Faith Formation: Matthew The Gospel of God With Us

Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. When they saw him, they worshipped him, but they doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and 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." Matthew 28:16-20

Matthew began telling this story by introducing Jesus as "Emmanuel ... God with us." Jesus final words to his disciples were that this would always be so. "... in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ... I am with you always, to the end of the age." Jesus ascension to heaven comes from Luke's story and is the confession of the Church in the creeds. "... he ascended into heaven, he is seated at the right hand of the Father, and he will come again to judge the living and the dead." It has been suggested that for Matthew, Jesus never left. Rather Jesus promise to be with the disciples, the church, "you" to the end of the age offered a different message. Jesus promises to be with us as long as it takes for us to become his disciples, rather than until some "end of the world."

To that aim Jesus commissioned the disciples to "make disciples." Jesus intention for the church perhaps was less about getting people to where Jesus purportedly went, and more about getting people to where they lived with one another, where they might love one another, serve one another and be with one another as God was with them, us. Again, the place of commissioning, Galilee, is suggestive. Jesus called them and taught them through his words and actions to meet the people of Galilee at the point of their need, their suffering, the things that bedeviled them, and the things they longed for. And more, to extend the community of disciples to all the nations via baptism in what became the emerging name of God for the community of Jesus followers.

Baptize them "in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." The Christian church eventually understood this phrase to be the name of God triune, one in three, three in one. It is the earliest known expression of the name. Matthew may not have had a full blown understanding of what would become of that phrase. He wrote within 40 years of Jesus life, death and resurrection. He wrote after the Apostle Paul who never formulated the name of God in that way. The next writing to use that language was in a text called "The Didache" or "The Teaching" written withing the next few decades. The writer presumably knew Matthew's Gospel and repeated Matthew's language when he gave instructions on baptism. "Now concerning baptism, baptize as follows: after you have reviewed all these things, baptize in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit in running water. But if you have no running water, then baptize in some other water; and if you are not able to baptize in cold water, then do so in warm. But if you have neither, then pour water on the head three times in the name of the Father and Son and Holy Spirit." Didache 7

We read the Gospels and the Bible as religious texts, as opposed to secular, political, or otherwise spiritually neutral writings. Yet everything Jesus said and did, the way he lived and died was in relationship to a world where those distinctions were not clear or often acknowledged. All those categories were interrelated and functioned indistinguishably from one another. For Jesus, the disciples and the emerging Church life was lived in the context of the Roman Empire. Jesus words "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me," mimics things said of the empire. Warren Carter references a few sayings. "Livy recalls Proculus Julius's announcement that Romulus 'father of the Roman city' descended from heaven to command, 'Go and declare to the Romans the will of Heaven that my Rome shall be the capital of the world so let them cherish the art of war, and let them know and teach their children that no human strength can resist Roman arms." Jesus claim to "All authority on heaven and on earth" was a direct challenge to the allegiance of his followers as to whether they would follow and pass on the teachings of God or those of the Empire. In essence the point was that the disciples were to teach that the will of heaven was not that of Rome. Rather the will of heaven was taught by Jesus, and with those teachings they would resist the empires of the world which valued power and conquering with the sword by becoming servants who took up the cross, sought, accepted, experienced the blessedness poverty of spirit, mourning, hungering and thirsting for righteousness, showing mercy, being pure in heart, peacemakers, even though they might be persecuted. They would go with this mission as long as it took, even to the end of the age.

Keep the faith. Say your prayers. Love like Jesus.

Pastor Tim Bauer