Misunderstanding the Great Commission

 

What we Christians call the “Great Commission” is a saying of Jesus that is traditionally understood as His call for us to preach the gospel to all of humanity.  The problem is we tend to read the idea of Paul’s gospel of “salvation from the power of sin by believing on Jesus as Lord” back into this text when that content is simply not there. We thus assign a different meaning to the “Great Commission” than Jesus originally intended.

We find the Great Commission in the Gospel of Matthew. As such, we must understand it within the context of that gospel. Each of the four gospels was written at a different time, to a different audience and for specific theological purposes. The gospel of Matthew is very Jewish in content, and it focuses on Jesus as the New Moses, the Teacher of the ways of God, and as Messiah, the promised Jewish Deliverer. In the gospel, Jesus teaches on the dawning of the Kingdom of God, which is a new way of living in the immediate Presence and Authority of God.  

In the Gospel of Matthew Jesus presents his Halakha. This is a Hebrew term that means the way one interprets and lives out the Torah, the law of Moses. In what we call the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7), Jesus as a Jewish teacher, presents His interpretation of Torah and teaches the Jewish people of Galilee and Judea how to live out the commandments the way God intended them. Jesus quotes from Torah and then adds his interpretation. We might even say that he corrects the Torah in some places. 

Jesus uses the speech pattern “You have heard it was said (and he quotes Torah), but I say unto you (and he gives his new commandment).”  For example, Jesus says, “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say unto you, do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also” (Matthew 5:38-39). In the first part of that verse Jesus is quoting Torah from Exodus 21:24. The second part of the verse is Jesus’ interpretation of that passage, and in this case a reversal of that. Instead of responding to violence with more violence, Jesus instructs his hearers to stop the cycle of violence. Jesus is presenting a revolutionary way to follow the Torah, emphasizing the mercy and love of God rather than retributive justice. Here he functions as a new Moses, presenting a new interpretation of the law of God.  The parallels between Jesus and Moses in Matthew's gospel are many.  Here are a few:

• both miraculously saved from a murderous king as a child
• both chosen by God to be a Deliverer for the Jewish people
  
• both went through temptations in the wilderness (Moses with the nation of Israel for 40 years, Jesus for 40 days)
• both received revelation from God on how we are to live in obedience to God

Earlier in Matthew chapter 5 Jesus gives this shocking (to us Christians) declaration: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law and the Prophets [shorthand for the entire Old Testament]. I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments [referring to Torah] and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:17-20).

Clearly, the Jesus of Matthew’s gospel is teaching people to obey the Torah. Of course this teaching would not have carried any weight with his disciples unless Jesus himself was also faithfully obeying the Torah in his life. Jesus was a follower of Torah and an interpreter of Torah during his earthly ministry.

Now let’s look at how Matthew’s Jesus tells someone to find eternal life.  Surprisingly, it is not by “Believing on me (Jesus) for the forgiveness of your sins.” We read in Matthew 19 that a rich man came to Jesus and asked him, “Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?” Jesus replied, “If you would enter life, keep the commandments” (Matthew 19:16-17).  In other words, for Matthew’s Jesus, receiving eternal life was a matter of obeying Torah. (As an aside, this is in complete contrast to the Jesus of the Gospel of John, where his prescription for eternal life is to “Believe on the Son of God” – see John 3:16, 5:24, 6:40, 11:25-26).

Finally let’s read the Great Commission keeping in mind Matthew’s context of Jesus' teaching people to obey his interpretation of the Torah. This commission contains Jesus’ words to his eleven apostles after his death and resurrection:

“Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw him they worshipped him, but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, ‘all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Jesus is telling his eleven apostles to make disciple of all ethnic groups (not just Jewish people but also Gentiles). The way they are to make disciples is to teach them what Jesus has commanded. They are to teach them “to observe all that I have commanded you.” We Christians tend to read Paul’s gospel of salvation by grace through faith into this text.  This is not what it is saying. In Matthew's version of the story, Jesus wanted his disciples to teach people of all ethnic groups to obey the commandments of Moses according to his unique interpretation - the way of living in the Kingdom of God.

According to most New Testament scholars, Matthew’s gospel was likely written around 85-90 CE and represents the theological belief system of a group of Jewish Jesus followers who lived in present-day Syria. They stood in opposition theologically to the predominantly Gentile communities that embraced Paul’s Torah-free gospel.  The letter of James in the New Testament with its emphasis on works of righteousness presents a similar theological perspective to that of Matthew.

To us modern Christians I am not suggesting that we throw out our traditions so we can obey Torah.  I am merely pointing out that in the New Testament itself we have a number of competing theologies about Jesus that represent different streams of Messianic believers in Jesus active in the first century.