Been Brought Through

Been Brought Through:

At the end of Matthew’s gospel - after Jesus “the son of David, the son of Abraham,” had spent three years teaching His friends about what it REALLY means to love God and neighbor (NOT about a superficial and/or synthetic religious system), after Jesus’ was brought before Pilate, the whole Barabbas fiasco, after Judas hangs himself, after Jesus’ crucifixion, burial, and glorious resurrection on that first Easter morning... after ALL this we read in Matthew 28:18-20:

“Having drawn near to them Jesus said, ‘All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me. Therefore, having been brought through - disciple all the nations by baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit; that is teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And in doing so, surely I am with you always to the very end.”

It’s been said that all heresies occur because of majoring on the minors and minoring on the majors. The surest way to miss the theological boat is to take what the Bible teaches out of context and emphasize the wrong stuff once it has been isolated out of context.

This passage of Scripture has historically been referred to as “The Great Commission.” Unfortunately certain people, denominations, and churches have historically used it to take the focus off of what Jesus’ primary point and teaching is.

The context of this passage is that it comes at the very end of Matthew’s gospel. It comes after the 11 remaining disciples had been brought through EVERYTHING with Jesus for three full years. Then Jesus appears and said to them, “Therefore, having been brought through - disciple..." Jesus lays the foundation of the rest of this passage in calling these 11 men to reflect upon what they've been brought through - the Great Filtration - over the past three years, which has brought them into the presence of the risen Christ!

Jesus says, “Therefore, having been brought through (three years of discipleship yourselves) - DISCIPLE all the nations!” The verb form of “having been brought through” is a passive participle of the Greek verb poreuomai. Poreuomai is where we get the English word porous, which refers to the extent which something can pass through something else. If you have a very porous rock (like limestone) water can pass through it - and in passing through limestone the water is filtered, thus improving its quality and taste by removing impurities. Poreuomai is also a passive participle here, which means it is something the disciples have been brought through - not something they have actively accomplished of or by themselves. The point is two-fold: 1) Since poreuomai is passive it CANNOT be translated “go,” which would be active, and 2) since it is a participle it is NOT the primary verb. The emphasis here is not the idea of “Okay, once we're done here you guys Go!” Instead, the emphasis is on what Jesus has brought His disciple THROUGH.

What the remaining 11 disciples would have understood Jesus to be saying is that after having been brought through three years of intimate discipleship, which has culminated in this moment - standing before the glorious risen LORD - Jesus is now telling us, “DISCIPLE all the nations!”

“DISCIPLE” is the CENTRAL verb of this entire passage. In this passage the biblical Greek informs us that “disciple” is both 1) an imperative verb - meaning Jesus is NOT suggesting discipleship as something to consider, but that it is IMPERATIVE; and 2) that “disciple” is an active form - which means they are to be actively (not passively) involved in discipleship.

The take away should be that the emphasis of this passage of Scripture is NOT on the going, or even on the end result (wrongly translated as “make disciples”), but rather a primary emphasis on what these men had been brought through - Jesus issues an IMPERATIVE command that they do for others what Jesus did for them - “disciple all the nations.” Jesus is emphasizing the intimate, involved, clumsy, messy process of discipleship - that REQUIRES that you have invited Jesus into your life and are allowing Him to bring you through all the circumstances, storms, trials, and fires. Jesus is not emphasizing "going" or the end product "make disciples," but rather the process, which would look exactly like the last three years these 11 men have just been brought through.

Tomorrow we’ll look at the remaining part of this passage: “by baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit; that is teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And behold, surely I am with you always to the very end.”

Blessings,

-Kevin