“As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.”[1] This simple directive is part of Jesus’ moonlit conversation with Nicodemus, which altogether bulldozed several conventional tenets of existing religious systems to make a few things clear: the Good News is blissfully simple,[2] the preeminent One must be exalted,[3] and sometimes key leaders of the land and voices of influence completely miss the point.[4]
Many of us are familiar with what we call the “Great Commission” of Matthew 28: the moment the resurrected Messiah bid us to “go ye 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.”[5] But we can’t baptize nations as geopolitical institutions; and obedience to Jesus born from affection for Jesus doesn’t arrest us by osmosis through trickle-down policies. So to understand the nature of Matthew 28’s Great Commission, we have to rewind a few chapters—beginning with the Great Commitment of Matthew 24:
“This Gospel of the Kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.”[6]
We can break the Greek down here if we want to.[7] “Gospel” means “Gospel,” the “Good News” of the Messiah. “Kingdom” means “kingdom,” because He will rule and reign.[8] “Proclaimed” means “proclaim,” “the whole world” means “the whole world,” and “all nations” means—this is where the ESV’s translation falls a bit short—every tribe, tongue, and people group the world over.[9] What begins with cosmic connotation becomes quite specific—perhaps even mundane, and certainly personal. We’re not told here to build and bolster our own people groups; we’re told to engage every other people group outside our own and bear witness to the person and work of the bloody, resurrected, ascended Messiah—the One who was dead, yet is alive forevermore.[10]
And when we proclaim the Good News of Messiah’s Kingdom, we tell a story about a young girl who loved His Word and treasured Him above all else—bankrupting her own life and security on His worth in a reckless, extravagant display of adoration.[11] “Truly, I say to you, wherever this Gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her.”[12] There’s a good chance Mary of Bethany never got married because she busted her dowry all over Jesus’ body before He died. There’s an even better chance she never had kids. Paul would later say this could be a more effective, strategic lifestyle to get the job done;[13] powerful words from a man who devoted his days to traversing the known world to actually preach and proclaim the Gospel—both in verbal proclamation, and in the way of “doing life together,” good works and spiritual parenting.[14] (Though, to be clear, marriage and parenthood are beautiful blessings and can be very redemptive displays of God’s family.) Paul’s testimony is that of a single, childless man who could honestly say:
In Christ Jesus, then, I have reason to be proud of my work for God. For I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me to bring the Gentiles to obedience—by word and deed, by the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God—so that from Jerusalem and all the way around to Illyricum I have fulfilled the ministry of the Gospel of Christ. Thus I make it my ambition to preach the Gospel, not where Christ has already been named, lest I build on someone else's foundation, but as it is written,
“Those who have never been told of Him will see,
and those who have never heard will understand.”[15]
So those who have never heard will understand. How will they understand if they don’t hear? How will they hear if no one tells them? How can anyone tell them if no one goes to them?[16] If Paul is not clear enough, let me be plain: we are not here to “win culture wars.” We are not here to “take mountains.” The Body of Jesus isn’t in America so we can defend our own constitutional rights to preserve ourselves from persecution and load up our gun lockers. The wisdom of God is man’s folly,[17] and we are living in our own age of Gethsemanes and Golgothas. We will, through the suffering that is the wisdom of God, put His manifold wisdom on display to the powers and principalities of the air through His people.[18] We are in this world—not of this world—to preach the Gospel and make disciples everywhere, until—and so that—He comes and restores all things.[19] The return of Jesus, the resurrection of the saints, the reign of David’s Son, and the renewal of all things is the “blessed hope” of the prophets, apostles, and saints who’ve gone before.[20] It must be ours as well, or we’ve set our sights on lowly (sometimes even carnal) things that will only disappoint us.[21]
We will not save the world. Neither will beauty, despite how poetic it may sound when we write books about it. But the Beautiful One is coming and He will end poverty, systemic injustice, sexual abuse and exploitation, and defend the widow and the fatherless—and that will be beautiful.[22] There is no greater advocate than Jesus, and there will be no fuller justice and restitution than when the One who soaked Golgotha’s soil with His own blood to “seek and save the lost”[23] immerses Himself in the blood of His enemies that rises high enough to reach His horse’s bridle.[24] We want to be on the right side of His dividing lines when He comes, so we must bear witness to His ways until He comes, “warning every man and teaching every man”[25] through both word and deed. We won’t run out of work to do, and we must encourage each other to not grow weary.[26] We’ll always have the poor to minister to, and minister to them we must.[27] As birth pangs escalate, compassion fatigue does not give us an excuse to abdicate our responsibilities and focus on building our own little empires. Life is a vapor and we are but grass in the field about to get scorched by the noonday sun.[28] We’ll be done and gone by sundown. We will suffer.[29] We will die and die daily.[30] But we must endure[31] like the “good soldiers” we’ve been enlisted as.[32]
If His Kingdom were of this world, we would fight.[33] But it is not of this world, and we shouldn’t be either.[34] Lift up your eyes and get a better vision for your life than carnal “culture wars” in this fallen, fleeting, “present evil age.”[35] Preach the Gospel. Make disciples. And soldier up—but the only war we’re fighting is against things we can’t see; for those we can see, we take the low road and wash a bunch of dirty feet.[36] We watch, we wait, we fast, we pray. We also “hasten the Day”[37] and “prepare the way”[38] by “filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions”[39]—that we would be a people known for following the One crushed and humiliated, the marred Son of Man who must be lifted up.
