"Make disciples"--Matthew on evangelism.

Matthew's Gospel reflects a new situation in the early church when compared to Paul--and that for a number of reasons. Paul wrote his letters in the decade from 51-61 C.E.; Matthew writes a biblical generation later, about 90 C.E., a half generation after the destruction of the Jerusalem temple. One motivating factor for Paul's ministry had been to evangelize the Gentiles as a way of persuading his fellow Jewish people to accept Jesus as the Messiah. But the aftermath of the Jewish-Roman War (66-73 C.E.) led Jews to rethink what defined Judaism after the destruction of the temple. There was a crisis of identity in both emerging Judaism and in Jewish Christianity. (1) After all, the temple was the center to which all Jews looked, the symbol of the presence of God among his people. This redefinition made Judaism a religion of the book, with the Torah moving into the center of its self-definition.

The post-war Jewish community questioned the Judaism of the Matthean Christians. (2) This marginalized and then excluded Jewish Christians, which also led to a rethinking of Jewish Christian self-identity. (3) Some Jews questioned the Jewish identity of Matthew's Jewish Christians community that did not keep the Torah as the Jewish community now stressed it. They accused this community of misinterpreting the Jewish Scriptures in support of Jesus' messiahship. The Matthean church's identity crisis raised issues that had to be addressed. If Jesus really was the expected messianic king, why did the majority of Jews not believe? Were they misreading the Jewish Scriptures? Did they really possess the identity markers of Judaism?

Matthew is the premier witness to the rethinking of Christian identity. He writes to assure this community that they are legitimate continuers of Israel. One way in which Matthew creates identity for them is by giving them a sense of mission in the command to make new disciples. It is out of this emerging Jewish Christianity that Matthew's mission command emerges

Paul never read a Gospel. We can infer some knowledge of Jesus' ministry and preaching from Paul's letters but not a great deal. He cites Jesus words only four times--and on surprising topics: the parousia of Jesus, marriage, payment of proclaimers of the gospel, and the Lord's Supper. (4) Paul does not cite Jesus' actions or words but rather his own vision of the resurrected Lord as the basis of evangelization.

But Matthew writes after Mark wrote his Gospel; indeed, he even uses Mark as one of his sources about Jesus, along with the material shared with Luke [Q], and adds material only found in his Gospel. This has two significant consequences. First, Matthew follows Mark in deciding that a narrative is the way to teach and preach about Jesus. (5) The Gospels remind us that proclamation includes "telling the story" as a way of explaining our faith. Second, by using a narrative Matthew is able to put the command to "make disciples" into the mouth of Jesus as the last thing he says in his ministry and to reinforce it with Jesus' teaching earlier in the Gospel. The manner in which Matthew uses Mark also makes clear that one must take the audience and the situation into account as one tells the story.

Reading from the end: Matthew 28:16-20 as summary and goal

I have an epigraph from T. S. Eliot for this lecture:</p> <pre> What we call the beginning is often the end And to make an end is to make a beginning. The end is where we start from. And every phrase And sentence that is right (where every word is at home, Taking its place to support the others, The word neither diffident nor ostentatious,

An easy commerce of the old and the new, The common word exact without vulgarity, The formal word precise but not pedantic, The complete consort dancing together) Every phrase and every sentence is an end and a beginning. (6) </pre> <p>What Eliot noted in these lines from "Four Quartets" recent literary critics stress in reading literature, including the Gospels. Critics recently have emphasized that the end of a document often is a key to its meaning. Thus Markus Muller uses the conclusions to Paul's letters as a key to their interpretation. (7) The same is true in classical philology, as a recent polygraph on the endings of classical texts illustrates.(8)

It makes sense to read Gospels from their endings. One does not understand Mark unless one ponders its enigmatic ending that lacks a resurrection appearance (Mark 16:8). Luke's Gospel does not end at Luke 24:53 but continues on through twenty-eight chapters of Acts--which also has an enigmatic ending. John 20:30-31 is a key to understanding John's purpose.

We shall therefore read Matthew back from his conclusion in Matt 28:16-20. This mode of reading is significant, because the Gospel ends with Jesus sending disciples (not apostles!) out to make other disciples, i.e., to replicate themselves. (9)

Paul has a lot to teach us about mission but constantly by indirection. He nowhere directly tells his readers that they should witness to their faith. Luke-Acts twice tells us that Jesus describes the future role of the disciples as witnesses (Luke 24:46-49; Acts 1:7-8). Matthew, however, gives us the only direct command to make disciples in the entire New Testament. Jesus said,</p> <pre> All authority in heaven and upon the earth has been given to me [by God]. Therefore, as you go your way make disciples of all the [gentile?] nations by baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, by teaching them to observe [carry out] all the things that I commanded to you. And look [mark well], I am with you for all the days until the bringing of this aion to its goal. (10) </pre> <p>The conclusion of Matthew's Gospel is the goal toward which the entire text tends, designed to pick up earlier motifs of the Gospel. Almost every phrase in this brief conclusion recalls significant aspects of Matthew. Thus, the entire Gospel is a missionary text. Reading it in the light of Jesus' final command in Matt 28:16-20 leads one to reflect on the nature of disciple making.

Robert Smith discusses these verses at length in his volume Easter Gospels and, more briefly, in his Matthew commentary. He introduces his comments on Matt 28:16-20 with the words "A great final scene in Galilee caps Matthew's Gospel and brings it to fitting conclusion." (11) He adds,</p> <pre> But in perfect harmony with his presentation of Jesus in all the preceding pages, Matthew has chosen to close his Gospel not with a visual or pictorial representation of Jesus' assumption of power, and not with sharing bread or touching his body [i.e. like Luke and John], but with a deceptively simple scene featuring the words of Jesus, the church's one teacher and master (23:8-10). </pre> <p>Post-70 C.E. Judaism tried to exclude the Matthean community, regarding it as outside the pale of Judaism. As a result, that community "struggled to establish, order, and define (its) beliefs and life," (12) On the one hand the Gospel argues that the Matthean church keeps all that is truly Jewish, the "Law and Prophets" (Matt 5:17-20; 7:12), fulfills Old Testament prophecy, and is concerned for justice ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] occurs seven times in Matthew (13)) and for correct living (Matt 25:31-46). Note how Matthew's rejection of false prophets in 7:23 accuses them of breaking the Torah. But Matthew also is concerned to give his church a vision: a commission to make disciples that includes a new view of God's people. Matt 28:16-20 is the capstone to that vision. (14)

The passage falls into two parts: the appearance of the risen Christ to the disciples in Galilee (28:16-18a), as promised in 28:7, and the instructions of Jesus, which conclude the Gospel (28:18b-20). The language is strongly Matthean throughout, suggesting that the author composed it. (15) The setting begins with an adversative [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] in v. 16, contrasting the disciples' journey to Galilee as an act of faithful obedience with the attempt of the religious authorities to spread the story of the theft of Jesus' body (28:11-15). The disciples go to the mountain Jesus had commanded, a reminder of three earlier mountains: (1) Matt 5:1-2, the mountain where Jesus gives the Sermon on the Mount (chaps. 5-7); (2) Matt 17:1, the high mountain of transfiguration where the voice from heaven ratified his passion prediction (16:21) when it said "listen to him!" (17:5); (3) Matt 24:3, the Mount of Olives, the site of his eschatological discourse (chaps. 24-25).

