Gospel Notes – “The Great Commission”

Matthew, Luke, and John end with Jesus commissioning the disciples. Mark’s ending is complicated. That’s a story for another time.

Matthew, Luke, and John, all include the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirt in their commissioning stories.

They each contain the same basic elements, and they are each quite distinctive. As I’ve previously commented, this distinctiveness instructs us on how the Scriptures are inspired, and, for me, the distinctions affirm the Divine, human inspirational quality of the Scriptures. We do not, I think, have an “infallible” Bible by modern, literary, historical standards, and, frankly, I no longer want that. We have, I think, an “infallible” Bible by human, inspirational standards. By that I mean the story, when “engaged” (not just “read”) openly, has a remarkable power to open or awaken us to the Transcendent.

Matthew’s commissioning story closes his narrative with a return to the beginning of the narrative:

1:23 “They will call him Emmanuel, which means God is with us.”

28:20 “And behold, I myself am with you all the days until the end of the age.”

And, in Matthew there is no story of the Ascension of Jesus. Symbolically, Jesus remains right here. He is right here every day in every here and every now to be with us and to assist us in our life’s mission to be his disciple.

You remain in my prayers,

Jim