Biblion Bible Commentary
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All Authority, and All the Nations
Matthew 28:16-20
16 But the eleven disciples went into Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had sent them. · WEB
On a mountain in Galilee, with some of them still doubting, he sends them to everyone — and promises to be there.
But the eleven disciples went into Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had sent them Matthew 28:16.
The book ends where the ministry began, in the country he was mocked for coming from Matthew 4:15, on a mountain — which in this Gospel is where teaching happens Matthew 5:1.
When they saw him, they bowed down to him; but some doubted Matthew 28:17.
That last clause is remarkable and it is left in. A closing scene could have been arranged without it. Whatever the doubt was — and the word covers hesitancy rather than disbelief — the commission is given to a group that contains it, and nobody is sent away to sort himself out first.
"All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth" Matthew 28:18. Everything that follows rests on that sentence. It is the answer to the offer made in the wilderness, where the kingdoms were available for a bow Matthew 4:8–9; he has them, and by the other road. Daniel had seen dominion given to one like a son of man Daniel 7:14, and the word given keeps it in the Father's hands.
"Go and make disciples of all nations" Matthew 28:19. The single command in the sentence is make disciples; going, baptizing and teaching are how it is done. And all nations is the end of a road this book has been building since it put four foreign women in the genealogy Matthew 1:3–6 — a Roman officer's faith, a Canaanite mother's argument, a Gentile crowd glorifying the God of Israel. The mission that was once bounded by the lost sheep of Israel Matthew 10:5–6 is now bounded by nothing.
"Baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." One name, three named — the formula spoken over every entry into this community from here on, and the same three present at his own baptism in chapter three Matthew 3:16–17.
"Teaching them to observe all things that I commanded you" Matthew 28:20. Not teaching them the commands: teaching them to observe them. Doing has been the test in every discourse, and it is the test in the last sentence of the book.
"Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age."
The Gospel closes where it opened. The child was named Immanuel, God with us Matthew 1:23, and the last words spoken in it are I am with you — the same promise, now made in his own voice, to eleven men on a hillside who have just been sent to the ends of the earth. There is no ascension scene here and no farewell. The book ends with him still present, and the work unfinished on purpose.
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