The Grand Narrative of Scripture and Intercultural Communication

Learning the Grand Narrative of Scripture is essential in understanding the Bible’s authority and the mission of God’s people. The Grand Narrative of Scripture demonstrates unity and shows that believers should be united among themselves. The nature of the Bible is cross-cultural, and the scriptures exist because of God’s mission in His world (Sun, 2015). Cultural understanding helps in overcoming challenges and obstacles that we may face when preaching the Gospel. In the end, an understanding of the Grand Narrative of Scripture allows Christians to be loving and patient and learn to use God’s word in reaching out to different cultures, teaching them to believe in Jesus Christ. Cultural understanding is essential within the Gospel acclamation because it shows that one is sensitive to how others hear and respond to God’s word and makes it easier to communicate well. The cultural understanding helps in minimizing existing language barriers that may be witnessed when passing messages from one person to another. 

Jesus set and demonstrated the significance of cross-cultural understanding by fitting into the groups that he interacted with, thus making them follow him. Jesus became like those he met, respected, and learned from them, and shared with them culturally significant messages. Such instances that showed Jesus’s understanding of cultures included the story of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37). In His teachings, Jesus demonstrated an awareness of people’s beliefs, likes, and dislikes, as well as judgments, hence allowing Him to tackle them using appropriate words in parables and teachings. Jesus was also an example of cultural understanding because He manifested Himself as a human being in the flesh despite being God. Jesus was humble and patient when He interacted with people, demonstrating that no one is righteous. He was not judgmental and accommodated followers from different places and taught those from different cultures. Through the Gospel, Jesus showed that God’s love has no boundaries and goes beyond cultural differences. 

References 

Sun, W. (2015). Biblical Theology and Cross-Cultural Theological Education: The Epistle to the Romans as a Model.  Global Missiology English ,  4 (12).