An editor working on the first authorized English translation of the Bible in 1611 -- popularly known as the King James Version -- gave The Great Commission as an editorial title to this passage at the end of Matthew's Gospel (actually inserting it into the English text), and since that time to this day most other popular English translations have simply repeated the editorial title. Sporting this particular name, the text itself has long been held as the scriptural justification for the missionary enterprise, and, for the most part, it still carries that implication to this day.

The problem I do have, however, with simply labeling this text for all time as "the Great Commission" (which by convention and habit I also do) is that, quite frankly, doing so has virtually robbed the text of any other possible analysis or meaning.

Because this particular text has become so closely identified with the missionary movement, we scarcely hear anything Jesus says before or after the immortal line, "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." In fact, everything else in this text gets subjugated to this line; and that's what I have a problem with.

When we pare down a passage of scripture to a single line or idea, we tend to lose the total thought that the Gospel writer intended to convey. Look at all the other things in the passage that get overlooked:

• Matthew mentions eleven disciples, not twelve, implying something less than complete perhaps.
• What about the phrase "but some doubted"? These who doubted weren't just some casual followers of Jesus, but some of the eleven themselves!
• And the cryptic line, "I am with you always, even to the end of the age." What could that possibly mean? Could it possibly have more than one meaning?

Notice that the complex sentence in question this morning has three phrases. "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations" represents the first phrase, the main clause. It is followed by the other two phrases which tell us what Matthew thinks making disciples consists of, expressed in a parallel construction: "baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit," which is parallel to "and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you." Baptizing and teaching.

In my experience of various churches through life "making disciples" has usually meant one thing, and one thing alone: saving people's souls by witnessing to them about Jesus. Many churches believe and practice this still.

Last summer, on our vacation trip to see my family in Indiana, we stopped at a Wal-Mart to buy something that we needed before we arrived. It was 2:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, on July 12th. I know the precise date and time because I wrote it down, for I wanted to remember what happened to me that day.

As I approached the store, with Jonathan in tow, I noticed a few tables set up with a handful of teenage type kids behind them doing some kind of activity. As it turns out, one of the young people asked me if I would like to take the Pepsi Challenge. I could see an array of cups and several two-liter bottles of Pepsi and Coca-Cola sitting on the table. Having recently seen television commercials for the Pepsi Challenge featuring the Carolinas, I recognized what was going on, but since I had Jonathan with me (and we were kind of in a hurry) I politely declined and walked past the young person.

As I got closer to the door of the Wal-Mart, a second teenager, who saw that I had not taken the taste test, then approached me, and said to me, "Would you please take this and read it?" She handed me a piece of paper, and not really looking at it, I thanked her and entered the store. Then I looked at it.

I quickly read the paper, and then I went back outside the store to see the Pepsi Challenge display again. And then, I must confess to you and before God, I got angry, really angry. And I know I shouldn't have. Let me assure you, I didn't do anything stupid or embarrassing to St. James with that anger. I just allowed myself to experience those feelings. We made our purchase, got back in the car, and left for Fort Wayne. And later, much later, I let those feelings pass.

It turns out that the young person from the Pepsi Challenge table had not given me a piece of literature about Pepsi products, or a coupon, which I assumed it was. What she had done was slipped me a Gospel tract, entitled "How to get to heaven from Decatur, Indiana," printed and distributed by one of the local churches.

Now let me be clear: that's not why I got angry. I think it's fine to hand out Gospel tracts directly and honestly. I got angry because this particular approach of sharing the Gospel, the Good News of Jesus, was neither direct nor honest.

Returning to the table for a closer inspection, I saw that the "taste test" was not an authorized Pepsi Challenge at all, but a device being used to get people to stop and listen to their appeal for the forthcoming Vacation Bible School at that particular church, and to garner business for that afternoon's youth group car wash. I saw that the signs were all hand made, and that nothing looked official about it at all.

I fancied that the people from Pepsi and Coca-Cola companies would be interested in seeing this "taste test" using their names. "Does Wal-Mart know that this is happening on their property?" I asked myself; but then I had a thought that maybe the manager was a member of the church, or even the pastor!

But what really upset me most was that here was someone lying to my face about their motives in order to share the Gospel with me; and, that they were lying to unchurched people in order to share the Gospel with them. Did these young people really think no one would figure this out? Will unchurched people think that all Christians operate like this?

I found the duplicity appalling to the point of upsetting: Is this really "What Jesus Would Do?" Did I ever see him spread the Gospel by using a "bait and switch" technique? Has it come to this, that we need to be dishonest about our actual intentions in order to trick people into hearing our Gospel message? Are we that ashamed now to give what St. Peter calls an honest "accounting of the hope that is within us"? And, must the only goal of sharing the Gospel be to ensure that people will get to heaven from Decatur, Indiana, or from anywhere else for that matter? I shuddered to think of these things.

