Go Make Disciples: A Meditation on Matthew 28 for Holy Trinity Sunday

And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying,

All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.

Go ye therefore, and teach all nations,

baptizing them in the name of the

Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:

 Teaching them to observe all things

whatsoever I have commanded you:

and, lo, I am with you always,

even unto the end of the world. Amen.

 

On the day we celebrate the biblical revelation of the Most Holy Trinity (One God in Three Persons, indivisible yet distinct, the perfect and quintessential unity in community, undivided and unconfused, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever) it is important to hear what He has spoken to His people.  To honor God is to believe Him, to trust Him, to love Him above all things because He is above and before all things, and to Him all created things return.  This God has met our human race in Creation, traveled with us to preserve us through our Fall into sin and death, was Incarnate with us to satisfy the Law on our behalf through His Vicarious Atonement on Calvary, and sends His Spirit to abide with His people until the end of time.  In the course of this one, true God engaging with His creation, He has left a record of His Words—His Commands and His Promises—to be remembered in every generation.  Holy Scripture is the written record of the Divine Word, setting down for all people what the Holy Spirit spoke through the Prophets and Apostles, as well as what Jesus taught and did during His time on earth.  Before the Only Begotten Son ascended to the Father and sent His Holy Spirit to abide with His people to the end of the age, He gave a specific charge to His Apostles:  Go… disciple all nations… baptizing them… teaching them…  The Covenant of Holy Baptism is established by Jesus’ command and promise in the Name of the Holy Trinity, and His teaching to be passed on is everything He taught His Apostles.

 

The underlying Greek for make disciples or teach / disciple, is a verb of action.  Making disciples is what Jesus told His Apostles to do, and it is exactly what they did, as recorded in the Book of Acts by St. Luke.  But the process of making disciples / disciplining was not left up to subjective measures of individual perspectives, as if any feeling or emotion or whimsy about Jesus would suffice in making someone His disciple.  On the contrary, Jesus commanded that the Apostles baptize in only one Name (the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,) leaving no alternative names or conventions to mark His New Covenant of grace and salvation.  Said another way, a disciple of Jesus is baptized into the Name of the Holy Trinity, and apart from the baptism established by Jesus, no person can claim to be His disciple.  To be sure, there have been many erroneous conceptions of baptism across the centuries of Christian history (some more egregious than others,) but the Words of Jesus haven’t changed.  True Christian Baptism is still just what Jesus established it to be, still requires water and the Triune Name, and still provides exactly what He promised:  forgiveness of sins, eternal life, and salvation from sin, death, hell, and the power of the devil.  Baptism still does all this by the power and authority of Jesus alone, so that the good gifts of Baptism are received as grace alone, through faith alone, in Jesus alone.  Baptism grafts a person into the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, creates the faith to receive grace, and marks a person with the sign of the Cross forever.  No human work could accomplish this, but Jesus did, does, and will continue to do so until He returns on the Last Day to judge the living and the dead.

 

Likewise, just as there is no disciple of Jesus who is not baptized according to His Promise and Command, there is no disciple of Jesus who refuses to learn everything Jesus has taught His people by His Word.  To make a disciple, or to go about the process of discipling, requires that a person be inducted into the New Covenant established by the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, and that a person be taught everything Jesus commanded.  Jesus, who is the Eternal Word of the Father, the Word through whom all things were created and by whom all things shall be judged, is the Word which is studied by those who would be disciples of Jesus.  No person who rejects the Word of Jesus can be a disciple of Jesus—they might be a critic, an observer, a general well-wisher, or even an adversary, but no one can claim to be a disciple of someone who’s teaching they reject.  Thus, while Baptism might be a singular experience of a person in a particular place and time where they are inducted into the New Covenant, learning from Jesus and His Word is a life-long endeavor.  To be a disciple is to be a student of a Master, which is an ongoing and active living out of that relationship.  A student of a human teacher might one day exceed the capacities of their teacher and move on to someone else, but a student of Almighty God can never hope to reach the end of such study.  Just as a human mind is finite and limited while God is infinite and unlimited, the human pursuit of knowledge and wisdom through the study of God’s Word is inexhaustible.  There is no end to the study of God and His Word, as the wisdom and knowledge of God exceeds all human capacity and potential.  A disciple of Jesus is a servant of the Word of God now, and forever.

 

While this might sound daunting in an age of instant gratification, sloppy intellectualism, and ridiculously short attention spans, it is actually a truth of great comfort to those who ponder it.  Rather than blowing up the human mind or overwhelming individuals by His omnipotent power, God comes to each and every soul to woo it to Himself by His Word and Spirit.  God approaches every soul with the goading of His Law and the comfort of His Gospel, pointing all people to the One who’s burden is light and whose company is eternal life.  We may each live in a present moment, but we all live for eternity, and where we choose to live out that eternity is premised upon whether or not we are disciples of the Savior of all mankind.  Each new moment we are given is another opportunity to hear the Word of the Lord, to receive it in faith and repentance, and to rise up to new life walking alongside our God and King.  And if this is true of us, it is true for all people, no matter where they may be or how confused their thinking.  Everyone is on a journey, and everyone is being called by God to life in His Son, because God desires all people to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth.  We cannot look at our neighbor any differently than we look at ourselves, knowing that God alone saves every soul who puts their trust in Him, and that the path of discipleship is one that starts now but continues forever.  We may only walk alongside some people in this world for a short time, but it is the Lord who has sought them just as He has sought us, and it is He who sends just what we need in every moment to live in Him by grace through faith in Christ alone.

 

Be of good cheer, dear Christian, for though our work of discipleship is urgent and long, our promise is secure.  It is God alone who makes disciples of us by His Word and Spirit, and it is God alone who will make disciples by the same means of every soul that will put its trust in Him.  Remember the undeniable and irrevocable Covenant into which you were born through Holy Baptism, and the Most Holy Name which marks you as a child of God forever.  Hear the Word of the Lord every day, meditating upon the Holy Scriptures as you study to be conformed more each day to the image of your God and Savior.  When you fail, rise up again in faith and repentance, receiving again the Word of Absolution and the return to discipleship.  And as you are going about your life, sent into all the world according to the work of your vocations, make disciples of all you meet through your word and witness of Jesus, pointing them to where He can always be found in His Word and Sacraments.  For it is Jesus alone who saves all who put their faith in Him, and upon His disciples He pours out rivers of life and grace forevermore.  Soli Deo Gloria!  Amen.