Both the first and the last discourse of Jesus are spoken when he is seated (5:1; 24:3), the posture of the teacher. In Matt 7:28-29 the crowds are amazed at his teaching, for he taught "as one who had authority, not like their scribes." Their reaction links teaching and authority. (16) These two mountains anticipate the final mountain where Jesus, who claims authority, tells his disciples to "teach them to observe whatever I have commanded" (28:20). (17)

When they saw him, the disciples prostrated themselves before Jesus (28:17). (18) Their seeing, reported in a temporal or causal participle, correlates with the angel's words at the tomb and the command sent through the women: "Tell his disciples that he is risen from among dead people; and look, he is going before you into Galilee; you will see him there" (28:7, 10). (19) Smith stresses the sober reticence of Matthew: he gives no physical description of Jesus, no enthronement scene, no awesome figure such as in Rev 1:12-20. (20) This editorial decision places the stress on Jesus' words, which follow. The term [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] implies falling on one's face to kiss the feet or the bottom hem of the garment; it is a posture of subservience and connotes recognition of the person as divine. (21) The women meeting the resurrected Jesus "grasp his feet and prostrate themselves before him" (Matt 28:9); Jesus responds by directing them to tell the disciples to go to Galilee, where they will see him. Matthew's frequent use of the term "prostrate" stresses Jesus as the object of such worship. Their action prepares the reader for Jesus' claim to universal authority in 28:18.

"But some doubted" ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], 28:17). This Greek word occurs only twice in the New Testament, both in Matthew (14:31; 28:17). The term can mean either to doubt or to hesitate, that is "be uncertain about a particular course of action." (22) Both passages describe a disciple's hesitation or doubt: Peter's in 14:31 and vaguely "some disciples" in 28:17. Given Andrew Overman's interpretation of the situation facing Matthew's church, some members of the community were hesitant to take any action out of fear of final exclusion from emergent Judaism. Unsure of what to do, these disciples tended to do nothing.

Jesus' authority claim

The Gospel ends with Jesus speaking to the disciples (18:18b-20). (23) He begins by claiming authority over the universe. Smith argues that the background for this short speech is the royal decree, as found in Gen 45:9-11 (Joseph to his brothers) and 2 Chr 36:23 (Cyrus to the exiles; cf. Ezra 1:2-4), rejecting the proposal that a royal enthronement ritual underlies Jesus' words. (24) He says that "Both in pattern and content the final words of Matthew's Gospel closely resemble the decree of Cyrus." (25) The Septuagint translation reads:</p> <pre> Thus says the Lord, King of the Persians: "All the kingdoms of the earth the Lord, the God of heaven gave to me and he himself gave me orders to build a house for him in Jerusalem, in the land of Judah. Who among you is a member of his people? His God will be with him and let him go up." </pre> <p>The claim to rule over all the kingdoms of the earth favors Smith's proposal; it parallels to some degree Matt 28:18b, without, however, using the term "authority" ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]) or the phrase "in heaven and upon the earth." The second clause of Cyrus' edict and Matt 28:19, however, have little in common. Whereas Jesus gives a command to the disciples, God gives Cyrus an order. The third line of Cyrus' proclamation pronounces a blessing, while Jesus states a fact about the future (Smith labels both a promise). While the Cyrus passage illustrates the dominical claim to authority, it parallels only the first sentence of Jesus' words.

The passage is more broadly rooted in past traditions than Smith suggests. The Septuagint text of Dan 7:14 uses the terms authority, all the nations, and eternal ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]), the last formed on the stem of "the age," [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]. Daniel J. Harrington suggests that Exodus 19-20 and Num 6:22-27 shimmer in the background, along with Dan 7:14 and 2 Chr 36:13. (26) Thus, an extraordinarily complex intertextual background underlies Jesus' claim, "All authority has been given to me in heaven and upon the earth [that is, by God, a numinous passive]." (27)

Jesus demonstrates his authority in many ways in the Gospel of Matthew. The term "authority" first appears in Matthew 7:28-29, the conclusion to the Sermon on the Mount. The crowds are amazed at his teaching because he taught with authority, not like the scribes. Jesus contrasted his interpretation of the Torah to that of the tradition handed down by great teachers of the past in the six great antitheses of Matt 5:21-48: "You have heard in the ancients ..., but I say to you ..." (5:21-22, 27-28, 31-32, 33-34, 38-39, 43-44). Such teaching on his own authority amazed people. (28) The centurion, as one who knew what authority was, appealed to Jesus, thus recognizing Jesus' authority (Matt 8:9). When Jesus healed the paralytic he did it to show that "the son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins" (9:6), and the crowds were filled with religious awe and "glorified the God who had given such authority to people" (9:8). (29) When he sent out the twelve in 10:1, "he gave them authority over unclean spirits." The temple authorities note his authority and ask who gave it to him (21:23). When Jesus poses a counter-question about authority that they will not answer, Jesus declines to answer them. Their answer to his counterquestion would have answered their own question. He carried on the debate in good rabbinical manner. However, 28:18b moves past what is stated earlier. 11:25-27 states that Jesus' Father is "Lord of heaven and earth." Now Jesus claims that he himself has lordship. He is the kosmokrator; resurrection has given him new status.

This authority is total, extending throughout heaven and earth--that is, the universe. Matthew observes a literary convention pointed out by Adolf Schlatter in the writings of Josephus (a contemporary of Matthew's author). When the Greek is [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], the plural, the term is used in opposition to the earth; it is the heavens as the place where the most high and holy God is properly located. Therefore the phrase Jesus uses in Matthew is "The kingdom of the heavens" (5:17, and often after that). The Lord's Prayer begins "Our father, the one in the heavens," [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] (6:9), describing the father as the Other, the Holy One. But [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] in the singular is the correlative of earth, the two describing the totality of the created universe, as in the third petition: "as in heaven, so on earth," [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] (6:10). (30) In 28:18 Jesus claims authority over the universe as its lord, the [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]. While Smith is probably correct that 28:18-20 is not an enthronement ritual, Jesus as the resurrected one claims lordship over the universe.

