GRACE BEYOND DOUBT
Matthew 28:16-20
Holy Trinity Sunday, Year A
Analysis by Chris Repp
16Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. 17When they saw him, they worshiped him, but they doubted. 18And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit 20and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
From Wikimedia Commons
“Jesus’ faithfulness to his mission not only undoes these powers but demonstrates his authority to extend that liberating work to the ends of the earth.”
DIAGNOSIS: Judgment
Step One: Initial Diagnosis (External Problem) – Unfaithful Distance
The last time we saw Jesus’ disciples in Matthew’s Gospel, they were abandoning him. Except for Peter, that is, who followed at a distance “to see how this would end.” (Mt. 26:58) And as we know, that put Peter in a position of denying any association with Jesus. Three times. In the name of prudence and self-preservation.
We get it, if we’re honest. We too are not quick to put ourselves or our interests at risk to help our neighbors in need.
Step Two: Advanced Diagnosis (Internal Problem) – Doubtful Hesitation
The source of the disciples’ distancing themselves here in the midst of their worship might be two-fold. First, they never were certain that Jesus is the Messiah, because he didn’t quite live up to their idea of the kind of king God would send to make Israel great again. And “the way it ended” seemed to confirm their doubts. Second, their hesitancy about Jesus now after his resurrection might also be about his attitude toward them after their abandoning him. Could he really forgive their unfaithfulness?
We wonder this too about Jesus when we own up to our own doubts about him. We wonder if his way of love and self-sacrifice ultimately “works” in our dog-eat-dog reality. And we doubt that our reserving judgement about him makes us worthy of his regard.
Step Three: Final Diagnosis (Ultimate Problem) – Authority Usurped
In the end, the judgement we reserve for ourselves – we and the disciples – is an arrogation of the divine judgement that was our original sin. We want to be the arbiters of what “works” and what doesn’t, the authorities of what is good for us and what isn’t. And it is precisely this which confirms that we are “condemned already,” to borrow from another evangelist (John 3:18).
PROGNOSIS: Grace
Step Four: Initial Prognosis (Ultimate Solution) – Authority Exercised
Yet God is not content to leave that condemnation as the final word for us; and so, in Jesus God comes among us as one of us to liberate us from our captivity to the powers of sin, death, and evil in an unexpected way: by succumbing to them. Jesus’ faithfulness to his mission not only undoes these powers but demonstrates his authority to extend that liberating work to the ends of the earth.
Step 5: Advanced Prognosis (Internal Solution) – Eager Trust
The astonishing grace that commissions worshiping-yet-doubting disciples, past and present, assures us that all has been made right with God in Jesus. The Spirit uses the promise of this good news to create joyful faith that cannot sit still.
Step Six: Final Prognosis (External Solution) – Faithful Accompaniment
Transformed by our encounter with Jesus, we go by faith into the world by a different way (see Matt. 2:12!), relating to others as God has related to us: with grace, mercy, forgiveness, and love. This is what attracts and engages new disciples, and what it means to be baptized into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit: a new and better way of life that gladly gives of itself for the sake of the world, trusting the promise that we will never be abandoned.
