Matthew 28: Summary

“And teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you” (Matthew 28: 20b)

What does “to obey all that I have commanded you” mean? We sing the well-known hymn, “Trust and Obey,” or at least we used to. Of late, American Christians seem to put more emphasis on the ‘trust’ than on the ‘obey’. Since we are at the conclusion of Matthew’s manuscript, perhaps we should look to the Gospel According to Matthew first for understanding. 

 The Greek word translated as ‘obey’ here is terein ‘to obey’ from the base word tereo which means ‘guard’. The noun version refers to a ‘guard’, a person who keeps watch over a prison or other place. The meanings of the word range from ‘keep watch’ to ‘observe’ to ‘do’ in a practical sense.   

 This word is found only in a few places in the book of Matthew. 

 “Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’s seat; therefore, do whatever they teach you and follow it, but do not do as they do, for they do not practice what they teach. They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on the shoulders of others, but they themselves are unwilling to lift a finger to move them. They do all their deeds to be seen by others, for they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long” Matthew 23: 1-5).

 The word appears here as ‘follow’. Jesus is telling the crowds to listen to the word of God as the Pharisees teach it, and to follow the word, but not the teacher. Look at the contrast: ‘Do what they teach but do not do what they do’. That is, don’t follow or imitate them. 

 These teachers are the antithesis of what Jesus is instructing the disciples to do. Yet, in the long history of the church, we have gone through many eras when church leaders loved to put on a show, to tell people what to do, but they themselves did not do right. Remember all the cases of sexual misconduct, fraud, and deception by church leaders even in the last 50 years. There are too many examples, especially ones that are happening today, for us to name them. You know what I’m talking about. 

 This distinction even happens in the secular world. After the Constitutional Convention, Ben Franklin famously retorted to a questioner asking what kind of government we had, “A republic, if you can keep it.” And, we have kept it, more or less, down until just recently.  

 The only other place in Matthew that a version of this Greek word appears is in Chapter 27 where Matthew describes the guards as ‘keeping watch’ over the tomb of Jesus (Matthew 27: 36, 54). 

 The Gospel According to John, on the other hand, shows us more of the meaning of the word tereo. This word is used every time that John records Jesus saying to his disciples: ‘keep my word’ (John 8: 51,52,55; 14:15,21,23,24; 15:10; 17:6,11,15). 

 Most to the point, Jesus says, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (John 14: 15). Jesus adds: “They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by the Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them” (John 14: 21).  

 Jesus also uses a variant of that word to talk about his care for the disciples in particular but believers in general. (Translation of the word tereo is underlined.)

 “While I was with them, I protected them in your name that[b] you have given me. I guarded them, and not one of them was lost except the one destined to be lost,[c] so that the scripture might be fulfilled. But now I am coming to you, and I speak these things in the world so that they may have my joy made complete in themselves. I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one” (John 17: 12-15).

 That helps us round out what ‘obey’ means in Matthew 28: 20. Now, what about “to obey/keep/protect/practice everything that I have commanded you”? We have seen in Matthew 23: 1-5 above that it is possible to ‘teach’ the commandments without doing them. When that failure surfaces, we know the word to apply to the teachers, preachers, and bishops. That word is ‘hypocrite’. Right? 

 Now, one way to weasel out of Jesus’ ‘Great Commission’ here at the end of all things (i.e., Matthew 28) is to pretend that there is a difference in the scope of Jesus’ commandments. Some people, even some scholars, look at the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) and dismiss it as being too idealistic for everyday use. Instead, they think that Jesus must have been talking about life in the Kingdom of Heaven, not survival in the world. Since the Kingdom of Heaven has not yet fully come, we are not required to act as the Sermon commands. The sermon might offer good advice, they say, but it not practical to follow it in this world. Maybe later.  

 Martin Luther solidified the notion of the ‘two kingdoms’, that is, the Secular and the Spiritual. Luther was concerned with how to be a Christian in a Christian society, which he assumed that 16th century Germany was. The individual then had to consider his (we should add ‘her’) calling in society. For example, if one is a father, a small shop keeper, and as a boss of apprentices working in the trade, then he has to be faithful in carrying out his calling in a good society. That is, current social norms guide his behavior. 

 The secular kingdom has its practices and purposes which the church should honor. Thus, the right to make war belongs to the state and Christians should not interfere. The spiritual kingdom has its practices and purposes and the state should not interfere. This led to, among other things, Luther supporting the violent crushing of the peasants and serfs in Germany.   

 Thomas Muntzer and other leaders demanded equal rights before the law for serfs and poor people, the restoration of peasants’ land that had been confiscated by the nobles, and a limit on the forced labor that feudal lords could demand. Sounds reasonable to us today. They also wanted the freedom to hunt and fish, freedoms that had been curtailed by the upper class marking off large game preserves where only they could hunt.  

 The Peasants War began in 1524. Those in rebellion thought they were following Luther’s principles as enunciated in the 95 theses, but Luther first tried to convince them not to rebel. Later, Luther turned against them because of the threat to society. Following his ‘two kingdoms’ theology, Luther wrote:

 “Furthermore, anyone who can be proved to be a seditious person is an outlaw before God and the emperor; and whoever is the first to put him to death does right and well. For if a man is in open rebellion, everyone is both his judge and his executioner; just as when a fire starts, the first man who can put it out is the best man to do the job. For rebellion is not just simple murder; it is like a great fire, which attacks and devastates a whole land. Thus rebellion brings with it a land filled with murder and bloodshed; it makes widows and orphans, and turns everything upside down, like the worst disaster. Therefore let everyone who can, smite, slay, and stab, secretly or openly, remembering that nothing can be more poisonous, hurtful, or devilish than a rebel. It is just as when one must kill a mad dog; if you do not strike him, he will strike you, and a whole land with you” (Luther Works, Volume 46:50, from the tract Against the Robbing and Murdering Hordes of Peasants).

 It has been noted that Luther did initially criticize the nobility as well as the peasants. However, he was beholden to the nobility who protected him from the Pope during the Reformation. In the long run, Luther supported peace with no change in society. The war ended in 1525 with the deaths of some 100,000 peasants. 

 Since then, some who have followed Luther, even if he wasn’t one sided, have hardened the lines between Secular and Spiritual society so that Jesus’ words hardly apply at all. 

 The contrary view is that the church, the gathered community of the King, is indeed intended to be an alternative society, run by different rules that differ from contemporary society. Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world,” meaning not just another kingdom with all the rest. This community grows and overtakes the world.   

 One wonders, then, what Jesus meant by commissioning the disciples to make other disciples who would obey/keep/protect/practice everything that he commanded. 

 Once again, James speaks to our concerns.

 “My brothers and sisters, do not claim the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ of glory while showing partiality. For if a person with gold rings and in fine clothes comes into your assembly, and if a poor person in dirty clothes also comes in, and if you take notice of the one wearing the fine clothes and say, ‘“Have a seat here in a good place, please,” while to the one who is poor you say, ‘Stand there’, or, ‘Sit by my footstool’, have you not made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? Listen, my beloved brothers and sisters. Has not God chosen the poor in the world to be rich in faith and to be heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him? But you have dishonored the poor person. Is it not the rich who oppress you? Is it not they who drag you into the courts? Is it not they who blaspheme the excellent name that was invoked over you?” (James 2: 1-7).