This claim is in one sense enigmatic. The lord of the universe does not appear in glory, as he did in the transfiguration and as the [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] mosaics in many Byzantine churches or the great altar tapestry in Coventry Cathedral in England portray him. Jesus walks up to the disciples here as he does at the end of the transfiguration story, after the glory scene is gone, in 17:6-7. As Robert Gundry points out, he does it because in each case the disciples are prostrate on the ground. (31)

The command

1. Make disciples. The center of Jesus' words is a command: "Therefore, as you go your way, disciple." (32) The universal lordship of Jesus is the presupposition for the command in 28:19, as the word "therefore" makes clear. The word for "go," [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], is a present participle, not a command as many translations, including the NRSV, render it. There is a similar use of the participle in Matt 10:7: "As you make your way proclaim, saying 'The kingdom of the heavens has come close.'" The participle implies that making disciples should be an activity of the disciples' everyday life, not the special task of set-apart people. Thus they are not marked out as specially called people, a motif that is characteristic of Matthew's Gospel. Eduard Schweizer commented years ago that the Matthean church is "thus a community which seems to know neither elders nor bishops nor deacons." (33) Matthew does know of special people, for example prophets and righteous, as Matt 10:41 indicates. In 13:52 he speaks of "every scribe discipled to the kingdom of the heavens," thus referring to teachers in the community. But these are not positions of status! Matt 23:8-12 explicitly rejects titles of honor, saying that the disciples are all servants. (34)

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

[TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], an aorist imperative, is the only command in the passage: "disciple!" The imperative is significant, as it makes discipling an urgent matter, a matter of fact in the disciple's every day life. This command recalls two of Jesus' five Matthean sermons: In 9:36-10:42 Jesus send the twelve out to preach; in Matthew 13 Jesus interprets the effects of proclamation. Matthew uses the same formula "And when Jesus had finished ... plus a phrase that summarized the content to conclude each of the five sermons in his Gospel. In 11:1 he uses the verb [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] to summarize what Jesus was doing in the "missionary discourse": "And it happened when Jesus finished giving orders to the twelve disciples...." (35) It is the only time Matthew uses this verb in his Gospel. (36) In 10:5-14 Jesus uses many imperative verbs as he sends the twelve out to preach. It prepares one for the use of the imperative "Disciple" here. Making disciples is an obligatory part of disciple life. Matt 11:1 supports the missionary stress here.

Jesus addresses the twelve disciples in the sending discourse in chapter 10 as he addresses the eleven in the Gospel's conclusion. Matt 10:2-4 presents the list of the twelve, identified in 10:2 as those sent out ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]), the only time the term "apostle" occurs in the Gospel. It is not at all clear whether the term is used here as a technical term, "apostle," or means simply those sent out by the discourse.

Matthew 10, the second discourse, is set in the ministry of Jesus before Caesarea Philippi (Matt 16:13-28), as in Mark (Mark 6:7-13). Matthew expands the six verses of Mark into a discourse of 42 verses. (37) In Matt 10:17-23 Jesus actually describes the conditions of the post-Easter mission; the evangelist uses material from the apocalyptic discourse of Mark 13. These verses describe the opposition to Christians after the resurrection. Matt 10:26-31 encourages the disciples three times not to fear opposition, while verses 32-33 urge them to confess Jesus before people, not deny. All of this applies to the post-Easter confession of Christians, not to the pre-Caesarea Philippi mission when Jesus' popularity is at its height. Finally, note that the disciples never do carry out the mission described in Matthew 10. There is no account of their return after the mission. Rather, after the 42 verses of discourse, Matt 11:1 reports that Jesus left "in order to teach and proclaim among their cities." All of these data suggest that Matthew 10 contains specific commands for the discipling mandated in 28:19.

Matthew 13:1-52, the other discourse relating to proclamation, contains seven parables about the reception of the word. These parables assure disciples that proclamation will have positive results (the parable of the sower, 13:3-9, 18-23), that they are not responsible for its failure, and that they do not have the task of deciding who truly and faithfully responds. The parables of the Tares among the Wheat (13:24-30, 36-43) and the Great Dragnet (13:47-50) make clear that the community created by evangelistic witness will be a mixed body. The proclaimer does not decide who has responded in faith and who has not; the great division will be made only at the eschaton. The four smaller parables in 13:31-33 and 44-46 stress that the power that calls forth positive response does not reside in the proclaimer and that, nonetheless, the message is precious.

2. Speak Jesus' message, do Jesus' deeds. "As you go proclaim 'The Kingdom of the Heavens has drawn near.' Heal the sick; raise the dead; make lepers clean; exorcize demons" (Matt 10:7-8). The message is the same as the summary of the message of John the Baptist (3:2) and Jesus (4:17), while the deeds the disciples are to do are the ones Jesus has just done in the ten miracles of Matthew 9-10 and to which he points in his answer to John the Baptist in 11:2-6. Evangelization continues the proclamation and the activity of Jesus. It is to be done without cost to the hearer, as his was. Matthew 10:8b-16 forbids making a living from evangelism. (38) This understanding of evangelistic witness is significant still for us today. Christians should be aware that they speak Jesus' message and do Jesus' deeds as the witness to his Lordship in their lives and their world.

3. Disciple everyone. The command in Matt 28:19 introduces a new stage in discipling activity. In 9:36 Jesus described the crowds like sheep that have no shepherd, a description drawn from Num 27:17, where it is applied to the children of Israel. In Matt 10:5-6 Jesus commanded the disciples to go only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel: "Don't go off into a road that leads to gentiles and don't enter a city of Samaritans." In 15:24 Jesus said to the Canaanite woman that he was sent "only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." Such limitations no longer are valid. Now they are to disciple all the Gentiles.

The Gospel had prepared for this new prospect earlier. Matthew 12:9-21 records Jesus' final departure from a synagogue. Matthew interprets this with a citation of Isa 42:1-4, 9. The citation ends up with the statement "and on his name gentile nations shall hope" (Matt 12:21). Jesus' ministry in Jerusalem (Matthew 21-25) is an action of judgment. He enters Jerusalem as its kingly judge, not its deliverer (21:1-16). Matthew's fulfillment citation makes this clear (21:5), a conflation of Isa 62:11 and Zech 9:9. Matthew omits one line from Zechariah, the words "vindicating (just) and rescuing (saving) is he" ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]). Smith comments that the omissions stress the word "humble" (translated "meek" in 5:5 and "gentle" in 11:29). Matthew is supremely interested in Jesus' connection with salvation (1:21) and justice (or righteousness, 3:15) but here concentrates on the meekness of this king. He will not lord it over subjects, crushing them as the rulers of the nations do (cf. 11:17-21; 20:25-28). (39)

I appreciate Smith's stress on justice and salvation and argue that the omission of these two terms in the Old Testament citation supports the view that Jesus' ministry in Matthew leads to a rejection of the Judeans in Jerusalem, not of all Jews. (40) In Zechariah these words, justice and salvation, describe the coming of a (messianic) king who rescues the city from oppressors. Matthew's omission of the words "righteous and bringing salvation" prepares for the fact that Jesus enters not to save but to condemn. He goes directly to the temple and cleanses it (Matt 21:12-16). (41) The term [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] does not really mean "meek;" it is a royal virtue, just as the donkey is King David's royal animal, as 1 Kings 1:38-40 makes clear. The adjective describes one who is so sure of his personal identity that he does not need to be overbearing. Jesus enters as Davidic King--and judge. (42)

The narrative of Jesus in Jerusalem reinforces this interpretation. The day after the entry he curses the fig tree, and it withers at once (Matt 21:18-19), not on the next day as in Mark. The interpretation in 21:20-22 makes clear that Jesus uses an enacted parable to condemn the lack of faith in the Jerusalem leaders. After the question about authority posed by the religious leaders (21:23-27) gets no answer from Jesus, he tells three parables. (43) The first is the parable of the two sons who are asked to work in a father's field (21:28-32). The interpretation (v. 32) pronounces judgment in the words "John the Baptist came to you on the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and prostitutes believed him. And when you saw that, you did not repent later on and believe him."

