If any text in the Bible ever sounded like an “Us vs Them” proposition, then it is Matthew 28:16-20. These are the last words that Jesus speaks to his disciples in Matthew’s Gospel. And the way most of us have heard these words makes it sound as though we are to go throughout the world making everyone else into Christians, making “them” like “us”.
But I would like to suggest to you today, that there is another way of looking at this text. Let us remember first of all, that Jesus himself was not a Christian. He was a Jew. He was not starting a new religion. He was calling people to follow him, personally, and that is a very different thing.
So, listen for God’s word to you from Matthew 28:16-20…
Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore 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 that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Jesus here invites us to embark on a lifelong adventure. As we begin that adventure Jesus does three things for us.
First of all, Jesus assures us of his authority.
Throughout this Gospel which we have been studying this year, Matthew has stressed Jesus’ authority. He showed us Jesus’ authority in teaching in 7:28, his authority to heal in 8:1-13, his authority to forgive in 9:6, and his authority to conquer Satan in 10:1.
Jesus had authority before the resurrection, but now he claims unrestricted, universal authority. This universal authority was accorded to Jesus as a reward for his obedience unto death, as Paul notes in Philippians 2:8-11 and Ephesians 1:20-21.
But what is authority? The Greek word used in this passage means absolute power, warrant. Our English word authority has within it the word author. Jesus has been granted authority from the author—God, his heavenly father.
Many people today react against the concept of authority. We don’t like being told what to do. But when we see the way Jesus exercised his authority, by being a servant and laying down his life for us: that makes us want to obey him. His love is the incentive for us to follow.
Jesus assured his first disciples, and he assures us, of his authority so we will know without a doubt that we can lean on him. And when we call others to follow him, we do so under the powerful banner of his own authority.
What does that look like in practice? A number of years ago there was a man working with an organization trying to reach street children with the good news of Jesus in Mexico City. There were a couple of boys who lived on one particular street whom no one was able to talk to successfully. This man I speak of saw another Christian go up and try to talk to these boys only to have them spit in his face. These boys didn’t want to have anything to do with Christians; they didn’t trust in the attention they were being given. But this man I speak of thought he would give it a try. At first, he got the same reaction—total disrespect. But then he unbuttoned his shirt and let the boys touch the pacemaker implanted in his chest.
“What’s that?” they asked in Spanish.
He told them. Then the man let them touch the colostomy bag that he had attached to his side.
The boys were fascinated.
Then the man proceeded to tell the boys his story of how he had cancer and was supposed to die, but that God had spared his life so that he could come and tell them that God loves them.
The boys were intrigued. Here was a man who approached them in the gentle, serving, loving authority of Jesus, and that made all the difference.
Secondly, we need to see in this passage that Jesus gives us an appointment. That appointment, that command, is to make disciples.
Make disciples is the only imperative verb in this sentence. Jesus doesn’t command us to go. The verb, go, is actually a participle. Rendered literally, the sentence is: “Going therefore: make disciples.” Jesus assumes that we are going places. We go to work. We go to school. We go to the store. We go on a trip. We are always going somewhere, and Jesus wants us to make disciples as we go about our everyday lives.
But what is a disciple? A disciple simply means a learner.
And what is the best way to help other people become learners? By being learners ourselves.
Isn’t at least part of our problem in our nation today that we are not learners? We all want to tell others what we think, instead of listening.
My friend, evangelist Luis Palau, who is originally from Latin America, says that when he thinks of the United States, he pictures one big mouth. But what if we as Americans became one big ear instead of one big mouth?
Instead of us white people telling black and brown people how they should act, how they should live, what if we asked them about their experience and then just listened? Of course, that would require that we all know a black or brown-skinned person to begin with.
What might “making learners” look like in our world today? I suppose it will look different in different situations. But let me share one story I may have shared with you before…
In a previous town where we lived, they had an event called “Community Days”. Our church had a booth along with many other churches and organizations. Part way through the day I had some young, Mormon missionaries approach me. I decided that I was going to take a different approach with them than I ever had before in talking to a Mormon. I simply asked them questions about their faith, one question right after another. And then I listened.
Do you know how they responded? Eventually, they started asking me questions about my faith. And by the time we were finished there wasn’t anything about Jesus or my faith that I wanted to share with them that I hadn’t shared. But none of it was forced or came off like a sermon. We just had a delightful conversation together. I learned about them and their faith and they learned about me and my faith.
The conversation might have continued longer, but we were interrupted by someone from another church who came along and started preaching at these young Mormon missionaries. And you could see the wall go up.
Jesus wants us to make learners of all nations. And the best way we can do that is by being learners ourselves.
