The Greatest Injustice
Ethan Kim is a missionary working in an unreached area in Southeast Asia. Over the years, Ethan had the privilege of living in five different continents and is passionate about seeing people discovering and encountering Jesus. Before becoming a missionary, Ethan worked in the finance industry as a risk management consultant. Today he shares with us what he terms…
THE GREATEST INJUSTICE
Have you ever met a person who had never heard of Jesus? And what if this person lived in an environment where there were no churches or Christians nearby and they would never have an opportunity to hear the gospel?
In 2006, I had a chance to visit a remote village in Northern Vietnam near the Chinese border. We rode an overnight train from Hanoi to a provincial city and then traveled for another 6 hours on a jeep off a beaten track deep into the mountains. There we met people living peacefully with little contact with the outside world, but there were no churches or followers of Jesus in this village.
A few years later, in 2010, I visited a remote village in Guinea where we had to travel for two days on a 4×4. We stayed at the village chief’s house for several days. The chief and his family welcomed us with open arms and warm hospitality. Again, there were no churches or followers of Jesus in this village.
These two trips changed my life. I grew up in a Christian household and lived in areas where there was an abundance of churches and Christian communities. I had many friends who did not have a relationship with Jesus, but they were always an earshot away from an opportunity to hear the good news. But in Vietnam and Guinea, I encountered people who had zero opportunity to hear the gospel simply because there was no one nearby who could share the gospel. What should our response be to this reality?
The central theme of Jesus’ teaching and ministry on earth is the kingdom of God. Jesus taught his followers to pray, “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10). Jesus declared, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:15). We know with certainty from Jesus’ teaching that the kingdom of God is coming—a kingdom where God alone reigns and rules.
But when and how would this kingdom of God come? Jesus’ disciples have also asked this question, and Jesus responded that no one knows the day or the hour, but only the Father knows (Mark 13:32; Matthew 24:36). While we don’t know the specific day or time, Jesus reveals how the end will come. Jesus tells his disciples in private, “And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come” (Matthew 24:3, 14).
When the gospel of the kingdom, the good news of Jesus, is proclaimed to all nations, including the villages in Vietnam and Guinea, then the end will come. And I can almost envision what the end, the kingdom of God, will look like. There will be a table in the kingdom of God where people from the east, west, north, and south will be gathered (Luke 13:29). And how will the nations be gathered at the table of the kingdom of God? We need to go out and invite the nations to the table. Perhaps the greatest injustice in the world is that not everyone will receive the invitation to the kingdom of God simply because those with the good news haven’t gone out to share it.
What is an adequate response to this injustice? How should we live our lives if we truly desire to see the kingdom of God come? Answers to these questions were what motivated me to become a missionary, specifically to work among those without access to the gospel. Your response may look different. Perhaps you can start interceding for the nations if you are not able to go. Maybe there are groups of people in your community who are in the blind spot where they have no opportunity to hear the gospel, and you can make intentional efforts to reach out. Are there missionaries already working in the frontiers you can partner with? Whatever the response may be, what is clear is that we need to respond to this injustice. So, allow me to challenge you to ask yourself, “What is my response?”