The second parable (Matt 21:33-46) is a modified version of Mark 12:1-12, the Wicked Tenant Farmers. Matthew modifies the conclusion of the Markan story to make it an accusation against the religious leaders. 21:40 becomes a question put to them: "When the owner ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]) of the vineyard comes, what will he do to them?" They reply, "He will destroy those evil men in an evil manner and let out the vineyard to other [tenant] farmers who will return the fruit in due season" (21:21, unique to Matthew). Jesus responds by first citing Ps 118: 22-23 (Ps 117 LXX) and then draws this conclusion: "On account of this I say to you that the royal rule of God will be taken away from you and given to a nation producing its fruits." (44) The fruit terminology is a clear allusion back to the parable. The next verse says that the chief priests and Pharisees recognized that he spoke these parables concerning them. The third parable, The Great Supper (22:1-14), is a similar condemnation. The rejection culminates in the seven great woes on scribes and Pharisees in Matthew 23. Matthew reflects the split between Jewish Christians and non-Christian Jews in this way. I return to this condemnation toward the end of this essay.

Thus, Matthew creates a new understanding of the people to be brought into Christ's assembly. (45) Now all of the Gentile nations are the object of disciple making. This redefinition of children of Abraham begins already in the genealogy in Matt 1:1-17: Three non-Israelite women are included in Jesus' ancestry--Tamar, Rahab, and Ruth. It continues in the words of John the Baptist in 3:7-10: "Do not begin to say 'We have Abraham as our father.' I tell you God can raise up children to Abraham from these stones!" The centurion of Capernaum has faith that cannot be found in Israel (8:10), while the faith of the Canaanite woman breaks the boundaries of "the lost sheep of the house of Israel" (15:21-28). Matthew sets before his community a vision of discipling activity that will occupy them in the future. The rejection by the Jewish people becomes the occasion for the mission to the Gentiles. This gospel must be preached to the entire inhabited world (the Greek term is [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], the term used of the Roman empire) as a witness to all the Gentiles. And then the eschaton will come (24:14).

However, Matthew does not thereby exclude mission to the Jewish people, a matter of great discussion in recent Matthean scholarship. (46) The question is, Does the term [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] in Matt 28:19 include or exclude the Jewish people? As I indicated earlier, Matthew writes at a time when this Jewish-Christian community is excluded from the synagogue and accused of being bad Jews. There is a clear animus against Jews who reject the Matthean community. Hans Kvalbein points out that the promise to Abraham in Gen 12:2-3 includes his becoming a great nation and "that all peoples on earth will be blessed through you." (47) Luz comments that Matthew's use of the term [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] at times means non-Jews (10:5, 20:19, and probably also in 4:15, 10:18, and 20:25). But the phrase [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] means "all nations" in its four occurrences. In 24:9, 14, the term [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] is in the immediate context (24:7, 14), which suggests a universal, not exclusive, sense. In 28:18 Jesus claims universal authority. In 28:19 he commands the making of disciples in the universal realm he rules--and that includes Jews. (48) We might add that they would certainly be included in "the heathen person and the publican" of 18:17, people who are the object of Jesus' ministry. Thus the command to disciple includes all within its scope, both those near and those far.

4. Disciple them by baptizing. Jesus' command is to disciple "by baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" (the preposition is [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], not [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]; Matt 28:19). (49) This is the only New Testament passage to order baptism into three names. Elsewhere baptism is into Jesus or in the name of Jesus, just as one key baptismal creed was "Jesus is Lord." (50) Baptism into the name means into ownership of, into the lordship of. The formula thus reflects the claim to universal lordship by Jesus. Key passages here are Rom 6:22, 1 Cor 1:13, Rom 10:9, 1 Cor 12:3, and Phil 2:11. The Didache 7:1 provides the first evidence for Trinitarian baptism after Matthew; it probably reflects the cultic practice of the Syrian church and suggests that Matthew uses the liturgical baptismal formula of his community. (51) It is remarkable that there is no mention of proclamation before baptism, though Matt 24:14 reminds us that not everything is included here in detail. Matthew 10 and 13 remind us that speaking Jesus' message and doing Jesus' deeds is what accompanies the "going" of Jesus' disciples. (52)

5. Teaching them to observe everything I commanded you. "[And] by teaching them to observe all things, as many as I have commanded to you" (Matt 28:20). Throughout his Gospel Matthew shows concern for Christian action, Christian life. It is "doing the will of the father" that counts (7:21), not the mere confession of Jesus as Lord or the doing of great deeds. Ecstatic prophecy, the exorcism of demons, and miraculous deeds are not enough to qualify. Rather, as the conclusion of the great eschatological discourse in Matt 25:31-46 makes clear, it is acts of goodness toward the marginalized and deprived that demonstrate one's piety ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], 6:1); it is the [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] who enter into life that belongs to the coming age, as the passage concludes in 25:46.

The five sermons earlier in Matthew form a detailed description of that life. Matthew 5-7 describes the individual disciple's life before God, chapter 10 the conditions for proclamation, 13:1-52 the divided response to proclamation, chapter 18 community maintenance, and chapters 24-25 eschatological expectation. Matthew envisages the use of his Gospel as a manual for teaching Christian life. That is important to him; he stresses the realization of the gospel in deeds. In Matt 16:27 he rewrites Mark 8:38 to describe eschatological judgment according to one's deeds. The conclusion to Matthew 25 presents the judgment of the sheep and the goats as based on their deeds. Forgiveness depends on forgiving (6:12, 14-15; 18:23-35). The church is to be a forgiving community of the forgiven.

Matthew 18 describes the significance of the community. It seeks to maintain the weakest member. To do that it must create community.</p> <pre> An old Jewish joke tells of two men walking together to synagogue when they were approached by a third man. He looked at one of the worshipers and said, "Why are you going to synagogue? You don't believe in God! I understand why your friend Schwartz here is going--he is a religious man. But you? Why would you waste your time?" To which the man answered, "Schwartz goes to synagogue to talk to God. I go to synagogue to talk to Schwartz!'" (53) </pre> <p>Rabbi Holt goes on to say, "That is not so farfetched. Children who learn to pray in community learn that praying together creates community."

Teaching inside the church is integral to its life, and life must conform to teaching, as Matt 23:1-12 makes clear. In 13:10 the disciples ask, "Why do you talk to them in parables?" Jesus answers that it is to conceal his message from nondisciples (13:13-17). It has been given to the disciples to know the mysteries of the royal rule of the heavens. Matt 13:51-52 is the conclusion of the third discourse. Jesus asks, "Have you understood all these things?" They answer "Yes." Therefore the scribe who is a disciple to the royal rule of the heavens (note the repetition from v. 11) is able to bring out of the storehouse of the Hebrew Scriptures things both old and new. Once you are a disciple, you know because Jesus has taught you.

Therefore baptism must lead to teaching. Jesus had assumed the posture of the teacher in Matt 5:1-2. Now he says that teaching is essential to the disciple-making activity. In nuce, evangelism goes beyond bringing people to know Christ as their Lord; it continues by instructing in the way in which life reflects Christ. In Pauline terms, parenesis (exhortation) is part of evangelism.