Still, we want to know something more of how to make disciples. Thankfully, Jesus tells us how. He uses two key words: baptizing and teaching.
Now, isn’t baptizing an “Us vs. Them” activity? Well, it all depends in how you look at it. Baptism simply means “washing”. Now I ask, what might it look like if we as followers of Jesus quietly and gently went around the world washing the wounds of the hurting, the dying, in the name of Jesus?
Isn’t this what Mother Teresa did? And were people offended by Mother Teresa? No, they were inspired by her.
Notice that Jesus says we are to baptize in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. One name—three persons, but one God. There is great mystery here.
It is said that Saint Augustine, one of the great articulators of the doctrine of the Trinity, was walking along the shore of the ocean one day pondering this mystery. He came upon a little boy who was playing with a seashell. The youngster would scoop a hole in the sand, then go down to the waves and get his shell full of water and pour it into the hole he had made.
Augustine asked, “What are you doing?”
And the boy answered, “I am going to pour the sea into that hole.”
“Ah,” said Augustine, “That is what I have been trying to do. Standing at the ocean of infinity, I have attempted to grasp it with my finite mind.”
When we baptize in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, it is like leading people to the ocean of God’s infinite, mysterious being and love, giving them as big a shell as we can find and then inviting them to drink and quench their spiritual thirst.
But what about teaching them to obey? Isn’t that an “Us vs. Them” activity?
Again, it depends upon how you look at it. What did Jesus command his disciples, his learners, to do? He commanded us to love God with all our hearts, all our souls, all our minds, and all our strength, and to love our neighbors as ourselves. And how do we teach others to love? We do it by loving.
Now, we may understand that Jesus has the authority to give us an appointment, but we may still feel totally unable to embark on the lifelong adventure to which Jesus invites us.
That’s where the third point comes in. Jesus has promised us the ability. He says to us, “And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
The great British pastor of yesteryear, G. Campbell Morgan, when he first started in the ministry, was teaching through the Gospel of Matthew to a small group of elderly women. In the last week of the study he came to this verse and made reference to Jesus’ promise, “I am with you always.”
Suddenly, one of the women stopped Rev. Morgan and said, “Son, that’s not a promise, it’s a fact!”
Jesus has not only promised to be with us, he has fulfilled that promise down through the ages. What this verse means is that Jesus will be with you and with me, living in us by the Holy Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit who enables us to be learners and help others to become learners of Jesus.
Notice that Jesus promises to be with us day in and day out. David Livingstone, the famous missionary to Africa, said that this was the verse that helped him keep going as he faced many trials throughout the course of his ministry. Just knowing the Lord was with him made all the difference.
H. K. Downie tells about a large newspaper that offered a substantial amount of money for the best answer to the question: “What is the shortest way to London?” The winning answer was: “The shortest way to London is good company!”
The journey from here to eternity can seem long and tiresome until you have a relationship with Jesus Christ, and he becomes your traveling companion. But once you have that relationship through the Spirit, the journey becomes an adventure. And he empowers us to invite others along on the journey.
In closing, allow me to share this story… On November 16, 1959, The Sound of Music began a three-and-a-half year run on Broadway at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre. Several weeks before the show’s opening, Oscar Hammerstein was diagnosed with stomach cancer. Prior to being admitted for surgery, the famed lyricist stopped at the theatre to convey encouragement and inspiration to his leading lady. He passed a piece of paper to the young actress playing Maria von Trapp.
As Mary Martin opened the folded note, she read, “A bell is not a bell till you ring it. A song is not a song till you sing it. Love in your heart isn’t put there to stay. Love isn’t love till you give it away.”[1]
Those words are so true. And so, I urge you: don’t hold on to the love of Jesus; give that love away to someone else. And enjoy the adventure of doing so.
I would like to close by leading us in a prayer attributed to St. Francis of Assisi. Let us pray…
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me bring love.
Where there is offence, let me bring pardon.
Where there is hatred, let me bring love.
Where there is offence, let me bring pardon.
Where there is discord, let me bring union.
Where there is error, let me bring truth.
Where there is doubt, let me bring faith.
Where there is despair, let me bring hope.
Where there is darkness, let me bring your light.
Where there is sadness, let me bring joy.
O Master, let me not seek as much
Where there is doubt, let me bring faith.
Where there is despair, let me bring hope.
Where there is darkness, let me bring your light.
Where there is sadness, let me bring joy.
O Master, let me not seek as much
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love,
for it is in giving that one receives,
to be loved as to love,
for it is in giving that one receives,
it is in self-forgetting that one finds,
it is in pardoning that one is pardoned,
it is in dying that one is raised to eternal life.
it is in pardoning that one is pardoned,
it is in dying that one is raised to eternal life.
Amen.
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