive community refers to ‘not excluding any of the

particular people or groups of people within the community’. The term ‘inclusive community’
here refers to the inclusion of Jews, gentiles, sick, disabled, women, children and everyone else
within the reign of God.

2. BASILICA SAYINGS OF JESUS:

According to the first three Gospels (Synoptics), most of Jesus’ miraculous actions were to be
understood as prophetic symbols of the coming of the Kingdom/Reign of God (Basilea), and his
teachings were concerned with the right response to the crisis of its coming. The ‘basilea’
sayings of Jesus are as follow –

a. Jesus inaugurates the Reign of God: What the Israel had long awaited, Christ had now
inaugurated, “the time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the
Gospel” (Mark 1:5).

1
https:/www.encyclopedia.com
 b. Jesus is the kingdom: Where the king is, there is the kingdom. This is precisely why
Jesus says to the Pharisees, “The kingdom of God is in the midst of you” (Luke 17:21).

c. Jesus purposes the Reign of God: Jesus reveals that his purpose is to proclaim the reign
of God and then described his mission by saying, “…must preach the good news of the kingdom
of God” (Luke 4:43).

d. Jesus declares the Reign of God: The declaration of the reign of God through the
parables and of Jesus’ ministry as “…proclaiming and bringing the good news of the kingdom of
God” (Luke 8:1).

e. Jesus demonstrates the Reign of God: As Jesus explains, “If it is by the finger of God
that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you” (Luke 11:20).

f. Jesus deploys the Reign of God: Jesus deploys/sends out the 72, instructing them to
say, “The kingdom of God has come near to you” (Luke 10:9).

g. Jesus talked about the Reign of God through parables: The Reign of God as - the
hidden treasure (Matt 13:44), as the pearl of great price (Matt 13:45-46), as the Household
treasures (Matt 13:52), as the Yeast (Matt 13:33), as the mustard seed (Matt 13:31-32), as the
sprouting seed (Mark 4:26-29), and also as the dragnet (Matt 13:47-50).2

3. FROM JESUS USING PARABLES FOR THE BASILICCA

3. 1. The Laborers in the Vineyard (Matthew 20:1-16):

Jesus tells the parable of the workers in the vineyard to further explain what the Kingdom of God
is like. A landowner goes out early in the morning and hires men, agreeing to pay them the daily
rate - a silver coin for a day’s work. He hires them at various times throughout the day - 9am,
12pm, 3pm and 5pm and promises all of the workers a fair wage. When the end of the day came,
the landowner said to his manager to pay the workers, starting with those who had been hired
last. Those who began working at 5pm were given the daily rate - one silver coin.

2
Phillip Bethancourt, 10 Connections Between Jesus and the Kingdom of God (New York: TGC, 2014),
45.
 When it came to those who had been hired first (early in the morning) they thought that
they were going to receive more. When they too were given the standard daily wage they began
to grumble. They were angry because they had done a lot more work than those who had started
later in the day.

The landowner did not listen to their complaints and reminded them that they had agreed
to the daily rate of pay when they were hired. He said, “Am I not allowed to do what I choose
with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?”

The landowner then says, “The last will be first and the first will be last.”This means that
those people who consider themselves the most important in the Kingdom of God because of
their good deeds will be surprised - this is not how God’s grace works.

People who come to Christianity later in their lives will still be given the same reward
(entry into the Kingdom of Heaven) as those who have been faithful all their lives.3

3. 2. The Parable of the Lost (Luke 15):

Jesus’ main criticism of the Pharisees was thus their failure to reach out to the lost with the
message of forgiveness and acceptance for all those who repent and believe. This is made
particularly clear in the three parables that Jesus told (in Luke 15:1-31) of the Lost Sheep, Lost
Coin, and Lost Son. Jesus told these parables because he was being criticised by the Pharisees
and the teachers of the law for the way he was welcoming sinners and eating with them.
However, the whole point of the parables is to show that they have misunderstood the nature of
his mission. His ministry is not one of welcoming sinners as such, but of going to the lost sinners
so as to be able to welcome them when they repent. This is evident from the structure of the three
parables, and the similarities and dissimilarities between them. In the first two parables the
emphasis is on someone who is searching for something very precious that is lost, and the great
rejoicing that follows when it is found. In the parable of the Lost Son, the last of the sequence,
the pattern is more complex and deliberately contrasting. The younger son who deserted his
father is welcomed back home when he returns repentant. The father restores him to his full
status as a son in the family and celebrates. This is a rebuke to the Pharisees and teachers of the

