Read Genesis 12:1-3 & Matthew 28:18-20
In 28:16, Matthew did not need to name the mountain where Jesus told the disciples to meet Him after the resurrection. It would have been obvious to his audience—Mt. Arbel, the most prominent point overlooking the Sea of Galilee. While you can take a tour bus to the top, in 2015 our study group took the path Jesus took, hiking three hours up the steep, rugged trail. When you have to sweat for your lesson, you remember the teaching, a tactic Jesus also used often.
Up top, the view was breathtaking. Our teacher explained that Jesus had a reason for saying these words in this location. From this vantage point the disciples see a majority of the locations where Jesus’ teachings and miracles took place, all at the same time! As they scanned the horizon, they saw the places where they learned “all that I have commanded you.”
Looking Northeast, Matthew could see where his toll booth was, at the border between Herod Antipas’ and Herod Philip’s territories. They could also see the two main international roads which pass through Galilee, which intersected on the plain below. At that busy crossroads, people from all nations were traveling, North, South, East, West. With people from those many nations in eye-sight, Jesus commissions the disciples: “Go! Make disciples of them, baptize them into a new life with God, teach them to obey all that you have learned from me.”
With these words, God’s promise to Abraham, that “all peoples on earth would be blessed through you,” would finally be fulfilled. After more than a millennium of waiting, these words would come true through the Gospel ministry of the disciples. Now 2000 years later, disciples of Christ are still commissioned to bring blessing all peoples, as we share with a needful world Jesus’ teaching, forgiveness, healing, redemption, the infilling of the Holy Spirit and baptism into a New Creation.
For Reflection:
- Take time today to bring a word of blessing (call, write, text, visit) to a someone from a different people group than your own, or to a field worker serving among the nations.
by Jay Thorson
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