The Blessing of All Nations

 April 16 2023

Matthew 28:16-20

         One of the greatest changes that I have seen in the last few years is the transformation that has occurred in peoples ease of going places. It just amazes me how if people have a desire to go anywhere in the world they just go hop on a plane and go, no hesitation. I was thinking about how little thought is given anymore to flying wherever people want to go because my daughter, Sarah, found out about an opportunity to see Taylor Swift’s inaugural concert in Arizona and next thing I knew she was headed to the airport. When I was growing up, it was a big deal if you knew of anyone who had even flown in an airplane but now flying around the world is rather commonplace. Sarah has gone as far as South Africa in her travels and my son, Matt has been to Prague. My younger brother Jeff, for a while, worked for a company in Great Britain and so he not only flew over there for meetings but also flew to places like Berlin as well. 

         So heading out to see the world is just not seen with the kind of apprehension that it used to have. Perhaps it is the ability that we now have to instantly communicate with each other that helps us to remain connected even when we are, in reality hundreds or thousands of miles apart. Yet this current way that we consider traveling around the world, I believe, can make us forget that for much of history, leaving home and going anywhere was met with a lot of sadness and fear. I was thinking about this when I was mulling over what is commonly referred in church circles as being the Great Commission. This scripture is often just read rather of matter-of-factly forgetting the context in which it was set. I mean, here were eleven men who had lived their whole lives in one small location of the world. In their culture, they would have been expected to remain close to home, taking over the family business when the time came, raising a family so that there would be another generation to follow in their footsteps. So, I wonder on that morning not long after the resurrection of Jesus, when they gathered back up there on that same mountainside in Galilee where they had first sat at the feet of their master, just what was going on in their minds and hearts, when first, they see their Lord, risen and alive and then when he told them that their new assignment was to, go. You see, there was a newness not just in the life of their Lord who had called them to once again assemble up on the mountainside but also there was a newness to the kind of life he was calling them to, a life of going not staying. Perhaps it was not just the newness of the life of Jesus but the newness of the life he was calling them to live, which caused some, as we are told, to waver in their faith. Yes, this one who was meeting with them there was indeed Jesus, the place where they gathered helped them at least understand this but the question to worship him, to see beyond his humanness and see more, the presence of God there in his face, this is what proved difficult. The faith that those who doubted needed so desperately, I believe, would come as Jesus spoke to them as to just what was going to happen next. They were to perk up and listen because Jesus first tells them that it is he, and he alone, who has all authority in heaven and on earth. This means that it is Jesus alone who holds all the power, anywhere in the universe. This power that Jesus has is not just a commanding power, to speak and to cause to happen but his is also the power of revelation so that what he reveals to us through his speaking must be considered ultimate truth whether he speaks of things of heaven or things on earth. So, if we want to know about our Heavenly Father, then it is to Jesus we turn because he alone can speak with authority because he has come from his Father’s side and he has ultimately returned there to reign forever. Jesus also speaks with authority about the Holy Spirit because he alone is the one who baptizes us with the Spirit, the Spirit who ultimately speaks the words of Jesus to us. You can begin to see just why it is so important that placing ourselves under the authority of Jesus is vital to knowing him as our Lord and our God, worthy of all our praise and worship. This is what some of those who gathered there with him on that day up on a mountain in Galilee had to realize because only as they accepted the authority of Jesus, which is his because of his victory upon the cross, could they be expected to be obedient to what Jesus had to say next. 

