Gospel Characters: Jesus and His Contemporaries contributes to an understanding of Jesus in the New Testament that is persons-centred. It highlights how different biblical characters help shape the stories that have come down to us. This book provokes thoughts for further research on other biblical figures and themes. It is an invaluable resource for catechists, pastoral workers, evangelizers and for instructions in Houses of Formation, particularly in furthering the ministry of the Word Made Flesh, who dwells among us.

The work is based on the last command of the risen Jesus to his disciples in Matthew's account of the events that followed the resurrection of Jesus. The command is: "Make disciples of all nations". The command reverses the initial restriction of the disciples to only the lost sheep of the house of Israel. The work presents the command as the climax of Matthew's post-resurrection account, which is told in four scenes and each of the scenes contains a command. The last command sanctions the mission to the Gentiles without ending the mission to Israel. Making disciples involves baptism to increase the number of Christians (Church growth) and teaching to increase adherence to the teachings of Jesus (Church life).