Great Commission
One of the best known passages in the whole of the Bible is what is known as the Great Commission – it comes at the end of Matthew’s Gospel (28:16-20), and contains the words of Jesus pleading with his disciples to go out and work to make the kingdom bigger.
And this evening I just wanted to reflect for a few moments on that commission, and especially on the reason for it being called ‘Great.’
Firstly it was great in its authority – Jesus reminds his listeners that he has been given all authority in heaven and on earth… It is quite a frightening fact that so many people are living their lives today with no regard at all for the claims of Jesus – many who have heard the message have chosen to ignore it or put off any decision about it to another day. And yet in these words we are reminded that to put off Jesus is to put off the most powerful force in the whole of the universe.
Secondly this commission was great in its call to mission. The disciples to whom Jesus spoke were to go out and make more disciples. They were to teach about Jesus, they were to imitate his example, and they were to invite people to follow him. The expectation was that the disciples of Jesus would go out and be just like Jesus himself. It was a great responsibility but it was not one that they were asked to undertake alone.
Thirdly the disciples were told by Jesus just how big and great their mission field was to be. It wasn’t to the Jews or to the people in their village, or to their families and friends – the mission they had to follow was to all people of all nations. There were to be no barriers, and there was no end to the work that needed to be done.
And fourthly the commission offered the greatest promise of all – Jesus said, ‘I will be with you always, to the end of the age.’ There was not to be a moment when Jesus would abandon his disciples – they had taken on a long and emotional journey – a journey that had seen many of them leave their jobs and their homes, and follow Jesus.
They followed him through the experiences of the miracles, of the teaching, of the adulation from the large crowds…. Though they scattered and hid at the time they followed him even to the cross at
Jesus wasn’t about to leave them again – never again would they feel separated from Him as they had as he hung dying on the cross, never again would they have to worry that the message and the man had been defeated. From now on, right up to the time of the final victory, Jesus would be there with them.
And so this commission is great in its authority, in its mission, in the size of its mission and in the promise, and we all know that it is also great in its long lasting nature. The Great Commission was never to be limited to the disciples – they were to go and make more disciples who were to go out and do the same again and again. Today we are the inheritors of this commission, and the realisation of that can be a very uncomfortable sort of feeling !
We are asked the questions, Are we submitting to the authority of Jesus in the way that we treat him and respect him and his commandments, are we working to make more disciples, are we looking outside our own areas to look at a mission field that is worldwide, and are we recognising his presence in our lives ??
The challenges of Jesus are quite frightening and daunting unless we are really prepared to take on his promise that whatever we do in his name he will help us… We can’t pick and choose the bits we want to follow of the teaching of Jesus – his authority is one that we either respect or deny.
When he talks of making more disciples he doesn’t talk of building a nice Church that people will feel welcome in, if they come inside, he talks of going out and showing Jesus to people through our words and through our actions.
And he talks of a wide mission field that challenges us to look beyond our own communities, and out into the wider world, a world where perhaps our influence is more limited, but where we still can have some influence.
There’s the story about the thousands of starfish washed up on the beach, and a man notices another man picking some of them up and returning them to the sea – when he says to the man that there’s no point in what he’s doing because he can’t save many of them at all, the man responds by saying that he is at least saving some – working with the power of God on our side, we must never underestimate our ability to show Jesus to others.
And that promise of Jesus to be with those early followers continues today as we seek to do his work.
Shortly after Jesus gave this Great Commission he ascended to heaven, but his earliest disciples followed that commission and they did wonderful things with it – they were inspired and they had a mission. They were confident in the power of Jesus, and they were sure of his continued presence with them – And so, following their example and trusting in his promises, may these words of Jesus motivate us to do great things in our service to Him also. AMEN
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