The Rev. Paul J Cain
Matthew 28:16–20
Disciples 101
The Holy Trinity (A), 19 June 2011
Immanuel Lutheran Church, Sheridan, Wyoming
In the Name of the Father and of the T Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Blessèd be the Holy Trinity and the undivided Unity.
Let us give glory to him because he has shown his mercy to us.
In Genesis 1, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. In Acts 2, Peter preached, “Repent and be baptized…”
And now in the last five verses of the Gospel according to Matthew, Our Lord gives the basics on how disciples are made: by means of baptizing and by means of teaching. When people receive Holy Baptism in the Name of the Holy Trinity, they are a new creation in Christ. Both baptizing and teaching are essential to making and being a disciple of Jesus. And Our Lord who has had all authority given to Him will be with us always!
16Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. There are only eleven disciples. Judas hanged himself in despair. Peter, even though he denied Jesus three times, remembered Jesus’ words: “Before the rooster crows you will deny me three times.” Just before that, Jesus had told him, “But after I am raised up, I will go before you to Galilee.” This is the fulfillment.
16Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. 17And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted. “…but some doubted”? Isn’t this the strangest thing to hear: “some doubted”? Sometimes we modern Christians think, “If I was there, I wouldn’t have doubted!”
They saw the miracles. They heard the teaching. They didn’t have to read it from the Scriptures—they actually experienced it. Still, of course, “some doubted”! Resurrection was a new experience for them, even after seeing Lazarus, Jairus’ daughter and a widow’s son raised from the dead. I say these things not to excuse their doubt, which is unbelief and unfaith, but to help explain it.
We’re no better. We have the same human frailties, egos, and sinful behavior. We talk big, but our actions don’t always match our big words. We doubt the Lord’s love and care for us. We doubt God’s promises because we have been so conditioned by other people who have let us down. Of course, “some doubted”! There is forgiveness for doubt, too. Jesus invites you to come as you are, but He never ever leaves you that way. He calls you from doubt to faith. Jesus wants you to put your faith and trust in Him.
18And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. How much authority does Jesus have? All authority in heaven and on earth.
How did He get that authority? Did He put Himself first, before others? Was there a hostile takeover in heaven? Did He crush His business competition? Was He a bully in order to get what He wanted? No—across the board. Such questions reveal to us a difference between authority and power. Authority is delegated. It doesn’t originate in yourself. Authority is related to the word author. The Author delegates part of His role to another. The Lord is the Author of Life, as we heard earlier in the Old Testament Reading from Genesis. Jesus says that this authority was given to Him.
Many in the world seek power. They want power over others. Politics is supposed to be an arena where rulers have in mind primarily the interests of those who are ruled, no matter what kind of government is in place. The temptation is always for the powerful to protect their grip on power. The powerful tend to protect other powerful people for the same reasons. Authority is different. When a ruler rules by the authority of another, that ruler sees him or herself as a servant. There’s a big difference in attitude and in practice when it comes to power vs. authority. There needs to be!
The Lord gives vocations to human beings like us. Some of us are male, while others are female. Some are husbands, others are wives, still others single. Some couples are parents while others are not. It is all as the Lord has prepared for us. We not only see the Lord’s delegated authority in civil government, we see it in the home, the Fourth Commandment lived out.
“Honor your father and your mother,” God says. This commandment as well as other scripture show God’s pattern for good order in the home. The chief parts of Luther’s Small Catechism are introduced in a similar way: “As the head of the family should teach [them] in a simple way to his household.” The vocation of head of household combines the vocations of Christian, man, husband, and often, father. The most important way a Christian head of household can exercise his servant authority is to make sure his family is fed spiritually by Christ at church and at home. Food, clothing, shelter, and education are important, too, but what item on the list endures forever? Homes need constant maintenance. Clothing wears out or children grow out of it. Food spoils and people tend to forget what they had at their last meal. Manly Christian Men are in the Word and lead their families to Christ.
Sports have only increased in prominence even among Christians on Sunday. Consider the following. Of all the kids playing sports in junior high, fewer play in high school. Far fewer play in college. Far, far fewer make it to the pros, and then only for a matter of years. The odds of a child becoming a professional athlete are 1 in 16,000 (autismspeaks.org). That means there’s only a potential for 1 pro athlete in all of Sheridan. No wonder college athletes are encouraged to stay and get a degree to “fall back on.” What about the rest of us? Isn’t one’s faith in Christ and baptismal certificate far more important for eternal life than a college degree? All who believe and are baptized will be saved! Shouldn’t a statement like that make setting Sunday morning priorities easier? Why not delay activities until after Sunday lunch? Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us! Press on toward the goal of eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord!
