Jan Brueghel the Elder (1568–1625)
If you had been one of the Gospel writers, how would you have ended your Gospel?
- Mark ends his Gospel with the women running from an empty tomb and from the announcement that Jesus has been raised from the dead. “So they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them, and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.” (The oldest manuscripts of Mark’s Gospel end with verse 8 in chapter 16. All New Testament scholars agree that everything after verse 8 came from later writers. It’s possible that the original ending of Mark was lost. If, however, Mark intended to end with verse 8 of chapter 16, he was emphasizing an “unending” gospel which is now waiting for our response. How shall we respond to a crucified and risen Jesus?)
- The writer of the Gospel of Luke wrote a two-volume work: the Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts. Acts begins with Jesus’ Ascension and the birth of the early church on Pentecost. With this Gospel, the Good News continues, and the spread of that Good News is now dependent on the response of Jesus’ followers.
- John’s Gospel ends with these words: “There are many other things that Jesus did; if every one of them were written down, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.” John suggests that the deeds and words of Jesus will continue through the Holy Spirit and the obedience of the disciples as they join Jesus in loving this world into its healing. For John the gospel is also unending—it continues through us, and the record of what Jesus can do through us would occupy every square foot of this planet.
Each of these Gospel writers concludes with an ending that is not an ending. Why? Because with the Risen Christ and the presence of the Spirit, there can be no ending–only new beginnings.
…with the Risen Christ and the presence of the Spirit, there can be no ending–only new beginnings.
Matthew ends his Gospel in a similar way–with an ending which is not an ending. He looks to the future and the mission of the people of God. And as we shall see, precisely how Matthew ends his Gospel reflects the main concern of his book.
We are told that the eleven disciples went to Galilee to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. Now what mountain was that? Mountains figure prominently in the Bible as places where divine revelation is received. But is there a particular mountain Matthew has in mind? There is only one other place in Matthew where “the mountain” is stressed by the writer, and that is Matthew 5:1 where Jesus delivered the Sermon on the Mount. So they return to the place where Jesus gave his clearest teaching on the will of God. The probability that this was the mountain is supported by the Greek behind our English translation. The Greek is not as easy and straightforward to translate as it may seem. Perhaps the best translation of the first verse of our passage is this: “And the eleven disciples went to Galilee to the mountain where Jesus laid down the rules.”
That this was Matthew’s intent will become more obvious as we look at the rest of these verses. When I was a kid, the Great Commission was one of the passages we had to learn word for word. And we always began with “Go, therefore, into all the world and make disciples of all nations.” But that is the wrong place to start. Beginning with those words of Jesus makes it sound like it’s all up to us–that Jesus has a job for us to do, gives us a command, and sends us on our way.
…we always began with “Go, therefore, into all the world and make disciples of all nations.” But that is the wrong place to start.
The place to begin is with verse 18 where Jesus says, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” That is the antecedent to “therefore” in verse 19. It is because all authority has been given to Jesus by God–all authority in heaven and on earth–that we are sent into the world with a mission from God’s own heart. For Matthew the resurrection makes Jesus King of kings and Lord of lords right now. Already all of time and space, history and creation, the physical and the spiritual belong to him. That earliest confession of the church, “Jesus is Lord,” has its foundation in this statement. The One who would not bend the knee to Satan even when promised all the kingdoms of the world (Matthew 4:1-11) now rules as King of kings and Lord of lords!
We are not called to conquer the world for God–we are simply called to be, as St. Francis reminds us, joyful troubadours of the great King who already rules.
And so, with this Great Commission we are not sent out on a rescue mission–we are not commanded to save the world for God–we are not expected to turn the tide in the war between good and evil. The battle is already won–the victory belongs to Jesus–and already he rules with all authority in heaven and on earth. The celebration of the reign of a King without guile over our lives and over our world should keep us from despair and desperation. We are not called to conquer the world for God–we are simply called to be, as St. Francis reminds us, joyful troubadours of the great King who already rules. That is the basis of the “therefore” of the Great Commission, and if we forget that “therefore,” we will in our minds, hearts, and lives be replacing a joyful and liberating witness with the drudgery of a futile chore.