         Jesus tells his disciples that they were to go and as they were going, to make disciples just as he had taken them from their former lives and had formed and shaped them into his disciples. Now, it may not be exactly clear to us nor perhaps, was it clear to those disciples of Jesus as to why there was such a need for them to go, to get up and get out of town, I mean why not just stay where they are and make disciples right there with the people that they already knew. The reason for their going though is found in understanding just what is meant by being a disciple of Jesus. I have heard numerous studies on these few verses and what has surprised me is that so many people take what is said here and tear it from the gospel to which it is apart of. The gospel of Matthew is an important work because it speaks to the true calling for those who are God’s people and especially for those who call themselves children of Abraham. You see, what Matthew puts front and center in his gospel rendition is blessing. Jesus begins his ministry with the words, “Blessed are those…”, upon his lips. I believe that that this aspect of blessedness cannot be lost in our trying to figure out just what Jesus means by making disciples. We must, when hearing Jesus speak about what it means to be blessed by God, as found in the fifth chapter of Matthew, connect this to the promise which God first made to Abraham. We must recall that when God called out to a very old man and his wife, he began their journey together with a promise. In the twelfth chapter of Genesis, God tells Abraham, that he would make of him a great nation, and he would bless Abraham and make his name great, so that he would be a blessing. God continued by telling Abraham that he would bless those who blessed him and he would curse those who dishonored Abraham and in Abraham, all of the families of the earth would be blessed. Here at the very beginning of the story of God’s actions to save his world we are given a promise by him, that he indeed would be a God who would bless all of the families on earth. We are thus left wondering just how did God fulfill this promise? You see, what is at stake when God speaks forth a promise is his very faithfulness of fulfilling that promise. The circumstances that we encounter will never be a good indicator of God’s faithfulness to us this is why it is imperative that we understand that where God’s faithfulness is always known is through the fulfillment of his promises.

         As we follow this thread of blessing through the story of the Bible we do indeed see how God was fulfilling this promise through the descendants of Abraham, the people of Israel. In the twentieth chapter of Exodus, we hear God promise the people of Israel, that in every place where he caused his name to be remembered, God would come to them and God would bless them. The understanding then was that as God blessed the people of Israel they in turn would be a blessing for the people of the nations. So, once again, we are left wondering just how will God fulfill his promise that he had made to Abraham, how would all the families on earth come to be blessed by God?

         When we read the story of God and his people with the anticipation of his fulfilling his promise to extend his blessing to every family throughout the globe, our ears would perk up when at last we hear of one who belongs to the people of Israel who begins his ministry with the words, “Blessed are those…”. Here at last the mystery of the blessing of God is finally explained for all to understand. Here is where it is important for us to come under the authority of Christ because the blessing of God comes not to those who have done anything at all but instead the blessing of God is for those who are aware that they do not have what it takes to do anything good at all. So there is no formula that must be followed in order for us to at last receive the blessing of God. All that is needed is an admittance of our weakness and our need. Nowhere was this more evident than there on that mountainside when the risen Jesus was speaking to these eleven who had abandoned him when he was crucified. The blessing that Jesus, our Lord and God, gives is that he does not shy away from employing those the world might see as failures.

         Now, it may seem as a strange place to begin, this idea of blessing, especially when Jesus speaks of making disciples and he instructs his followers to baptize those that they called their disciples, in “the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.” Yet if we go back to those early days when Jesus first spoke of the blessing of God, we hear Jesus speak of how blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted. This mourning is the realization that under our own power we are unable to live the life of righteousness that God expects. This is the curse which all of us find ourselves under, the curse which Jesus went to the cross to destroy. So here we can understand that when we are baptized we are baptized into the death of Christ as Paul teaches us in the sixth chapter of Romans, the fourth verse. It is in our mourning, in the very certainty of death that God finds us and comforts us and he leads us out of this death into a newness of life. Jesus speaks often in the gospel of John of how the Father draws us to himself and here this is what indeed happens, the Father taking hold of us who are indeed as good as dead and through his love bringing us back into life. This is our blessed existence. When Jesus speaks of being baptized, he uses the word which means to enter into the very life of God, the life whose name is the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. This is what is symbolized by the going down into the water and rising up from it anew. We enter into a new life, a life with God, a life held within the very life of God, a life called by Jesus to be blessed because it is meek, willing to follow and obey at last what God calls us to do.When we at last rely upon the faithfulness of God then we receive the same promise given to Abraham as he relied upon the faithfulness of God, a share in the inheritance to come. At last those who hunger and thirst for righteousness will be satisfied. This is what Jesus speaks about when he tells us in the eighth chapter of Matthew, that many will come and eat at the table with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of Heaven.

