2023-09-20 A Meditation on the Great Commission
“16 Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. 17 And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted. 18 And 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.”” (Mt 28:16–20 ESV)
“14 Remind them of these things, and charge them before God not to quarrel about words, which does no good, but only ruins the hearers. 15 Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth. 16 But avoid irreverent babble, for it will lead people into more and more ungodliness” (2 Ti 2:14–16 ESV)
By spirit intervening we glean confidence in the certainty of this same Gospel we are trying to share broadly. That is, the great commission, the final mandate, the duties that behoove us, all these things originate in deep waters over the nebulous realm of Man’s prerogative: we have a prerogative bold and assured. We have a Gospel certain and true. We hear in our heart’s pulse a flipside to the timidity or to the cowardly lion in each of us. We evangelize precisely because we do not politicize or intend anything direct, rather our intention by faith originates in our own gifted walk, our own assembly of Spirit meets Flesh, our heartsease and spirit’s complicity.
In deep waters, to be formed and encouraged by prayer—and hasten to point out, the prescription “pray more” may work or may not, we go eons before this piece is in place and that portion is assigned, and at the end of the age finally we can testify—to be glimmering and outletting the fruits of God’s intervention in our lives… these things glorify and laud and honor One Lord, One Tree, One Branch, One Root. All this so that we are shining emblems of our Creator.
Our Creator gently catches us as we face what is impossible: the cultural mandate, the Great Commission, the simple willingness to testify. To testify is to depoliticize: it is to cause little offense for our proximity to the national boundary of politics or church divisions. If we be so liberal, then so be it via putting God and Conversion and Heart first, causing no offense or accusation of “traitor”: we are in deep waters. If we be so conservative, then so be it via again God of Love, patient working through the frustrations, knowing for certain that God is both Law and Gospel. God is not absent when a scathing judgment is pronounced; God is able rightly and courageously via His people to teach and discern. God is hearing the so-called flimsy foundation of the liberal, and the so-called accusatory foundation of the conservative.
But all this is above, in some sense, our pay grade: we are tasked simply with the Battle and the Gospel. Not worrying to offend, we know the warm gladsome tidings of a Friend or—we might acknowledge—a counter partner in the fight. The license to sin is gone when we’ve shown our steps to be in cadence with Love, with Authority (no absence of that!), with Experience and Encounter: God measured the friends on this side and He measured the friends on that side, and He gave to each of us a ministry commensurate with our network and place of dalliance in the world. More than that, He gave heroism to the martyr chased out of the church for alleged indiscretions: we are bold not to call such an indiscretion “Christ”, but to Encounter and Encourage and Teach and Form with gracious certainty of our own sanctity and propriety.
The weapons of our warfare are spiritual, and with such we can venture forth with bright light in our steps, cadence in our gait, certainty and trembling witness in our flame, propriety in our morals, and sagacity in our teachings.