Matthew 28:16-20
Today’s scripture is known as the “great commission.” Jesus commissions the disciples to “make disciples” of all nations. How do they do that? First they baptize them. Then they teach them to obey Jesus commandments. In the process, they are always in the presence of Jesus:
“I am always with you.”
This seems so straightforward. And it is. And it’s not.
For centuries people have believed Jesus told the disciples to go make Christians of the whole world. They traveled the lands they knew preaching about Jesus. Future popes conquered lands ruled by people of other religions because of this commission. The great missionary movements of the 19th century were motivated by it. People are still insisting that we must convert every person to Christianity because of this story. But it’s not what it says. It doesn’t say “make Christians.” It says “make disciples.”
Disciples and Christians aren’t the same thing. The original disciples were Jews and stayed that way, thinking that the ministry of Jesus was a Jewish reform movement. They had great debates about whether or not Jesus’ message was for gentiles or non-Jews. We read about those debates when we read the book of Acts. The followers of Jesus weren’t commonly called Christians until after the first disciples died. This isn’t an instruction to make everyone in the world join the Christian church.
So what is a disciple? I think of disciples as interns. They follow the leader around, learn from the leader and act as assistants to the leader. In this case it meant literally walking from town to town with Jesus and listening to what he said, both to the crowds and when they were together on the road or around the supper fire. The disciples did crowd control and kept people from overwhelming Jesus. They managed potlucks and food-shares so crowds could be fed. They learned from Jesus how to heal people and were sent out on their own to heal and bring a message of hope, multiplying the number of villages Jesus could reach by dividing into pairs to cover more territory.
Along the way these disciples – the twelve men named in the Bible and the rest of the men and women who were traveling with them – learned from Jesus a new way of thinking about life. There were just a few commandments – not the hundreds of traditional Jewish law: love God, love your neighbor, love yourself. When people wanted to debate intricacies of how the law applied to life, Jesus usually cut to the chase: love. What would love do? Do that. Rather than the usual looking-out-for-self way of living, these disciples were taught to look out for each other and for the crowds that gathered wherever they went. They learned to share food. They learned to heal illness. They learned to offer wisdom without arguing and to move on when they weren’t welcome. In a world where life was incredibly hard and economic and political injustice were everywhere, they learned to form communities and make life easier for everyone. They became the kingdom of God – a vision for a better world.
Jesus tells them to keep doing more of what they’d already been doing together. First they baptize folks – like John the Baptizer had baptized them. Baptism was a ritual of joining on to a new vision for life. It was a turning around point where you stopped living like you always had and started living in a new and more cooperative way. You put others first. You committed to love God and each other. It was an intentional beginning of something new.
Once folks were baptized, they taught them how to live by the law of love. When we read the Didache we learned that they taught them anger management so they wouldn’t get in trouble with other folks, particularly the Roman soldiers patrolling the towns. They taught them simple rules of right and wrong that followed the law of love. They taught them how to share their bread with travelers and how to set boundaries so they weren’t overwhelmed with requests. They taught them how to be a community of equals even though they lived in vastly different circumstances – rich and poor, men and women, Jews and gentiles.
Over time being a follower of Jesus turned into being a Christian. Being a Christian turned into believing particular things about Jesus – that he was God and he mostly cared about getting you into heaven. That he died and was physically resurrected and that was the key to heaven. Those may be good and helpful things. But they’re not what Jesus taught the disciples or what he asked them to pass along. We can keep all those ideas, but we can’t be true followers of Jesus if we don’t remember the beginning and learn to live in the way Jesus taught disciples to live.
How do we do that?
Well, some of you are healers. You continue the ministry of healing disease and restoring people to wholeness.
Some are teachers. You share knowledge and help people learn the skills they need to make a good life.
Some are policy wonks. You figure out how we can work together to bring a better life to everyone. Others just call legislators and remind them what bills you’d like them to pass to implement those policies.
Some are builders and crafts folk. You make stuff and fix stuff and provide the world with the things we need.
Some are servers and helpers. In stores and restaurants and activity centers you take care of people so the community works well together.
Most of all I think we are called to be lovers. Lovers of other people in the way God loves them. We do whatever it takes for each and every person to be valued and to have a good life. If someone hurts or is hungry or struggles to find a good way forward, that’s our responsibility. We’re here to support each other and to stand up to those who want to look the other way. To insist that the world work in a way that’s good for everyone. All lives matter. No one is left behind. Those aren’t just slogans, they are a way of life. A Jesus way of life. And that’s what it means to be a disciple.
Make disciples of all nations means make the world work for all people. It’s a big job. It’s what followers of Jesus have been asked to do for 2000 years. Our turn is now.