3
Marcus Borg and N.T Wright, The Historical Jesus and the Christ of Faith (U.S.A: Wipf & Stock Publishers,
1998), 76.
law who are failing to rejoice at the sinners who are repenting and coming into the kingdom
through the ministry of Jesus.4

4. FORMATION OF INCLUSIVE COMMUNITY FORESEEING THE BASILICA OF

GOD:

According to Jesus’ own words, His earthly mission was aimed at a Jewish audience (Matt
15:24). He also commanded his ministers to “Go nowhere among the Gentiles and enter no town
of the Samaritan’s, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matt 10:5,6). So, Jesus
ministered primarily to the Jews. However, Jesus form the foundation of the inclusive
community towards the basilica of God, which could be seen from the following points –

a. Jesus’ first recorded encounter with Gentiles during his ministry was with a Roman
Centurion (Matt 8:8, Luke 7:2). The Centurion asked Jesus to heal his deathly ill servant. The
Centurion then told Jesus there is no need for Him to come to his home, “only say the word, and
my servant will be healed” (Matt 8:8). And Jesus said, “Truly, I tell you with no one in Israel
have I found such faith’ (Matt 8:10).

b. Jesus’ next encounter with a Gentile occurs in the town of Gadara, part of the
Decapolis (Matt 8:26-34, Luke 8:26-39, Mark 5:1-20), the sole purpose for travelling to this
Gentile area was to heal the demoniac(s). Jesus casts out the demons and sends them into pigs.
Then the man who had just been delivered wanted to remain in Jesus’ company. But, Jesus
commissions him as a missionary to the Decapolis: “Return to your home, and declare how much
God has done for you. And he went away, proclaiming through the whole city how much Jesus
had done for him” (Luke 8:39).

c. Not only to the Jewish or Gentiles, Jesus also heals - a hemorrhage women simply
touching of His garment (Matt 9:22), a crippled man (Mark 2:9), 10 leapers (Luke 17:12), a blind
man and even shows affection for the children (Mark 10:13-16).

Jesus was constantly criticized for consorting with sinners and sharing meals with them,
and shows a sign of acceptance and approval. The Pharisees were scandalized of Jesus. Jesus

4
Borg and Wright, The Historical Jesus and the Christ of Faith, 81.
never minded creating a scandal. In fact, in one interchange, Jesus announced to the Pharisees
that female prostitutes would enter the kingdom of God ahead of male religious leaders.5

CONCLUSION:

According to one telling of the gospel narrative, Jesus came to end exclusion and preach the
inclusive kingdom of God. Certainly, that’s part of what he came to do and arguably the feature
of his ministry most appealing to our contemporary culture’s moral sensibilities. In Jesus, the
outcasts of society have hope. Those long marginalized, kicked to the curb (figuratively and
literally) can look up to see Jesus extending a hand, inviting them back into the community of the
truly human as objects of dignity and divine affection. 6 Therefore, as a follower of Jesus Christ,
it is the duty and responsibility of every Christians to follow the instruction of the resurrected
Jesus Christ – the Great Commission, to spread to all the nations of the world (Matt 28:20). To
promote and proclaim the ‘basilica of God’, ‘the reign of God’, or ‘the church/the called-out
ones.’

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Books

Bethancourt, Phillip. 10 Connections Between Jesus and the Kingdom of God. New York: TGC,
2014.

Borg, Marcus and N.T Wright. The Historical Jesus and the Christ of Faith. U.S.A: Wipf &
Stock Publishers, 1998.
Herzog, William R. Jesus Justice and the Reign of God. U. S: Westminster Press, 2002.

Online Resources

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE ‘INCLUSIVE’ LIKE JESUS? Derek Rishmawy

ttps://derekzrishmawy.com/2015/05/01/how-does-jesus-end-exclusion-by-re-naming-and-re-
making/

https:/www.encyclopedia.com
5
William R. Herzog, Jesus Justice and the Reign of God (U. S: Westminster Press, 2002), 254.
6
https://derekzrishmawy.com