Matthew Summary: Baptizing them...

Matthew 28: 19b, “Baptizing them… 

For his earthly mission, Jesus,

“though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death–even death on a cross” (Philippians 2: 58).

 When his earthly mission was complete,

“God highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2: 9-11). 

Thus, with such elegant verse is the story of Jesus told, who came as Matthew has described already in 27 chapters, and here at the end, Jesus proclaims to his disciples that “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” He did not stop speaking, but he continued: “Therefore….”

 Go: Do not stay in one place, but as you are going, meet people, help people, pray for people–do all the things that you have seen me do among you. 

 Make disciples: Be witnesses of Jesus’ story and demonstrators of Jesus’ power so that people are drawn to Christ as their Savior and Lord. Then put them in small groups to apprentice themselves to Jesus. 

 Of all nations:  Go and make disciples in your town and make disciples, but don’t stop there. Go beyond to others who are new and different and be in mission as Jesus was.  

 Baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit…    

 You might notice that I changed the word “in” to “into.” This is not just a claim for power on the part of the person doing the baptizing, as it might seem to many. Rather, this is a binding over of the person, body and soul, into the possession of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit (R. V. G. Tasker, The Gospel According to Matthew, 1961, Page 275; see also Ben Witherington III, Matthew, 2006. Page 535). 

 First, you belong to God because God created you. Second, you have been redeemed, that is, ‘bought back’ from sin and death into whose possession sold yourself. Third, you are not your own, you never were. As Bob Dylan says, “You gotta serve somebody.” 

 Baptism is our rite of initiation into the body of Christ. Jewish culture, like many others, was familiar with the use of water to symbolize a ritual washing away of sin. God himself said, 

 “I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you, and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you and make you follow my statutes and be careful to observe my ordinances. Then you shall live in the land that I gave to your ancestors, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God” (Ezekiel 36: 25-28).

 John’s baptism was a mark to show that one had heard and accepted his call to repentance (Matthew 3: 1-3). But John knew the difference between his baptism and Jesus’ baptism that includes the Holy Spirit and fire (Matthew 3: 11-12). Still, as a sign of his submission to God’s purpose, Jesus asked John to baptize him. When John did, the Son came together with the Spirit (dove) and the Father (word) who says, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3: 16-17). 

 “Christian baptism, then, had its real beginning at Pentecost. John the Baptist had explained the difference between his baptism and that of Christ. The distinctive element of the latter would be the gift of the Holy Spirit…. Thus Christian baptism is only possible after the Pentecostal outpouring of the Spirit” (Rob L. Staples, Outward Sign and Inward Grace: The Place of the Sacraments in Wesleyan Spirituality, 1991, page 121). 

 And that is exactly the linkage that Peter made when bystanders asked what the exhibition of God’s Spirit meant. Peter called them to repent and, convicted by God, they responded to the disciples, asking: “Brothers, what should we do?” 

 “Peter said to them ‘Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you, for your children, and for all who are far away, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to him” (Acts 37-39).

 The mark of the children of God in the Old Testament was circumcision. In God’s New Covenant the women are not left out because all can be baptized and receive the Holy Spirit. As Paul says,

 “For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have come to fullness in him, who is the head of every ruler and authority. In him also you were circumcised with a spiritual circumcision, by the removal of the body of the flesh in the circumcision of Christ; when you were buried with him in baptism, you were also raised with him through faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead” (Ephesians 2: 9-12).

 The word “fullness” here, pleroma in Greek, is not just a secular term. Finding the fullness of God was a spiritual quest in a different religious system of Paul’s time. The Gnostics from the East were searching for the pleroma 'fullness’ of God, some in self-denial, some in hedonism. Paul is telling them that they search in vain. The fullness of God is found in Jesus Christ. One identifies with Christ in the symbolic death of Christ through baptism which involves death to sin and resurrection to a new life (see also Romans 6: 3-4). 

 This new life of the baptized believer reorients the believer to center his or her focus on God. Thus, baptism is an initiation rite into the body of believers who live a new life. This is not a life of pride and violence, of anxiousness and dismissing our obligations to one another, or being divisive and quickly condemning other believers. The unity of one baptized body of believers is central to the Christian faith. Elsewhere, Paul says, 

  “I, therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace: there is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all” (Ephesians 4: 1-6).

 Paul begs the members of the body of Christ in Ephesus “to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called.” That is the logical next step after baptism, which we will take up next week.