Seeds for 03/22/2024 - Matthew 28:16-20
Scripture: Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some doubted. Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and 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 I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
Observation: Worship and doubt. It seems like an odd combination, yet here it is. The response to seeing Jesus was mixed. Some immediately worship; some are getting their heads around this strange sight. I imagine them thinking, Could this mean what it seems to mean?
There’s a literary term, “inclusio,” that essentially means “bookending.” That’s what Jesus does here. He makes statements at the beginning and end of the command that kind of put brackets around the Great Commission. What does He bracket this commission with? Power and presence.
Power: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.”
Presence: “And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
The command comes with the twin promises that His power is our foundation and His presence is our strength.
So, what of the commission itself?
The primary actions are these four: go, make, baptize, and teach.
It includes everyone — “all nations.” No one is left out, in two senses. First, everyone ought to become disciples. If we are made in the image of God and Jesus is the full revelation of God, then it simply makes sense that for us to become who we’re meant to be, we need to follow Him. No one else will do. Second, everyone can become disciples. Christianity isn’t just about inviting a special privileged few or only a certain type of people to know and follow Him. Christianity invites everyone to follow Jesus.
Finally, when we look back over the Gospel as a whole, we find three types of people engaged with Jesus: opponents, crowds, and disciples. Setting the opponents aside for our purpose here, Jesus drew crowds and had disciples. He healed, fed, and taught the crowds, which gave them a taste of God’s kingdom. But He invested in and trained up the disciples, to grow their faith in and faithfulness to Him, which is the Christian goal of human life.
The crowds exposed themselves to Jesus. The disciples sought formation in Jesus.
As we close our reading of Matthew’s magnificent Gospel, perhaps that’s the best observation to consider. Will we be in the crowd around Jesus? Or become a disciple of Jesus? Are we content with some exposure to Jesus? Or are we hungry to seek total formation in Jesus? My prayer for each of us is that we hunger for what only discipleship to Jesus will satisfy and that we’ll have a “holy discontent” for remaining part of the crowd who believe wonderful things about Him, but do not actively follow Him.
In the words of Jesus Himself, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.”
Application:
Where are you with Jesus? Are you in the crowd, content with some exposure to Jesus? Or do you hunger for more, ready to take practical steps with your life in order to actively follow Jesus and be formed by Him?
What else might the Holy Spirit be speaking with you about in the text today?
Prayer: Lord, you have made us for yourself and our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee. Give me a holy discontent with living in the crowd. Help me grow in discipleship to you. Amen.
“But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.” (Matthew 13:23)
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