George, Samuel. Christology.
Kolkata; Senate Centre For Extension And Pastoral Theological Research
(SCEPTRE), 2014. 101-102.
Minjung
Christology
Minjung
Theology is a Korean contextual theology. The tern Minjung may
be used for all those who are excluded from the elite who enjoy prestigious
positions. The Minjung are those people who have suffered from
exploitation, poverty; socio-political oppression, and cultural repression
throughout the ages. They know the pain of dehumanization. Their lives; have
been rooted in the age-old experience of suffering and the present experience ‘of
it. They have been treated as non-beings by their rulers. Yet they have not
given in but resisted the oppression of their rulers. They have suffered for
changing Korea into a’ just nation. Byung Mu Ahn (1922-96), a Korean New
Testament scholar and a key figure in the development of Minjung (the
masses, the anawim, the
ochlos,
the crowd, rather than the elite) theology has explained the importance of
Christology from the Minjung’s perspective. Christology of the kerygma
has distorted our understanding of Jesus.
He
has been turned into Christ of faith/kerygma. Synoptic gospels give a different
picture of the earthly Jesus.
·
Jesus is in non-stop action. He refuses to be the Messiah, the Son
of God, the pre-existent Being, the exalted Christ on a throne, the coming
Judge. He is not bound by religious norms of his time.
·
He associates and lives with the Minjung. He eats,
drinks, asks favours from them, and grants their requests. “Where there is Jesus,
there is the Minjung. And where there is the Minjung, there is
Jesus.”
The
gospel image of Jesus is different from the kerygmatic Christ. His agony
at Gethsemane, his cry on the Cross reflects such an image. The healing stories
portrays a very important image of Jesus of the Minjung. The Jesus who heals
the sick people is not someone who fulfils a pre-established programme. He
never healed anyone voluntarily or with some pre-plan. The request for healing
always came from the Minjung. And he obliged to the wishes of the patients. The
sick too the initiative for events to happen. His healing power, which has a
functional relation to the suffering of the Minjung, can be realized only when
it is met by the willing of the Minjung.
Jesus
is the spokesperson for the Minjung. He speaks to God on behalf of them. He is
the Christ who is facing God from human being’s side not the other way round.
Human beings are not an abstract entity but concrete Minjung who are suffering.
Therefore the Jesus who is one with the
Minjung,
facing God from their direction – he is Christ. He identifies himself with the
Minjung. He exists for no other than for the Minjung. Is Jesus the saviour of
the humankind? Salvation is not a manufactured product given to human beings
from heaven for their liberation, but the liberation Jesus realized in the
action of transforming himself, by listening to and responding to the cry of
the Minjung
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