Jesus, “Great Commission,” and the Hebrew Bible
Author: Bobby Valentine | Filed under: Hebrew Bible, Hermeneutics, Jesus, Matthew, Mission
When Matthew penned his conclusion to his story of King Jesus the son of David, he intended us to hear it as the conclusion to his book. His book is the story of the “King of the Jews.” There was no “New Testament” there was however Matthew’s Gospel and the Hebrew Bible of which Matthew explicitly links his story.
The conclusion, which is now known as “The Great Commission “ a name it never had until 1800 (coined by Hudson Taylor) years after Matthew wrote, connects with the opening and ever ignored genealogy.
“The book of genesis of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David.” Matthew summarizes the entire history of Israel in his genealogy. He names many but David alone is called “King.” David is the King. Jesus is his “son.” Jesus is the Messiah, the “anointed” (1.16). Matthew follows this up with the naming of Jesus saying he will be called “Emmanuel” (1.23), that is “God with us.” This is followed by gentiles seeking the one “BORN KING of the Jews” (2.1-2). These all show up in the “Great Commission.” All are understood by Matthew’s connection to the Hebrew Bible.
1) Jesus’s words are drenched in the Hebrew Bible in which Matthew has placed his story of Jesus the King of the Jews. The King is fulfilling Israel’s original mission and empowering his followers to share in that mission.
2) “heaven and earth” a deeply Hebrew way of describing all Yahweh’s created realm. The phrase peppers the Hebrew Bible but none more important than the Book of Genesis which Matthew has termed his own book of King Jesus (Genesis 1.1; etc, etc; Mt 1.1). The Jewish King is now claiming all of God’s creation.
3) Jesus then says “all authority given to me.” No Jew missed this. Here is Davidic language. First Matthew has already told us in the skipped genealogy that Jesus is the “Son of David,” that he was “born to be king of the Jews” and that he was crucified as the “King of the Jews.” “Having been given” is what Jesus says (Ἐδόθη) an aorist passive verb, Jesus received something, he did not take something. Isael’s king’s authority was derivative; it comes from God. He is established on the throne as we will see.
Jesus statement, in the narrative of the Gospel, comes after Yahweh has reversed the decree of the rebellious nations who mocked and made war upon the “king of the Jews.” Psalm 2, a critical text throughout the NT writings, supplies the framework. Yahweh, the God of Israel, sits in heaven and laughs at the arrogance of the nations that make war upon “the LORD’s anointed.” Yahweh, in the face of their rebellion, has “installed my king on Zion, my holy hill.” The kings of the world are then commanded to come acknowledge the Lordship of the King of Israel (this is a frequent theme in the Psalms btw). In Psalm 2 the Lord’s “anointed” is also God’s king whom he installs upon the throne.
Jesus says ALL authority, in all God’s created order, has now been given to him because Yahweh has made him king. He was born King. The nations conspired (and the powers in Israel colluded) against him. Yet Yahweh has installed him as King anyway. Jesus is the Davidic King. The commission is to inform the nations a new king is in town. Now Jesus confesses the reality of what is proclaimed in Matthew 1.1.
4) “making disciples of all nations.” Matthew has already told us the pagans came seeking the Jewish king (Mt 2.1-2). But here Jesus, the anointed and installed King of the Jews, is assuming the very role that God created Israel for in the first place. He is after all the “son of Abraham” too (Mt 1.1). All nations will be blessed through Abraham (Gen 12.3). Israel was created to be a “light to the nations” (Isa 49.1-7). Israel was to the world what the tribe of Levi was to Israel, set apart as Priests. They were to intercede for, to worship for, to be a light … to show the glory of the One full of Hesed. Israel by and large failed in that calling by mimicking the nations treatment of the poor, the orphans, the widows, the aliens all usually rooted in the false worship of idolatry (are we any different??). But Jesus the anointed King, the representative of all Israel, has in fact been faithful. The Psalms are loaded with calls for the nations to come and worship the God of Israel. Now Jesus tells his disciples the faithful King of the Jews has been installed by God, it is time to tell the nations to acknowledge him and worship.
“Baptizing them.” Passing through water is deeply embedded in the Story of Israel. The Exodus was not just gracious God deliverance from slavery but a passage through water to a new life free from the aroma of death in Egypt. Israel would pass through water again to enter into the Promised Land. It is this very symbolism that lies behind John the Baptizer’s ministry at the Jordan River. It was alive and well with the Essenes of Qumran. The Pharisee Apostle Paul, states point blank that former Gentiles (ethne) at Corinth went through a “baptism” like the Israelites (1 Cor 10). Here at the conclusion of Matthew’s Gospel, the King of the Jews says that the pagans will pass through water too.
5) “teaching them to obey all.” Throughout the Gospel of Matthew Jesus is not only presented as the Son of David but he routinely sounds like Moses, especially in Deuteronomy. Moses at the end of his ministry, like Jesus at the end of his earthly ministry in Matthew, exhorts his disciples (Israel is Moses’s disciples). Israel was to demonstrate to the world the wisdom and nearness of Yahweh, “Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.” ‘What other nation is so great as to have their gods near them the way the LORD our God is near us whenever we pray to him?” (4.6-7). So in a passage that Matthew has already shown us was near Jesus’s heart when he was in the Wilderness being tested (i.e. is he a faithful son??), Deuteronomy 8. Moses says, “Be careful to follow every command I am giving you” (8.1; cf. v.6, etc, etc). What is the content of this? The Gospel of Matthew itself! The Sermon on the Mount. The Parables of the Kingdom in Matthew 13. “I did not come to destroy the law …” Servanthood. Judgement (Mt 25). And that Jesus is King of the Jews. The nations will come to Israel’s King and listen as he, like Moses, delivers the faithful word from the throne of David.
6) “I am with you …” This is the return to Matthew’s opening. It is also in the middle of Matthew, “where two or three are gathered in my name I am with you.” But this, and do not miss this, is one of the most fundamental declarations of the Hebrew Bible. Yahweh delivers Israel and then dwells in their midst. “I will place my dwelling in your midst” (Leviticus 26.9-13). “Do not fear for I am with you” (Isaiah 41.10; Jeremiah 42.11; Haggai 2.5; etc, etc, etc, etc). We can literally cite dozens of texts.
7) What does all this mean? The so called “Great Commission” is not something new. It is in fact the very mission of Israel from the beginning. Jesus has been declared to be King by God himself and installed as “my king in Zion.” This King, unlike even David the King (recall the genealogy reminds us of David’s sexual assault upon Bathsheba, 1.6b), has been faithful. In the King, Israel is finally living up to what she was created for, a light and a blessing to the pagans (ethne means both gentiles/nations and pagans). The Great Commission shows at the conclusion of the first book of the New Testament that God’s People will always have:
The Same God
The Same Promise
The Same King
The Same Mission
In fact our commission means nothing “separate and apart” from the Hebrew Bible and what it contains. It is in the providence and wisdom of the Holy Spirit of God that the Gospel of Matthew is the first book we are invited to hear in our assemblies for in the Second Century there were strong and powerful currents that wanted to deny everything we have just written. They were called Marcionites.
Thank you for reading. Be blessed.
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