All of this suggests that preaching must include didactic aims, if Matthean texts are to guide us. The Matthean vision is that the church teaches the baptized, not that it prepares for baptism by teaching. Once you confess Jesus as Lord, you are open to the Lord's teaching.

Christ's concluding promise. Matt 28:20 forms a ring composition with 1:22. "Lo I am with you to the close of the age." Matt 1:22 cites Isa 7:14, the first of the great Old Testament fulfillment passages in the Gospel: "You shall call his name Immanuel." Matthew interprets that as "With us is God." But Joseph calls him Jesus, not Immanuel, in Matt 1:25 (cf 1:21). It may seem surprising that after the citation of Isa 7:14 in 1:21, there is no citation of Isa 9:6 at the birth of Jesus. (Isa 8:23-9:1 is cited at Matt 4:15-16.) But the promise of Matt 28:20 explains why: Jesus is "God with us" only as the resurrected Lord of his church. And he is with us "until the realization of the [coming] age." The final word of the Gospel is an eschatological promise. The church lives in expectation of the end under the presence of the risen Lord of the universe. He is present as we speak his message and do his deeds! Thus Matthew has no need of an ascension narrative, as Luke does, for Jesus does not leave in Matthew's Gospel but remains with us.

Creating community, giving purpose

The Matthean church was unsure of its identity: unsure whether it had lost its heritage, dismayed by the rejection of Christ by most of its ethnic relatives, unsure whether its decision for Christ was really what it should have done. Matthew responded in two ways. He first strongly pointed out that they had remained true to their inheritance, keeping the law, correctly interpreting their Scriptures, true children of Abraham. They were faithful to the promises of the Hebrew Scriptures when they accepted Jesus as God's agent to fulfill his word. They were truly God's people. In the second place he pointed his church to its true existence as a community of forgiven and forgiving people whose life was given to proclaiming their Lord to others. In witnessing to their faith they were what their Lord wished them to be. Martin Goodman comments:</p> <pre> I believe it likely that eschatological fervor, the peculiar personality of St Paul, and the gradual disappointment of early Christians waiting in vain for the Parousia, all contributed to the enthusiasm of those believers to do something; in such conditions, lack of action might too easily lead to depression and loss of faith. (54) </pre> <p>That something was evangelistic activity on the part of all members of the community.

Matthew's Gospel reminds us of what we need to do for our communities of faith. They need to recover their Lutheran identity as people committed to the centrality of the gospel. The recent series titled Lutheran Voices published by Augsburg Fortress can be a great aid in that recovery of identity. I like Kelly Fryer's Reclaiming the "L" Word: Renewing the Church from Its Lutheran Core (55) in that series, among other things because it ends with a chapter titled "The World Needs What We Have." Following Matthew's lead, we need to create an identity that regards evangelism as a hallmark of its being, the need to witness joyfully to our faith as a given to all of us. In that way we would carry out Jesus' words that we should teach observance of all that Christ commanded.

Conclusion

My longtime friend and colleague James Scherer sent President Tiede and me a list of "Major Issues Yet to Be Decided" when he learned of the focus of this year's Hein Fry lectures. Here are three (edited) items from that list:

1. Mission and Eschatology: Importance of the "Last Things" for missionary motivation, expectation and fulfillment. Cf. Mark 10:13 and parallels.

These last words of Jesus make it evident that eschatology and mission are closely related. Christians evangelize because Jesus, their Lord, is also enthroned as eschatological judge and rescuer. They evangelize to bring people under that coming Lord.

2. Mission and the Great Commission (Matt 28:16-20): What is its continuing significance as a foundation text? Are there other statements equally relevant? How is matheteuein ("make disciples") to be understood? What does "all nations" mean in the present historical context? What do we say to Lutheran orthodoxy's claim that the Great Commission expired with the first apostolate?

Matt 28:18-20 is the goal toward which the entire Gospel moves. It casts light back on the entire Gospel. Other passages are also significant. Ferdinand Hahn argues that the key passage for understanding Matthew's interpretation of mission is Matt 24:14: "And this good news of the royal rule must be proclaimed in the entire inhabited world to witness to all the nations, and then the end will come." (56) These words stress the eschatological bent of Matthew's view of evangelism.

3. Mission and the Church: Is the twentieth--century rejection of "church-centric mission" (mission begins and ends with the church; church as source and goal of mission) valid, and if so what replaces it? What difference would the change make in mission practice? What about the assertion that "mission is the essential nature of the church'?

The last words of Jesus rest on his authority, which now gives a new task to the church: to make disciples of the nations around them. His gospel is a resource for the church as it does that, a shaper of life.

Harrington comments, "It is possible to view Matt 28:16-20 as a summary of the whole Gospel." (57) It stresses the key themes of the work. Gundry points out that many terms in these verses "come from Matthew's special vocabulary." (58) It is not surprising that Donald Senior uses Matt 28:16-20 to summarize "The Mission Theology of Matthew." (59) He makes the following points, which serve as the summary of this paper:

1. The mission is rooted in the authority of Jesus, the risen Lord.

2. The first--and basic--command the disciples receive is to make disciples.

3. The mission is universal, to all nations.

4. Making disciples includes community formation

5. by teaching all that Christ commanded.

We can add to that. Matthew tells a story about the ministry, passion, and resurrection of Jesus; we need to do that, too. Matthew gives his community an identity rooted in the past; we need to do that, too. Matthew teaches us to form Christians by teaching them what Christ taught; we need to do that, too.

Three epigraphs, so to speak

I conclude with three points.

1. My first is drawn from a conversation my first-grade grandson Peter had with his pastor one Sunday not too long ago. He is a curious boy who asks questions.

Peter to pastor: Do you own this church?

Pastor: No.

Peter: Are you the boss here?

Pastor: No, God's the boss. You should listen for God talking here.

Peter: How can I hear him when you are always talking so much up front?

That is a reminder that our talk and actions must not get in the way of God's reconciling call to people. Martin Marty recalls that when Joseph Sittler was asked to say "in one phrase what he would do to begin the reform of the church, he immediately said, 'Watch your language.'" (60) My grandson and Joe Sittler agree. We need to be sure our words do not obscure Christ but make him known. Proclaiming Jesus' message of the Royal Rule of God, calling people into the forgiven and forgiving community, acting in accordance with our proclamation by showing God's justice for the prisoner, feeding the poor are all part of making disciples--and need our words to help.

2. My second is drawn from a saying whose first speaker I have never been able to trace: "It is easier to act one's self into a new way of thinking than to think one's way into a new way of acting." Jesus did not engage in a theory of evangelism; he sent people out to make disciples. Perhaps we need to take seriously the commitments of our Lutheran folk and send them out to make disciples.

3. T. S. Eliot is correct in words that follow close on those with which we began:</p> <pre> We shall not cease from exploration And the end of all our exploring Will be to arrive where we started And know the place for the first time. (61) </pre> <p>Reading Matthew from its conclusion leads us back into the gospel to arrive where we started and at the same time to recognize its newness. It is not novelty that inspires but continuity with the significant past, a past we need to recover in our time.

Bibliography on Evangelism in the Bible

General works on Mission and Conversion in the New Testament

Finn, Thomas M. From Death to Rebirth: Ritual and Conversion in Antiquity. Mahwah: Paulist Press, 1997.

