The Great Invitation

Ἐδόθη μοι πᾶσα ἐξουσία ἐν οὐρανῷ καὶ ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς· πορευθέντες οὖν μαθητεύσατε πάντα τὰ ἔθνη, βαπτίζοντες αὐτοὺς εἰς τὸ ὄνομα τοῦ πατρὸς καὶ τοῦ υἱοῦ καὶ τοῦ ἁγίου πνεύματος, διδάσκοντες αὐτοὺς τηρεῖν πάντα ὅσα ἐνετειλάμην ὑμῖν· καὶ ἰδοὺ ἐγὼ μεθ’ ὑμῶν εἰμι πάσας τὰς ἡμέρας ἕως τῆς συντελείας τοῦ αἰῶνος.

Matt 28:18b-20, SBL Greek NT

I am sure you have seen one of the various pieces of film which exploit the different perspectives you can have on an event, depending on where you are looking from. For example, there was a famous TV ad involving what appears to be a young man mugging an older man, but which proves to be him saving the older man’s life from a falling load; and the 2008 movie Vantage Point, in which Forest Whitaker’s innocent bystander captures, on his camcorder, the clues to the apparent assassination of a US President.

But how about the Great Commission in Matt 28:18-20? Have we been looking at this from the wrong vantage point?

How I think we read it is like this: “all authority and Heaven and on Earth has been given to me, so off you go and get on with the job ‘out there’ (with ‘in a hostile world’ unspoken) and do x and y and z; and I am with you until the end of the age.”

In other words, “I am leaving you now, but in a very real sense I am still with you; now get cracking…”

If that is indeed how we are hearing these verses, then I think a shift of perspective might help. First let’s go back 18 chapters in Matthew, because it may help us identify what is hidden in plain sight.

“Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans. Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel…” Matt 10:5, NIV

In other words, back then, as Jesus sent the Twelve out, there was a territorial limit imposed upon them; they were not to go to Gentiles or Samaritans. But now, in chapter 28, what is the story? They (the disciples) are still within that original limited territory, but Jesus is saying that something important has changed.

All authority (and ἐξουσία is practical authority; it includes command of resources, power and ‘the authority to do a thing’) in heaven and on the earth has been given to Jesus. So where does Jesus’ writ run? Everywhere on earth and in heaven. So is it “out there” or “over here”?

When we look at the next section of the sentence, πορευθέντες οὖν μαθητεύσατε πάντα τὰ ἔθνη, it follows on in the sense, not of “go therefore and make…” but “entering [this], therefore make disciples of all nations [or tribes, or groups of people living together], baptising …” etc. πορεύω only means “go” in a first year Greek course, and is in reality far more rich than “go” can encompass.

But the overall sense that I think we need to get is that Jesus now has the authority and resource for all the territory that was previously off limits, and as the disciples enter in that new, wider territory, under Jesus’ authority and provision, here are the three things they need to do. But the bit we have been missing is this: it isn’t “go”, it is “come”.

Which sounds more like the Great Invitation. We shouldn’t let our fear that the world is against us blind us to the fact that this is all Jesus’ territory now – and therefore ours.