Today's Gospel lesson represents the conclusion of Matthew's Gospel. It is the final act of Jesus, and he does, in fact, commission his remaining eleven disciples, doubters and believers alike, to the task of making other disciples of all people, everywhere, for all time.

Well, what does Matthew mean by "making disciples"? What does the text tell us? Baptize and teach. Not witnessing, not soul winning, not Bible thumping, but by baptizing and teaching. To make disciples takes time for teaching, and teaching requires a relationship.

In the Early Church, one's baptism came after a lengthy process of instruction and teaching, called the catechumenate, sometimes lasting up to three years. The baptism ceremony itself happened in the middle of the night at the Easter Vigil, and it was absolutely life changing. Only then could one be called a "Christian" because they had then been baptized into the Body of Christ, the Church. You make disciples within the context of a Christian community, not on street corners, or in tent meetings, or at revivals, or by using stress, pressure or shaming tactics.

Notice the last phrase of that complex sentence we've been studying: "teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you" says Jesus. What would that "everything" be, we ask ourselves? Why, the entire Gospel of Matthew, of course. When one looks at the Gospel closely, we see a pattern of instruction that makes it clear that Matthew served as a teaching manual for that particular faith community.

And what was the content of that teaching? Very briefly, let's look. Nestled in between stories about the life and work of Jesus, his passion, death and resurrection, we find five distinct discourses, or lectures, given to the disciples from time to time when they were gathered together. We know this is so because all these discourses end with the words "when Jesus had finished instructing his disciples" or something very similar. These discourses provide the major teaching content of what Matthew's faith community wanted to convey, surrounded and made interesting, if you will, by narrative material of Jesus' life that shared a similar point of view.

The first of these discourses is the most well known: The Sermon on the Mount, with its ethical and justice demands; then comes the missionary discourse, including the line "I am sending you out in the midst of wolves; be wise as serpents, innocent as doves;" followed by, the parables of the Kingdom lecture, with such gems as "The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened." The fourth discourse consists of teachings on the church -- "Whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven" -- one of two things actually called "the greatest" by Jesus in Matthew's Gospel; and lastly, the fifth discourse, regarding eschatology and the parousia (the end of time), exemplified by the story of the Son of Man separating the sheep from the goats: "For I was hungry and you fed me; thirsty and you gave me a drink; a stranger and you welcomed me; naked and you clothed me; sick and in prison and you visited me… Truly I tell you, just as you did it to the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me."

And, last but not least, the second thing that Jesus actually calls "the greatest" in this Gospel: the Great Commandment. "'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets."

This is a much different approach to making disciples than handing out "How to get to heaven from Decatur, Indiana" tracts, because at its heart it implies that the one who baptizes and teaches actually has a relationship with the one being baptized and taught. By this approach the Gospel isn't reduced to some sort of hustling of eternal fire insurance, but is an invitation and education to a demanding way of life based on servant ministry and filled with ethical responsibility toward God and one's neighbor.

I believe there's more to the Gospel than John 3:16 and half a dozen verses from Paul's Letter to the Romans. "You cannot have the Great Commission without the Great Commandment," says Anglican theologian John R.W. Stott, and on this I couldn't agree with him more. Conversion from a dead heart of stone to a living heart of love is the basis of the gospel of Jesus, not merely an appeal to salvation from hell and a hearty handshake when one has prayed the Believer's Prayer. Conversion by the Gospel plays itself out in loving actions toward those in need-to the least of our brothers and sisters in the human family-as well as in our love for God and acceptance of God's unconditional grace and forgiveness.

I have long since asked God to forgive me my petty judgments toward the people handing out tracts in Decatur and elsewhere. Who am I to judge them? In their own way, I truly believe that they are following Jesus as best as they know how, and further, I believe that God honors their effort. I'm quite sure people respond to their method, or they wouldn't continue doing it.

And I'm not suggesting that there's a better way; I just think there's a different way, and for me the difference is important. And while others might call me wrong or unsaved for holding up the approach to making disciples that I suggest that the Gospel of Matthew teaches, I believe God is big enough to accept and honor all of our efforts, and gladly does.

The Rev'd Timothy M. Dombek
ST. JAMES EPISCOPAL CHURCH
301 Piney Mountain Road
Greenville, SC 29609-3035
(864) 244-6358
stjamesrector@mindspring.com

Copyright © 2002 Timothy M. Dombek All Rights Reserved.