Gaventa, Beverly Roberts. From Darkness to Light: Aspects of Conversion in the New Testament. Philadelphia: Fortress, 1986.

Gehring, Roger W. Hausgemeinde und Mission: Die Bedeutung antiker Hauser und Hausgemeinschaften--von Jesus bis Paulus. Bibelwissenschaftliche Monographien 9. Giessen, Basel: Brunnen Verlag, 2000.

Goodman, Martin. Mission and Conversion: Proselytizing in the Religious History of the Roman Empire. Oxford: Clarendon, 1994.

Green, Michael. Evangelism in the Early Church. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, [1970] 1983.

Hahn, Ferdinand. Mission in the New Testament. SBT 47. Naperville: Alec R. Allenson, 1965.

Kertelge, Karl, ed. Mission im Neuen Testament. Quaestiones Disputatae 93. Freiburg, Basel, Wien: Herder, 1982.

Larkin, William J. Jr., and Joel F. Williams, eds. Mission in the New Testament: An Evangelical Approach. Maryknoll: Orbis, 1998.

Legrand, Lucien. Unity and Plurality: Mission in the Bible. Trans. Robert R. Barr. Maryknoll: Orbis, 1990.

MacMullen, Ramsay. Christianizing the Roman Empire. New Haven, London: Yale University Press, 1984.

McKnight, Scot. Turning to Jesus: The Sociology of Conversion in the Gospels. Louisville, London: Westminster John Knox, 2002.

Nissen, Johannes. New Testament and Mission: Historical and Hermeneutical Perspectives. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 1999.

______. "The Use of the New Testament in Mission: Methodological and Hermeneutical Reflections." Unpublished paper presented to the Seminar on the New Testament and Mission at the Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas meeting, Bonn, Germany, August 2003.

Peace, Richard V. Conversion in the New Testament: Paul and the Twelve. Grand Rapids, Cambridge: William B. Eerdmans, 1999.

Schille, Gottfried. Die urchristliche Kollegialmission. AThANT 48. Zurich: Zwingli Verlag, 1967. BV 2073.S33.

Senior, Donald, and Carroll Stuhlmueller. The Biblical Foundations for Mission. Maryknoll: Orbis, 1983.

Stenschke, Christoph. "Neuere Arbeiten und Tendenzen zur Mission im Neuen Testament," European Journal of Theology 12 (2003): 5-20.

Mission in Paul

Bolt, Peter G., and Mark Thomson, ed. The Gospel to the Nations: Perspectives on Paul's Mission. Festschrift P. T. O'Brien. Leicester: IVP, 2000.

Dickson, John P. Mission-Commitment in Ancient Judaism and in the Pauline Communities. WUNT, 2. Reihe 159. Tubingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2003.

Hengel, Martin. "The Origins of the Christian Mission." In Between Jesus and Paul: Studies in the Earliest History of Christianity, 48-64. Philadelphia: Fortress, 1963.

Hultgren, Arland J. Paul's Gospel and Mission: The Outlook from His Letter to the Romans. Philadelphia: Fortress, 1985.

Jewett, Robert. Christian Tolerance: Paul's Message to the Modern Church. Philadelphia: Westminster, 1982.

Lindemann, Andreas. "Pauline Mission and Religious Pluralism." In Theology and Ethics in Paul and His Interpreters: Essays in Honor of Victor Paul Furnish, ed. Eugene H. Lovering Jr. and Jerry L. Sumney, 275-88. Nashville: Abingdon, 1996.

Little, Christopher R. Mission in the Way of Paul: Biblical Mission for the Church in the Twenty-First Century. Studies in Biblical Literature 80. New York: Peter Lang, 2005.

Marshall, I. Howard. "Who Were the Evangelists?" In The Mission of the Early Church to Jews and Gentiles, ed. Jostein Adna and Hans Kvalbein, 251-63. WUNT 127. Tubingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2000.

O'Brien, P. T. Gospel and Mission in the Writings of Paul: An Exegetical and Theological Analysis. Grand Rapids: Baker; Carlisle: Paternoster, 1995.

Ollrog, Wolf-Henning. Paulus und seine Mitearbeiter: Untersuchungen zu Theorie und Praxis der paulinischen Mission. WMANT 50. Neukirchen: Erziehungsverein, 1978.

Riesner, Rainer. Paul's Early Period: Chronology, Mission Strategy, Theology. Trans. Doub Stott. Grand Rapids, Cambridge: William B. Eerdmans, 1998.

Zeller, Dieter. "Theologie der Mission bei Paulus." In Mission im Neuen Testament, ed. Karl Kertelge, 164-89. Quaestiones Disputatae 93. Freiburg, Basel, Wien: Herder, 1982. BV 2073.M54 1982.

Bibliography: Matthew

Brown, S. "The Matthean Community and the Gentile Mission," NovT 22 (1980): 193-221.

Bruner, F. D. Matthew: A Commentary. Vol. 2: The Churchbook, Matthew 13-28. Dallas: Word Publishing, 1990.

Frankemolle, Hubert. "Zur Theologie der Mission im Matthausevangelium." In Mission im Neuen Testament, ed. Karl Kertelge, 93-128. Quaestiones Disputatae 93. Freiburg, Basel, Wien: Herder, 1982.

Fryer, Kelly A. Reclaiming the "L" Word: Renewing the Church from Its Lutheran Core. Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 2003.

Gillespie, Thomas W. "A Question of Authority: Matthew 21:23-27," The Princeton Seminary Bulletin NS 24 (2003): 1-9.

Gundry, Robert H. Matthew: A Commentary on His Handbook for a Mixed Church Under Persecution. 2d ed. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 1994.

Hahn, Ferdinand. Mission in the New Testament. Trans. Frank Clarke. SBT 47. Naperville: Alec R. Allenson, 1965.

Harrington, Daniel J. The Gospel of Matthew. Sacra Pagina 1. Collegeville: The Liturgical Press/Michael Glazier, 1991.

Harvey, John D. "Mission in Matthew." In Mission in the New Testament: An Evangelical Approach, ed. William J. Larkin Jr. and Joel F. Williams, 119-69. Maryknoll: Orbis, 1999.

Kingsbury, Jack D. "The Composition and Christology of Matt 28:16-10," JBL 93 (1974): 573-84.

Krentz, Edgar. "Missionary Matthew: Matthew 28:16-20 as Summary of the Gospel," Currents in Theology and Mission 31 (2004): 24-31.

Kvalbein, Hans. "Has Matthew Abandoned the Jews?" In The Mission of the Early Church to Jews and Gentiles, ed. Jostein Adna and Hans Kvalbein, 45-62. WUNT 127. Tubingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2000.

Legrand, James. The Earliest Christian Mission to 'All Nations' in the Light of Matthew's Gospel. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1995.

Luz, Ulrich. "Has Matthew Abandoned the Jews?" In The Mission of the Early Church to Jews and Gentiles, ed. Jostein Adna and Hans Kvalbein, 63-38. WUNT 127. Tubingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2000.