There has been a lot of misunderstanding of “head of household” over the years, especially when divorced from its Biblical grounding and servant attitude. In the movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding, a daughter enlists her mother’s help in convincing dad, the head of household, to let her go to community college. To paraphrase the mom’s perspective, “The man may be the head, but the woman is the neck (pause) and can turn the head any way she wants!” J Humor aside, this teaches a practical reality. It can be very tempting to a wife and mother to misuse her God-given vocations for selfish reasons, not unlike how a head of household could abandon his responsibility for selfish reasons. A Christian woman is to use her vocation of “neck of the household,” if we can call it that for now, to turn the head to Christ so that he may better lead the family to Christ as a Manly Christian Man.
Jesus did not come to be served, but to serve, and give His life as a ransom for many. His attitude of service is evident all the way to the cross and beyond. The resurrected Christ explains the consequences of His servant authority.
18And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 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, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Go. Baptize. Teach. Three powerful words. We could understand the first in two ways. 1) Go and make disciples, baptizing and teaching. Go do this! 2) As you go, make disciples, baptizing and teaching. Whatever you do and wherever you go, do this! The commission Jesus gives, the task our Lord Christ entrusts to His Church is that of making disciples. You are disciples, for you have been baptized in the name of our Triune God and have been taught. You were brought for baptism and the Lord’s teaching. Now we bring others.
For the sake of good order, ordinarily only our pastors baptize. Yet, as the last pages of The Lutheran Hymnal and Lutheran Service Book remind us, “in urgent situations, in the absence of a pastor, any Christian may administer Holy Baptism” (1023). “Take water, call the person by name, and pour or sprinkle water on the head of the candidate while saying: Name, I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Holy Baptism administered by a layperson shall immediately be reported to the pastor for its recognition by the congregation.”
The baptized are taught. Adults who come to faith are commonly taught before they are baptized, so they know what they are being baptized into. The very young, including infants, are baptized because infants have sin, baptism grants forgiveness of sin, children are included in “all nations”, Jesus loves the little children, and because Colossians refers to baptism as the circumcision of Christ, a New Testament successor to the Old Testament circumcision of Abraham administered on the eighth day of a boy’s life. Then, children are raised in the faith into which they were baptized. Confirmation is an opportunity for those who have been baptized to publicly confess the faith and acknowledge the gifts they received at baptism. Granting faith is God’s work. Baptism is God’s work. Baptizing and teaching go together. Together they make a disciple.
People forget stuff. Teaching and learning continue from the baptismal font to the grave. Manly Christian Men could consider Bible Study “Cross Training” or body building for faith. Rejecting regular further teaching is on par with rejecting baptism. So many things can wait! The Word should come first! I ask you to first consider Sunday morning Bible Class before the other servant tasks that there are to do. What would you think if I decided to start next Sunday’s sermon or check my email or some other pastor activity instead of being there to lead Sunday Bible class? Those kind of things are important, but they can wait. Men, lead your families to Christ in God’s Word.
At times, we get burned out as servants of the church, as pastor or as lay servants. We cannot feed others unless we are fed first. Otherwise, we are busy Marthas in the kitchen of life banging pots and pans while those like her sister Mary sit at Jesus’ feet to listen to His teaching. I mean no offense to anyone. Luke 10:38-42 is powerful and practical reading for the baptized. I ask you to consider Sunday morning Bible Class before the other servant tasks that there are to do.
What promises to we have to sustain us on our way? Jesus says: And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age. You never walk alone as a Christian. Jesus abides with you. He is not present with you in the same way He bodily was present with His disciples, but He is with you forever. He will never leave you nor forsake you. He is present where two or three gather in His name. Where even two agree in prayer about anything in harmony with His word, He will grant it. He is present among us at worship. He gives His very Body and His very Blood in, with, and under the bread and wine of the sacrament of the Altar. In Baptism He takes you into Himself. In Communion He invites you to take and eat and take and drink Him into yourself. He has given you the gift of Himself! That is more than enough to supply any lack anywhere!
In the last five verses of the Gospel according to Matthew, Our Lord gives the basics on how disciples are made: by baptizing and by teaching. When a person receives Holy Baptism in the Name of the Holy Trinity, he or she is remade into a new creation in Christ. Both baptizing and teaching are essential to making and being a disciple of Jesus. Learning God’s Word continues one’s whole life long! Many Christian Men lead their families to Christ in the Word of God. And the same Lord who has had all authority given to Him in service to us will be with us always! The Lord has richly blessed you so that you may be a blessing.
Blessèd be the Holy Trinity and the undivided Unity.
Let us give glory to him because he has shown his mercy to us.
Amen.
In the Name of the Father and of the T Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
