Go Therefore
Text: Matthew 28:16-20
Trinity Sunday, June 15, 2014
Preacher: Tim Snyder, Director of Christian Education
I. The End is the Beginning
Finally a gospel with a proper ending.
Today, in Matthew’s account, after twenty seven chapters that tell about the life, ministry, death and resurrection of Jesus, we have an ending that really does the gospel justice. In Mark’s gospel the women run away from the tomb in fear and they tell no one. Later on, editors would try to clean it up with a few awkward cut and paste jobs. Luke’s ending is like when audio books used to be on cassette tapes: “You have reached the end of Part One. Please turn the cassette over and press play for Part Two: The Acts of the Apostles.” Biblical scholars have long suggested that John’s gospel likely ended with the now penultimate chapter 20. An extra chapter was apparently needed later on to secure some solid pro-Peter as leader / foundation of the church propaganda.
But Matthew’s gospel really crafts a brilliant ending. And for good reason the text has been central to Christian imagination. We know it as The Great Commission: “Go, therefore and make disciples baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.” With this clear reference to the Triune God, it is no wonder that the lectionary committee chose this text. It’s familiar to us. It makes sense.
Though I suspect many of us have a hard time hearing this familiar text anew. Many of us are deeply aware that this text has all too often been at the center of a painful history of church-sponsored conquest. This whole idea of making disciples historically meant by force but even in modern times persuasive and manipulative evangelization efforts distort our efforts to hear the text as gospel; as good news. Hearing this text may rightfully propel us inward to confession and repentance for all the ways it has been abused. However a closer listening may also reveal a text not so much concerned with a triumphal presence of Christ as Victor, but the punctuating promise of a relational God. If there is any corner of the mystery of the Trinity we can be sure of, it is that God cannot be who God is without being in relationship. And so the risen Christ meets the disciples to promise his presence in the midst of an uncertain future.
Though this encounter is quite literally the pinnacle of Matthew’s gospel — it is yet another scene on some anonymous mountain — it is also a window, a glimpse into what discipleship is like here and now. If you want to know what it looks like to follow Jesus, just notice what is going on here among those who knew Jesus best at the very point where the ending became a beginning.
II. The Great Commission of An Uncertain Future
There on that mountain the disciples encounter the risen Christ, who gives to them The Great Commission of An Uncertain Future.
For the followers of Jesus, the sudden absence of their pastor, teacher and friend has left them surrounded by acres of uncertitude. His violent murder has left them guilty by association and perhaps for very good reasons the men have dispersed.
Just before this encounter, and in grand form, the stone that sealed the tomb had been rolled away. Unlike the men, the women had come to the tomb to ensure the body was properly prepared. Their faithful presence stands in stark contrast to those who fled in fear. And so it is the women who become the first witnesses to the resurrection. There they are greeted by an angel who tells them that Jesus has risen, he’s not there. “Go,” they are told, find the boys and meet up in Galilee where this whole Jesus movement began.
“Go,” they are told.
It is not exactly a comprehensive plan. There are no task forces or call committees or ministry site profiles. No transition plans, supply pastors or detailed emails from their congregational president.
Just a word: “Go.”
In the absence of a better plan, they do go. I suspect it was not difficult to convince the others that returning to Galilee was a good idea, even if they were confused by the women’s claims that Jesus had risen from the dead. But the rendezvous that is to come is a complicated reunion. Following Jesus is risky and it has its costs.
In the gospel reading you are about to hear, as they arrive on scene there is already evidence of those costs. Whereas elsewhere in the text, they are “the twelve,” here there are only eleven — Judas’ betrayal is on full display, but unless resurrection comes with side effects of short term memory loss, Peter’s denial and their abandonment also remain close at hand.
On the top of the mountain the risen Christ is met with both worship and doubt. In the original Greek it is possible to interpret this detail as there are some who are worshipping and some who are doubting. It is also possible to interpret this as those who are worshipping are at the same time doubting. Either way, that doubt is a part of what it means to follow the risen Christ ought be reassuring to many of us. I wonder what would happen if we changed the sign out front to read:
Faith Lutheran Church “Worship and Doubt” Sunday, 10am.
“Good morning,” Pastor Tim would say. “Welcome to our Service of Worship and Doubt.”
That very well may be a more honest description of our life together.
In the midst of this moment, perhaps the disciples were looking for some clarity. Perhaps there were some who even hoped that the reunion might be permanent. For days they had waited in confusion and fear, unsure of what would happen next. Now Jesus is back and everything can return to the way it was. But, of course they can’t go back. We can never go back to the way thing were. After all, Jesus has something else in mind, a new future awaits them and each of them have a role to play.
The same commandment that brought them to this encounter of the risen Christ, is the same commandment they are now given. “Go,” is what brought them to this mountain. “Go,” is what now sends them off and into the world.
What is perhaps most stunning about this encounter is it’s total lack of clarity concerning what is to come next. In these post-Resurrection days, these days that are filled with the anxieties of an uncertain future, Jesus appears to the disciples to not to return to the ways things were and not to offer a master plan for the future, but only to offer his Spirit to sustain them in faith.
III. Reprise: The End is the Beginning
This encounter is an unexpected, unwarranted and unconditional gift — a gift of grace in every sense of the word and its hard to imagine a better ending. What could be better than an ending that is also a beginning?
Occasionally we preachers have to work hard to demonstrate how the story of God and God people that is found in scripture is also our story. But this is not one of those Sundays. This community of disciples we call Faith Lutheran Church knows all too well about uncertain futures. The grief that comes in the absence of a beloved pastor, teacher and friend is present here and now even as we prepare for what comes after Pastor Tim’s retirement. Perhaps some of us will scatter. Perhaps some of us will stay close to tend the rituals of our loss. Perhaps others may want an assurance that things will eventually return to the way they’ve always been. Perhaps all of us will both worship and doubt.
And when we do, we can rest assure that we must be living in Post-resurrection days. Their story is our story. As resurrection people we are called to uncertain futures, but we are not sent empty handed.
We go with a promise.
So hear now that promise, the good news of the risen Christ:
Read Gospel Lesson: Matthew 28: 16-20
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Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. When they saw him, they worshipped 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.’
