It took me more than forty years to finally listen to the hound of heaven’s answer to that question that seems to be asked so very early and often in life – what do you want to be when you grow up? Working for my church brings me into constant contact with the cherubs of our nursery school, and I can tell you, they are being asked to answer that question at the age of four – fire fighter, police officer, doctor – the standard answers that we always hear from our children at that age.

But the question is always lurking just beneath the surface for most of our lives and it shows up in this one  – “what do you do?”  – “what do you do?” What do you do is one of the first questions that comes up at any cocktail or dinner party when we meet new folks. What do you do? Not who are you, but what do you do? I’m a lawyer, I’m a teacher, I’m dog catcher, a plumber, baker and a candle stick maker. We claim our identity and that of others in a job description as if that is the sum total of who we are.

In the post Eastertide of Pentecost, these are important questions for us to be reconsidering in the light of the risen Christ who has called us to follow him – to be something more than what our secular career choices claim to say about our identity and the subconscious desires that drive us to believe that the good life is found in another shopping spree and bigger house. We are called to an identity that is something far greater and enduring – Jesus calls us to be the people of God.

“Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus told them to go. When they saw him, they worshipped him, but some doubted. Jesus came near and spoke to them, “I’ve received all authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything that I’ve commanded you. Look, I myself will be with you every day until the end of this present age.” Matthew 28.16-20, NRSV

The Great Commission – There are couple of pieces in these verses that I want to look at just a bit more closely for a moment.

Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee – The number 11 is a monkey wrench in the gears: it is not the perfect 12. Yet Matthew sees Jesus sending an imperfect church, a fallible church, a less than perfect bunch, into the world to do his perfect work.

Disciples – It is important to see that those commissioned are not called leaders, church officers, elders, deacons or even apostles, but simply disciples. That’s all a Christian should ever want to be: a disciple.

Went to Galilee – The eleven have obeyed the command relayed by the faithful women. The call to come to Galilee, is a call to believe the Lord and his resurrection enough, to make a trip to see him – a trip that took 3 days from Jerusalem if you went THROUGH Samaria – add a couple of days if you went around Samaria. It was a call to trust, much like Abraham’s trusting God when he was told to go, because it is a call to meet someone who has died and may very well not be there. It’s what we call faith: the faith of discipleship is the risk of daring to believe that the Lord will be there when he calls us. By coming to Galilee, the disciples have returned to the place where Jesus’ earthly ministry got underway, the place where they faced their modest beginnings and in that place, their lives break out into a huge worldwide horizon. That they meet Jesus as a group –  not in private one-on-one breakout sessions –  shows that this is a meeting that honors community and worship services, all of which shows us that Jesus meets his disciples in a special way in the fellowship of his believing people.

They worshipped him, but some doubted – Some doubted – we really don’t know if they all doubted or just a few, the Greek is ambiguous at best, but how can they worship Christ if they have doubts? And how could any of these eleven, having just seen the risen Jesus, doubted at all? From a theological and spiritual perspective, the notion that the disciples who worship and yet doubted is evangelical and deeply profound. Worship and doubt, together in the same sentence.

Just as Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil, so we Christians live in a war between the spirit of worship and the spirit of doubt – the spirit of worship as God’s people and the spirit of the world’s people, McDonalds and Amazon Prime. Jesus doesn’t correct, exorcise or otherwise attack this doubt as he instead quietly overlooks it, as if it is normal. By his great commission, Jesus is teaching that the disciples will win their war on doubt by following his command. Somewhere, I once read that Albert Schweitzer once said: “Follow him and you will know Him,”  and while I am at a loss to properly cite the source, it is true no matter who said it. Doubt is part of our human imperfections this side of the resurrection and Matthew’s good news is that doubt and worship can and do coexist. Doubting worshippers are Jesus’ material in mission – Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven – blessed are those who worship the risen Lord and who still struggle with their doubt.

All authority has been given to me, so go out there, baptize and disciple. Baptize: it’s Christian evangelism. Go out and live and talk with people until people believe and seek baptism into Christ: that’s discipling. Disciples live and talk with people in such a way that they teach them all of Jesus’ commands: that’s Christian education. And it is these people that Christ promises to always be with. The great commission – the great commission to be – to be disciples of Jesus, united to him in the waters of baptism by the power of the Spirit – a relationship that makes us the children of God, the very people of God. I’ll have more to say about this in another post.