With the knowledge and experience that Jesus is Lord, we are commissioned to do what? Here again we need a lesson in Greek. Literally what verse 19 says is this: “Going, therefore, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you.” In other words, the main verb in this commission is “make disciples”–all the other verbs are participles; the going, baptizing, and the teaching are subordinate to the main command which is to make disciples. And what is a disciple? One who learns from and follows Jesus. All the going and all the baptizing and all the teaching in the world will do no good if in the process we do not make disciples. And that has been Matthew’s concern all through his Gospel. Notice that Jesus said nothing about preaching, evangelizing, and calling people to faith. Now we could argue that our Lord assumed that–and perhaps he did. But what he could not take for granted was that obedient disciples would result from the church’s preaching, baptizing, and teaching. So in these familiar words, the focus is on making disciples – teaching them to obey all that Jesus had commanded. Once again we see why the Jesus of Matthew’s Gospel had the disciples return to the mountain on which he had given his greatest teachings on the will of God.
The question being raised by Matthew is, “What is the gospel?” And I believe the church today needs to hear his understanding of the essence of Christianity. We live in a society which is greatly concerned with packaging, with image, with outward appearances, and with hype and fanfare. And all this has spilled over into the church and her presentation of the gospel . We perhaps see all this most blatantly in the slick TV evangelists with their 800 numbers, religiously erotic music, and endless parade of celebrities. John Killinger calls them the Johnny Carsons of Galilee, the Don Ameches of 24-hour broadcasting. He writes. “They have completely lost the simple note of authenticity that was heard in Jesus of Nazareth, who owned no super-chariots, had no wardrobe, and would have objected vociferously to such gimmicks as Jerusalem T-shirts and ‘Yahweh First’ pins.”
We live in a society which is greatly concerned with packaging, with image, with outward appearances, and with hype and fanfare. And all this has spilled over into the church and her presentation of the gospel.
He goes on to say, “TV Christianity is producing a generation of believers whose view of life is so distorted that they do not know how to cope with the simple realities of human existence. They have almost no grasp of the great suffering necessary to overcome the injustices in society. Their Jesus is a plastic Jesus with no real wounds, no crown of thorns, no horrible cross on his back. He is an antiseptic little Jesus huckstered like cars and laxatives and deodorant soaps, without enough gospel, as a British preacher once put it, to save a titmouse.”
Now it’s easy to see how all that is true with the Elmer Gantrys of our day. But dare I suggest that these are simply exaggerations–perhaps gross exaggerations but exaggerations nevertheless – of a tendency within the larger church? A tendency to define the gospel in ways which at best delay the experience of discipleship and at worst ignore and forget the primacy of that response to Jesus Christ. Matthew ends his Gospel with the disciples returning to the mount on which Jesus gave his greatest teaching. And from that mount Jesus commissions the church to make disciples, teaching the whole world obedience to all that Christ had commanded. Little stress is put by Matthew on preaching or evangelizing–for Matthew the gospel IS the message preached by Jesus and now lived by us and is inseparable from any word about the cross, salvation, and the church. Now that kind of gospel–the only one the New Testament knows about–is not easy to present to the world. That’s why the church has always been tempted to present a diluted message big on packaging and little on essence. To present Matthew’s kind of gospel will require commitment, courage, and stamina beyond the capacity of any of us or of all of us put together. And that’s why Jesus says, “And I will be with you all the days, right up to the consummation of the age.” I have always wondered why Matthew wrote “all the days” rather than the simple Greek adverb meaning “always.” But after working through this passage, I believe I know why. He wrote “all the days” to emphasize the DAILY nature of the task, the DAILY nature of our need of the Lord in order to be faithful, and the DAILY nature of Jesus’ supporting presence. We are promised a presence to empower us to present the gospel to the world.
