The Famous Commission

The Easter festive season is still in our minds and I am sure we all celebrated in our own different ways the lockdown and COVID-19 notwithstanding. I am also certain that we may have scoured the narratives of Jesus’ death and resurrection with a sensation of accomplishment or finale, sorrowful elegance or wowed reflection. One of those narratives that we might have brushed through with an air of familiarity and casualness is the ending in the gospel according to Matthew, often mistakenly and presumptuously branded the Great commission by many a commentator. The passage in Matthew 28:18-20 has often been read as isolated as if it’s a chapter by itself, but in order to understand it, we must read it together with the previous chapters and even verses. The famous commission is not separate from the Risen Christ. We must see those two joined if at all we are to understand it before it can even make sense it’s supposed to.

Image from here

One way to see that is by viewing and thinking about Jesus’s statements after the resurrection and before the assignment of the famous commission. Immediately after the resurrection, Jesus sends for his disciples on the mountain in Galilee. (That’s the place he disappears in the clouds leaving the disciples and having promised them of power that by it they will go telling of the new life they had seen in Jesus, the very life he had lived and taught). There he says to them “all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me” (Matthew 28:18b, ESV). This has got to do with the secret plan of God throughout ages and generations. Paul put that well in his letter to Ephesians 1:10 “And this, the plan of God; that at the right time he will bring everything together under the authority of Christ both in heaven and on earth,” (NLT) this is so much connected with his resurrection in vs 19-22. Paul says that the power that raised him from the dead and sat him in the right hand of God and now he is above every ruler, power and authority, everything has been put under his authority. In Philippians 2 Paul say that through what he obeyed even to death, God put him at the highest place, over all power and authorities that at the mention of his name every knee should bow in heaven and on earth.

Where is the Risen Christ? The angel says to the women at the grave, he is not here! Well, Paul writes that the risen Christ is seated at the right hand of God, with all power given to him. He is not merely in heaven looking down- He is reigning in the world through the ministry of church. It’s in this reality that Jesus commissions his disciples …all power has been given to me… therefore go and make disciples of all nation. In other words, the power that raised me and the power that all has been given under my authority is the same power am reigning with in and through you my church (when the holy spirit comes upon you, you will receive power and be the witnesses of this new kind of life in Jerusalem and even in the entire world). Paul in vs 22 says that God gave Christ all authority and this authority is for the benefit of the Church. This is what is sang in the heavenly chorus in Revelation 5, “Worthy is the lamb who was slain worthy to take the scroll and break it seals he is worthy all power and wisdom and by his blood the church has been ransomed and he reigns on earth through them.”

N. T. Wright put it well in his book simply Jesus, “But now with Jesus joining heaven and earth together in his own person the holy spirit, which anointed and equipped Jesus himself for his kingdom work, comes pouring out his followers, so that they become as it were an extension of that new Temple. Where they are, heaven and earth are joined together. Jesus is with them, his life is at work in and through them, and, whether in Jerusalem or out in the wider world, they are the place where the living God, the God who is reclaiming the world for his own, is alive and active and establishing his sovereign rule (N.T. Wright P. 143-144).  

What do you think about the great commission? How do you think it is related to the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ? How is it the epitome of the good news? Since Matthew has been interested in showing how the kingdom of heaven (God) and has since the beginning demonstrating how the kingdom of God is breaking forth through Jesus, is Matthew 28:18-20 the climax declaring that indeed the kingdom of God (like a political kingship) has been installed and is soon to be consummated, and the king is calling for citizens to proclaim the good news? See you next time as we think more on this.

Mahalo.

Reference

Wright, T. (2012). Simply Jesus: who he was, what he did, why it matters. SPCK.