Nissen, Johannes. "The Use of the New Testament in Mission: Methodological and Hermeneutical Reflections." Unpublished paper presented to the Seminar on the New Testament and Mission at the Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas meeting, Bonn, Germany, August 2003.

Overman, J. Andrew. Matthew's Gospel and Formative Judaism: The Social World of the Matthean Community. Minneapolis: Fortress, 1990.

______. Church and Community in Crisis: The Gospel According to Matthew. The New Testament in Context. Valley Forge: Trinity Press International, 1996.

Schlatter, Adolf. Die Theologie des Judentums nach dem Bericht des Josephus. Gutersloh: C. Bertelsmann Verlag, 1932.

Senior, Donald. "The Mission Theology of Matthew." In Donald Senior and Carroll Stuhlmueller, The Biblical Foundations for Mission, 251-52. Maryknoll: Orbis, 1983.

Smith, Robert H. Matthew. ANTC. Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1989.

______. Easter Gospels: The Resurrection of Jesus according to the Four Evangelists. Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1983.

Stanton, Graham, ed. The Interpretation of Matthew. Issues in Religion and Theology 3. London: SPCK; Philadelphia: Fortress, 1983.

Stuhlmacher, Peter. "Matt 28:16-20 and the Course of Mission in the Apostolic and Postapostolic Age." In The Mission of the Early Church to Jews and Gentiles, ed. Jostein Adna and Hans Kvalbein, 17-43. WUNT 127. Tubingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2000.

White, L. Michael. "Crisis Management and Boundary Maintenance: The Social Location of the Matthean Community." In Social History of the Matthean Community: Cross-Disciplinary Approaches, ed. David L. Balch, 211-47. Minneapolis: Fortress, 1991.

Edgar Krentz

Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago 

[e-mail]

1. J. Andrew Overman, Matthew's Gospel and Formative Judaism: The Social World of the Matthean Community (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1990), and Church and Community in Crisis: The Gospel according to Matthew (Valley Forge: Trinity Press International, 1996), 19-26.

2. Matthew's church was most likely located in or around the city of Antioch on the Orontes. A generation earlier Christians there had faced the problem of Jerusalem Jews not wanting to eat with the Gentile Christians of that community, as Gal 2:11-14 reports.

3. John H. Elliott, "The Jewish Messianic Movement: From Faction to Sect," in Modelling Early Christianity: Social-Scientific Studies of the New Testament in its Context, ed. Philip F. Esler (London and New York: Routledge, 1955), 75-95, suggests conditions under which a subgroup moves from an internal faction to a sect. He lists twenty-one characteristic sectarian features and nine sectarian strategies. He gives frequent references to the text of Matthew.

4. 1 Thess 4:15; 1 Cor 7:10, 9:14, 11:24-25.

5. The Greek term for narrative is [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], as used in Luke 1:1. The term is used of ancient historical narratives, as in Lucian, Hist. Conscrib. 55; see A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (henceforth BDAG), rev. and ed. Frederick William Danker (Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 2000), s.v. In the early church fathers it is used in the sense of explanation or interpretation; so in Origen, De princ. 3.12; see G. W. H. Lampe, A Patristic Greek Lexicon (Oxford: Clarendon, 1961), s.v. The related verb has the sense "to explain."

6. T. S. Eliot, "Four Quartets," in The Complete Poems and Plays 1909-1950 (New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc., 1962), 144--the opening lines of "Little Gidding" V.

7. Markus Muller, Vom Schluss zum Ganzen: Zur Bedeutung der paulinishen Briefkorpusabschlusses FRLANT 172 (Gottingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1997).

8. Classical Closure: Reading the End in Greek and Latin Literature, ed. Deborah H. Roberts, Francis M. Dunn, and Don Fowler (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1997). The chapters on Herodotus, ancient novels, and Plutarch's Lives discuss the ending of ancient narratives.

9. I treated this ending more cursorily in "Missionary Matthew: Matthew 28:16-20 as Summary of the Gospel," Currents in Theology and Mission 31 (2004): 24-31.

10. The translation is my own, reproducing more closely the syntax of the original than does the NRSV. The Greek text is brief, with much terminology that recalls earlier material in the Gospel. Johannes Nissen noted in "The Use of the New Testament in Mission: Methodological and Hermeneutical Reflections," unpublished paper presented to the Seminar on the New Testament and Mission, Meeting of the Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas, Bonn, Germany, August, 2003, p. 2, that "as pointed out by many scholars (e.g. D. J. Bosch, L. Newbigin, H. Boer) it was not until the 18th century that Matt 28:16-20 became the primary mission text."

11. Robert H. Smith, Matthew (ANTC [Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1989]), 335. Also see his Easter Gospels: The Resurrection of Jesus according to the Four Evangelists (Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1983).

12. Overman, Matthew's Gospel and Formative Judaism, 72.

13. Matt 3:15; 5:6, 10, 20; 6:1, 33; 21:32. It appears not at all in Mark, only once in Luke (1:75), and twice in John (16:8, 10). Only Paul uses it oftener.

14. See also L. Michael White, "Crisis Management and Boundary Maintenance: The Social Location of the Matthean Community," in Social History of the Matthean Community: Cross-Disciplinary Approaches, ed. David L. Balch (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1991), 211-47.

15. Jack D. Kingsbury argues persuasively that the language of 28:16-20 strongly suggests that Matthew composed this conclusion in "The Composition and Christology of Matt 28:16-10," JBL 93 (1974): 573-84.

16. A similar reaction is found in Mark 1:27--only there it is a reaction to the power of his healing word.

17. There are other mountains in Matthew, e.g., the "high mountain" of 4:8, where Jesus' third temptation takes place, the mountain where he prays (14:23), the mountain in 15:29 where he sat and did miraculous healings, and the Mount of Olives, where he sent two disciples to get the two donkeys for his entry into Jerusalem (21:1) and where he goes after the institution of the Lord's Supper (26:30). It is clear from this that highly significant events take place on mountains. Surprisingly Calvary (Golgotha) is not identified as a mountain.

18. Matthew uses this term more frequently than the other Gospels: Matthew, thirteen times (2:2, 8, 11; 4:9, 10; 9:18; 14:53; 15:25; 18:26; 20:20; 28:9, 17); Mark, twice (5:6, where the demoniac's demon recognizes him, and 15:19, in mocking by the soldiers); Luke, three times (4:7, 8, in the temptations of Jesus, and 24:52 of Jesus by the disciples, after Jesus' ascension [also four times in Acts]); John, seven times in John 4, once in John 9, always of worship of God.

19. The term is not often discussed in commentaries. But see F. D. Bruner, Matthew: A Commentary. Vol. 2: The Churchbook, Matthew 13-28 (Dallas: Word Publishing, 1990), 1091.

20. Smith, Easter Gospels, 77.

21. See BDAG, s.v. [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], for multiple citations.

22. BDAG, s.v. In 28:17 Danker opts for the translation "hesitate."

23. Matthew calls them "disciples," not "apostles," though he knows the latter term (10:2). One ought not therefore use this passage to describe something given uniquely to apostles or males.

24. Smith, Easter Gospels, 77-78; Matthew, 336. Otto Michel suggested the enthronement formula as model for Jesus' words in "The Conclusion of Matthew's Gospel: A Contribution to the History of the Easter Message," in The Interpretation of Matthew, ed. Graham Stanton (Issues in Religion and theology 6 [London: SPCK; Philadelphia: Fortress, 1983), 30-41.

