Faith Formation: Matthew The Gospel of God With Us December 5, 2024

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. God 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

"Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, ..." Judas had died. Matthew saw no need to replace him, as did Luke, in order to retain the number twelve. Perhaps the number "eleven" should not be read in a limited way as only those men who Jesus called. One can imagine that the women who announced Jesus' resurrection were with them on the mountain of commissioning. The women, it seems, also instructed them on where to meet Jesus at the mountain. This was the first gathering of the disciples after they had dispersed from Gethsemane a few nights before. Maybe they traveled together along with the women who witnessed to them on their way home. It was natural for them to return to Galilee. Jerusalem was not their home.

"... to the mountain to which Jesus directed them." Matthew did not name the mountain, either the mountain of the Sermon on the Mount, or where the 5000 were fed, or of the Transfiguration. High places signified for many a point of contact between earth and the heavens, a meeting place with God, and places of worship. Moses met God on Mount Sinai, the Jerusalem Temple was situated on Mount Zion, and Luke had Jesus ascend into heaven from the Mount of Olives. Mount Arbel near Capernaum over looking the Sea of Galilee has been designated as the place of commissioning, but that is based purely on tradition, as are so many of the holy sites of Jesus in Israel. The main point remains, that this was a place of commissioning, a meeting point between heaven and earth, God and God's witnesses.

"When they saw him, they worshipped him, but they doubted." Surprising to many far removed from the time and inspired with 2000 years of faith, seeing Jesus again did not immediately bring them to certainty or great or perfect faith. The term "doubt" is strong and pejorative as it relates to faith. One might read words like they were "hesitant," "uncertain," or even "skeptical." Still they, like the women at the tomb "worshipped him" and had obediently gone to meet him in Galilee. M. Eugene Boring comments that the word reflects Matthew's understanding of discipleship as "always a matter of 'little faith,' faith that by its nature is not the same as cocksureness, but incorporates doubts within itself as an act of worship." Faith is always a growing edge on the journey of spirit and religion. Faith never arrives at its end this side of death, but is ever a matter of exploration and discovery, inspiration and wonder. Yet even as faith is subjective, a matter interior to personhood, it is confirmed by the experience of billions of people across time and even diverse religions and spiritualities throughout the world. What people call and put their faith in cannot be objectively proven by the standards of empiricism and the sciences. And yet it's persistent presence and meaningfulness across every culture and revelation of the something more than all this provides in a way confirmation that faith is valid, real and undeniable. The disciples on the mountain in Galilee where they saw Jesus still had a lifetime to discern and believe, to discern and define what they were going to call and how they were going to practice faith in Jesus. What they came up with was at times definitive and orthodox, and then again needed from time to time to be reformed and reconsidered. Faith continually evolves as it is inspired and led by the Word of God and the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Little or great, uncertain and assured, faith turns to worship with the community of disciples to express wonder and to consider how to live with Christ in the world into which we have been born and baptized.

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

Pastor Tim Bauer.