To present Matthew’s kind of gospel will require commitment, courage, and stamina beyond the capacity of any of us or of all of us put together.
One of the greatest needs of the church today is the rediscovery of discipleship–the immersing of ourselves in the Sermon on the Mount and the faithful following of our Lord. Without that fundamental orientation, we have no authentic gospel to proclaim and offer to the world. Without that essential message, we have only the cheap, gaudy tinsel of human packaging to peddle to a world in need of the salvation of God.
That’s why Matthew ends his Gospel with a return to the Mount on which Jesus gave his greatest exposition of the will of God. If we are to make authentic disciples–and for that matter, if we ourselves are to remain faithful–then we must return to that mount again and again as we sit at the feet of the Master, learn the words of life, and then go out and live that gospel in our time and space.
Communion: Ken Medema wrote these lyrics to one of his songs: “I’ve written my share of ‘I-am-His and He-is-mine and Doesn’t-it-make-me feel-good-love songs.’ And then I read the Book again, and it didn’t turn out that way. We need a few more ‘We-are-His and He-is-Lord and He-calls-us-to-His-service work songs.’ He calls us together to give our lives away.”
Discipleship is all about discovering that WE (first person plural) are his and He is Lord. This bread and wine are for US, not for me or you separately. In communion with him who has promised to be with us all our days and in communion with one another, we can move from the infant stage of Christianity where everything is “I, me, and mine” to the joy of discipleship where the blessings of “we, us, and our” overflow as we become the Body of Christ.
Commission: As we go into the world in the name of Jesus, let us make disciples by the words we speak, the deeds we do, the attitudes we demonstrate, and the love we share. If we have returned to the mount, then we know our mission even in a crazy world like ours. And if we remember who is by our side all our days–the one to whom all authority has already been given, then hand in hand we shall experience the joy of trust and obedience to the glory of God.
Pastoral Prayer: For “The kingdom of this world has become the Kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever.” (Revelation 11:15) Gracious God, our hearts are moved by that ancient confession of the church, “Jesus is Lord.” Not Caesar–not any human institution–not any other loyalty–none other than Jesus is Lord–Lord of our lives, Lord of our world, Lord of the vast sweep of history, Lord of the far flung galaxies, Lord of the falling sparrow, Lord of the most humble heart. And in this oldest confession of the church, we hear your challenge and your promise. We hear the challenge to acknowledge him Lord with the content of our days and the direction of our lives–with the words of our mouths and the designs of our hearts–with our participation in the world without and with our nurturing of the world within. And we confess to you how much of our lives–how many of our days–how numerous are our loyalties which rest outside his Lordship. Rebellious, afraid, stubborn, divided, selfish, confused, misguided, preoccupied, wrong-headed and wrong-hearted–whatever the reason, we all have parts of ourselves –segments of our lives segregated from the purposes and goals of your holy Kingdom. And we know as long as that happens–as long as the confession of the faithful is hindered from becoming reality in our lives, we shall remain restless and adrift–incomplete and unfulfilled. Hasten the day, O God, when we can say with integrity and honesty, “Jesus is Lord–Lord of all our days, all our lives, and all our loyalties.” And until we can do that, deal with us in patient and grace-filled ways, for we have so far to go.
But in the midst of our sober confession, let us hear the promise as well as the challenge: Jesus is Lord–already heaven and earth are his–already he is the Word which stands forever – already time and history are flowing into the stream of that river which makes glad the City of God. Inspire, strengthen, and empower us with the certain knowledge that he is King of kings, Lord of lords both now and forever, and because the one who held children in his arms and blessed them—who broke bread and shared his life–who stooped to wash the dirty feet of proud men–because this one holds the whole world in his hands, we can even now dance and sing, love and give, risk and sacrifice with the abandon of those who know that God bats last and best. Amen.