Let us spend our numbered days[40] exalting the Son. All we have to do is help people see Him.
Stephanie Quick (@quicklikesand) is a writer/producer serving with FAI. She lives in the Golan Heights and cohosts The Better Beautiful podcast with Jeff Henderson. Browse her free music, films, and books in the FAI App and at stephaniequick.org.
[1] John 3:14-15
[2] John 3:16
[3] John 3:14-15; Colossians 1:18
[4] John 3:10; see also Galatians 2:11-21
[5] Matthew 28:18-20a
[6] Matthew 24:14
[7] Have a go at BlueLetterBible.org: https://www.blueletterbible.org/esv/mat/24/14/t_conc_953014
[8] Genesis 49:10; 2 Samuel 7:16; Psalm 2:1-12; 72:1-20; 89:19-52; 110:1-7; Isaiah 2:3-4; 9:6-7; Revelation 5:5, 13
[9] ethnos, Strong’s G1484. See https://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?Strongs=G1484&t=ESV
[10] Revelation 1:18
[11] Matthew 26:6-12
[12] Matthew 26:13
[13] 1 Corinthians 7:7, 32-35
[14] 1 Corinthians 4:15; 1 Thessalonians 2:8
[15] Romans 15:17-21
[16] Romans 10:12-15
[17] 1 Corinthians 1:18; 3:19
[18] Ephesians 3:7-13
[19] Matthew 24:14; 28:18-20; Acts 1:6-8; 2:31-36; 3:19-21; 1 Thessalonians 4:16-18; 2 Thessalonians 2:1-4; Revelation 22:7-20
[20] Titus 2:13
[21] Romans 5:1-5 tells us of the hope that “does not disappoint.”
[22] Deuteronomy 10:18; Psalm 68:5; 146:9; 1 Thessalonians 4:6
[23] Isaiah 53:1-12; Matthew 18:11; Luke 19:10
[24] Isaiah 63:1-6; Revelation 14:20
[25] Colossians 1:28; see also Matthew 25:31-46
[26] Galatians 6:9; Hebrews 3:13; 10:24
[27] Isaiah 1:17; Jeremiah 22:3; Matthew 26:11; Galatians 2:10; James 1:27
[28] Psalm 62:9; Isaiah 40:6-8; James 4:14
[29] Matthew 24:9; John 15:18-25; Romans 5:3; 2 Corinthians 1:6; Philippians 1:29; 3:10; 2 Timothy 2:3; James 1:2; 1 Peter 1:6; 3:14; Revelation 2:10; 6:9-11
[30] Matthew 10:38; 16:24; Luke 9:23; 14:27; 1 Corinthians 15:31; Galatians 6:14; Hebrews 12:1-2;
[31] Matthew 10:22; 24:13; 2 Timothy 2:11-13
[32] 2 Timothy 2:1-4
[33] John 18:36
[34] John 17:14-15; 18:36
[35] Galatians 1:4
[36] John 3:1-17; Ephesians 6:12
[37] 2 Peter 3:12
[38] Isaiah 40:3; Malachi 3:1
[39] Colossians 1:24
[40] Psalm 90:12