         You see, as we consider these last words of Jesus it becomes so apparent that we must do so remembering the first words that he gave to them, to hold on to this theme of blessing. Only as we hold on to this blessing of God will the faithfulness of God to uphold his promises be secured. Only as we hold on to this theme of blessings will the aspect of what Jesus calls, “teaching them all that I have commanded you”, be upheld as well. The central core teachings of Jesus as found in his first sermon there on the mountainside flow out of and are connected to the blessings that are promised to us by Jesus. So often when commentators go on to explain what Jesus meant for his disciples to teach their disciples, the core teachings of Jesus strangely get left behind. To leave these core teachings of Jesus behind though is to forget that what Jesus taught was given to help us understand and live as people blessed by God. If we can say that we have been blessed by the loyal, faithful love of God that he has shown to us then we must wonder just how should we respond to such a blessing? The answer that Jesus gives us is that we are to be united to one another with the same loyal, faithful love that God first has given to us. This then explains why the will of God always revolves around unity, that we are to strive for unity in our relationships with each other, and to have integrity within ourselves. This then goes on to explain why we seek reconciliation with those who have hurt us instead of revenge and why we refuse to let our lusts and desires destroy what God has joined together. 

         This unity that comes out of the loyal, faithful love of God is maintained through our forgiving of others in the same lavish fashion with which God forgives us and through giving with the supernatural abundance that God promises to supply. So, when Jesus tells us that blessed are the pure in heart, he is speaking of how when our heart is united in its love for God and for all humanity then the actions that flow out of such a heart will yield the promise that the invisible God will be made visible through our love. Such a pure heart that God blesses us with then will go on to be found to be the source which creates peacemakers out of us. This becoming peacemakers, Jesus tells us is a blessing because when peace is created through us then we are called the very sons of God. How, when we hear Jesus say these words, can we not think of what Paul wrote in the first chapter of Colossians, where he writes in the nineteenth and twentieth verses, that, “God was pleased to have his fullness dwell in Jesus and through him to reconcile all things to himself-peacemaking through the blood of the cross.” You see, if a disciple, a student is supposed to be like their teacher or Master then how can we not understand that we are blessed in being like Jesus, blessed in making peace because only then can we be assured of receiving the promise of our inheritance. It is here that it becomes so abundantly clear that these blessings of Jesus have to be taken into account when we speak of making disciples because if we fail to do so, then we may define what it means to be like Jesus in many other ways except being a peacemaker.

         Ultimately as we consider the teachings of Jesus, we remember that at the very center of the core teachings of Jesus lies a prayer, a prayer that is given to us by Jesus, a prayer which speaks to all that we as his followers are to be doing. So often when people speak about prayers they often believe that praying stands in opposition to action yet in the prayer of Jesus this is clearly not so. His prayer is a call to get up off our knees and get to work. It is those who pray his prayer that are to make the very name of our Heavenly Father, holy through our loving with the holy love which he first loved us. It is we who pray his prayer who are called to make his kingdom come through the bringing of peace into a violent world. It is we who pray this prayer who are called to do the will of our Heavenly Father through drawing the world together instead of tearing it apart. We bring the world together through welcoming and inviting others to share in the supernatural abundance of our Heavenly Father. We draw others close through forgiving in the same manner that our Heavenly Father has done to us. And we keep from becoming evil, violent, people through treasuring only our Heavenly Father, dismissing all worldly treasures as being unworthy of our devotion. You see, the people who pray such a prayer are people who can testify that they have been blessed by God and their life flows directly out of his blessing. Those who live by such a prayer then can be said to be a blessing from God, blessing others just as God has blessed them, and isn’t this exactly what God first promised to Abraham would happen? 

         You see, the Great Commission of Jesus cannot be separated from God’s promise that one day all the families on earth would be blessed. Paul understood this best because as he writes in the third chapter of Galatians, the fourteenth verse, “in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham has come to all the nations.”. This is why Jesus called his followers to, go. They had to go, to go when they had no idea even how to go, because in Jesus the time of blessing had come and such good news just could not be kept to themselves. This blessing in a word is peace. God has made peace with us through Jesus so that we might live in peace with one another. So, may we go forth in peace and uphold the faithfulness of God! Amen!