25. Smith, Easter Gospels, 78.

26. Daniel J. Harrington, The Gospel of Matthew (Sacra Pagina 1 [Collegeville: The Liturgical Press/Michael Glazier, 1991]), 415-16.

27. See most recently Thomas W. Gillespie, "A Question of Authority: Matthew 21:23-27," The Princeton Seminary Bulletin NS 24 (2003): 1-9.

28. The tractate Pirke Avoth (Mishnah 4.9.1) opens with the words "Moses received the Law from Sinai and committed it to Joshua, and Joshua to the elders, and the elders to the Prophets; and the Prophets committed it to the men of the Great Synagogue." Translation from Herbert Danby, The Mishnah (London: Oxford University Press, 1938), 446. Authority here is based on an unbroken line of transmission. See also R. Travers Herford, Pirke Avoth. The Ethics of the Talmud: Sayings of the Fathers (New York: Schocken Books, 1962).

29. I intentionally have not capitalized the phrase "son of man" because of the conclusion Matthew gives this story. Whereas Mark has the bystanders say in amazement "We've never seen anything like this," Matthew turns it into an authority statement about people (plural!).

30. Adolf Schlatter, Die Theologie des Judentums nach dem Bericht des Josephus (Gutersloh: C. Bertelsmann Verlag, 1932), 8.

31. Robert H. Gundry, Matthew: A Commentary on His Handbook for a Mixed Church Under Persecution, 2d ed. (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 1994), 594.

32. The NRSV translation, "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations," is deceptive. It turns the participle, [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], into a second imperative. The main verb of the sentence is the imperative "disciple." The stress falls uniquely on it syntactically.

33. Eduard Schweizer, "Matthew's Church," in The Interpretation of Matthew, ed. Stanton, 140; translated from Matthaus und seine Gemeinde (Stuttgart: Katholisches Bibelwerk, 1974), 138-70.

34. Cf. Dennis C. Duling, "The Matthean Brotherhood and Marginal Scribal Leadership, in Modelling Early Christianity, ed. Esler, 159-82, and Edgar Krentz, "Community and Character: Matthew's Vision of the Church," in Society of Biblical Literature Seminar Papers, ed. Kent H. Richards (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1987), 565-73.

35. See 7:28; 11:1; 13:53; 19:1; 26:1.

36. The verb never appears in Mark or John and occurs five times in Luke.

37. Luke has two sending narratives--the sending of the twelve in 9:1-6, very shortly before Caesarea Philippi (9:18-22), and the sending of the seventy (10:1-16) after Caesarea Philippi. Some sayings of Jesus in Matthew 10 occur in one or the other of Luke's narratives.

38. I suspect that this is written to prevent hearers' thinking that the evangelizers are professional rhetoricians making a living from their speechmaking. Paul distinguished himself from rhetoricians in 1 Thess 2:1-12.

39. Smith, Matthew, 243.

40. For the use of Judeans, not Jews, see BDAG, s.v. '[TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII].

41. Matthew's Jerusalem chronology changes Mark. Mark has Jesus cleanse the temple on the day after the entry. In Matthew Jesus goes directly to the temple on entering Jerusalem and cleanses it.

42. Matt 23:1-9 is a massive rejection of the religious leaders. The seven woes against them lead to 23:34-36, a stern pronouncement of judgment. They are guilty of murdering all the righteous who are killed in the OT. 23:37-39 makes clear that the judgment is against Jerusalem. The city has a consistent negative image in Mathew, beginning in 2:1-12. Hence the disciples go to Galilee to see Jesus in 28:16-20.

43. He adds two parables to the one in Mark 12:1-12 and modifies that one drastically.

44. Jesus uses the same term that he uses in Matt 28:19. Such negative judgments occur earlier in the Gospel also. See Matt 8:10-12; 11:16-24; 12:38-42; 15:7-8.

45. Recall that Matthew is the only Gospel to use the term [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] (Matt 16:18 and 18:17).

46. See most recently Peter Stuhlmacher, "Matt 28:16-20 and the Course of Mission in the Apostolic and Postapostolic Age," in The Mission of the Early Church to Jews and Gentiles, ed. Jostein Adna and Hans Kvalbein (WUNT 127 [Tubingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2000]), 17-43, and in the same volume Hans Kvalbein, "Has Matthew Abandoned the Jews?" 45-62, and Ulrich Luz, "Has Matthew Abandoned the Jews?" 63-38. Kvalbein includes a survey of recent literature on Matthew in regard to this issue.

47. Kvalbein, "Has Matthew Abandoned the Jews?" 57.

48. Luz, "Has Matthew Abandoned the Jews?" 64.

49. I discussed early Christian baptism at length in "Christianity's Boundary-Making Bath: The New Testament Meaning of Baptism, the Sacrament of Unity," in Grace upon Grace: Institute of Liturgical Studies Occasional Papers 9, 1994-1996, ed. Randall R. Lee (Valparaiso: Institute of Liturgical Studies, 2002), 99-115.

50. See Lars Harman, 'Into the Name of Jesus': Baptism in the Early Church (Studies of the New Testament and Its World [Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 1997]) 37-50, and W. F. Flemington, The New Testament Doctrine of Baptism (London: SPCK, 1953), 52-84.

51. Didache 8:2 gives the seven-petition Lord's Prayer in almost identical form to Matt 6:9-13. Luke has only five petitions (11:2-4). This supports the suggestion that Matthew follows the liturgical forms in use in the Syrian church also in the baptismal formula. See Klaus Wengst, Didache (Apostellehre), Barnabasbrief, zweiter Klemensbrief, Schrift an Diognet, eingeleitet, herausgegeben, ubertragen und erlautert (Schriften des Urchristentums, zweiter Teil. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1984), 23, 26.

52. Paul uses a similar idea when he described baptism as baptism into Jesus' death (Rom 6:3-4). Baptism is in one sense a change of lords, as Rom 6:12-23 makes clear.

53. Quoted in David J. Wolpe, Teaching Your Children about God: A Modern Jewish Approach (New York: Henry Holt, 1993), 155.

54. Martin Goodman, Mission and Conversion: Proselytizing in the Religious History of the Roman Empire (Oxford: Clarendon, 1994), 167-68.

55. Kelly A. Fryer, Reclaiming the "L" Word: Renewing the Church from Its Lutheran Core Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 2003.

56. Ferdinand Hahn, Mission in the New Testament, trans. Frank Clarke (SBT 47 [Naperville: Alec R. Allenson, 1965]), 120-28.

57. Harrington, Gospel of Matthew, 416.

58. Gundry, Matthew, 595 about v. 19a, but the evaluation applies to much of the conclusion.

59. Donald Senior, "The Mission Theology of Matthew," in Donald Senior and Carroll Stuhlmueller, The Biblical Foundations for Mission (Maryknoll: Orbis, 1983), 251-52.

60. Martin Marty, "Like it or not," Christian Century 121, 9 (April 6, 2004): 71.

61. T. S. Eliot, "Four Quartets," 145.