Go Forth in Triplicate (June 4, 2023) Mt. 28.16-20

It is Trinity Sunday and that usually means that preachers were studying this week on how best to explain the unexplainable. There are metaphors galore and there is the one explanation that is like a dance with the partners holding hands in a circle so that there is no break in the group. There are charts that try to show the workings between the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. All in all, it makes for a tiring and muddled week because at the end of the day all we know is that we do not know anything more about the Trinity. That is the core of trying to explain the Trinity: we do not know and never have we really known.

Then there are those preachers who try to do what I am trying today: preach a scripture and show that the Trinity is a part of the Second Testament. It is difficult because the doctrine of the Trinity is nowhere explicitly stated in the Bible. It is difficult because what we know came hundreds of years after the Biblical canon was written. It came from a long line of debates and fights to makes sure that the divinity of Christ, God and the Holy Spirit were intact and were kept. But it is in the scripture for today and we are going to dive in and see where it takes us.

This text begins after the resurrection on the first Easter Sunday. The women brought an account of what they saw and heard, and the guards were bribed to “keep things quiet.” The women told the disciples that Jesus would meet them in Galilee where his ministry primarily took place. And it was there on a mountain that Jesus meets them.

Mountains play a large role in Matthew’s gospel. There is the mountain where the devil tempts Jesus to worship him. Jesus’ most famous sermon takes place on a mountain. The transfiguration takes place on one as well. And here we find the disciples meeting one more time on a mountain. It does not matter which mountain it was; the physical spot is not necessary to know. What is important is the theological implications. Mountains are where Moses met God and throughout the gospel Matthew was trying to show the Jews that Jesus was a prophet, no, the prophet who was in the mold of Moses. Therefore, he had to go up mountains. And now, the disciples went to meet him there.

Now, they worship Jesus. But the text tells us that some doubted. There is some controversy about this. There are those who argue that this could not be the disciples because they worshipped Jesus, therefore they would not be doubting and it could only be some who accompany them. Others state that it could be the disciples. Donald Hagner states it this way: “It is natural to believe that the eleven disciples would have been in a state of hesitation and indecision. Too much had happened too fast for them to be able to assimilate it. They did not doubt that it was Jesus whom they saw and whom they gladly worshiped. If their faith was too small in measure, that was because they were in a state of uncertainty about what the recent events meant and what might happen next. They found themselves in “a situation of cognitive dissonance par excellence”. It is precisely this state of mind that is addressed in the words that Jesus speaks to the disciples in the following verses. Jesus’ words will accomplish what the sight of the risen Jesus alone could not.”[1] Their doubt would be akin to Peter’s doubt when he walked on water: he believed but he was a bit hesitant in his belief. The disciples are hesitant even though they believed that this was the one whom they worshipped. And too often we are hesitant. What if someone laughs at us or mocks us for our beliefs? We are hesitant about what and who we believe.

Jesus does not belittle or shame the disciples for their doubting. He tells them that all authority has been given to him. This authority comes from only one source and that is the Father to whom Jesus prayed and with whom he had a close relationship. This authority is that now everything in the world is under the lordship of Jesus. To be Lord of all this would prove that Jesus and the Father are equals and that there is a relationship that has always been.

Because of this authority the disciples are to go and make disciples of the nations. In the Greek the word is ethnos which is often translated as Gentiles. The disciples are in other words to go out beyond the Jews they were initially told to go to alone and reach out to all the non-Jews. And they are to make disciples of them. They are not to go throwing out flyers that give four simple steps to having Jesus in your life or holding a rally in a stadium. They are told to go out and do the hard, patient work of making disciples; students of Jesus. When disciples would go and make disciples, they would make them on their own (i.e., Peter’s disciples, John’s disciples and so on). But here they are to make disciples for Jesus.

In making disciples they are to baptize them in a trinitarian formula: baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. This, of course, is the Trinity that we know. It has come to us through many years of arguments and work of the best minds that the Church has had to offer. But it is, as is seen here, not a static thing, something that stays in one place and never changes. No, the Trinity is a relationship between the three in one. And because of this relationship when the new disciples are baptized, they are baptized into a relationship as well. When we baptize someone, we make sure that the congregation takes a part in the vows to help teach and nurture the one baptized in the faith. That is what is happening here. The disciples are to baptize and then teach the faith. They are not calling people to “make a decision” for Christ and then leave them to themselves. Rather they are to follow the command of Jesus who says to teach “them to obey everything that I have commanded you.”[2]What they are to teach is what Jesus taught them. They are to teach that Jesus is the fulfillment of the Torah. They are to teach all that they have learned from the master.

To all this the disciples would have probably looked nervous and then laughed at the impossibility of the task that was put before them. Here they were eleven men, called to do the work that would be required of many, many more. They were doubting and imperfect. And yet they were the ones that Jesus called to continue the work that he began. But again, the disciples must have felt the weight of the responsibility on their shoulders. How would they even begin the work, let alone continue the teaching that Jesus did?!

Here is where they found the strength and courage to go forth and do what Jesus commanded: “I am with you always, to the end of the age.”[3] These few words galvanized the disciples and made them able to carry the message, to teach and to baptize new followers who would not be eyewitnesses but ear witnesses. The term always in the Greek is “all the days.” In other words, Jesus is saying that he will be with them every single day. Day, after day, after day he will be with them until the consummation of the age. Until the time of his return to establish the rule and reconciliation of God on earth. This can only be done by the coming of the Spirit whom Jesus promised to them because he was going away. The Spirit is the one who will bring comfort to those whom Jesus loved and those who would come to him afterwards in the teaching of the disciples.

We stand today as baptized believers and we have been baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. We know there is a Trinity but like the disciples we sometimes doubt. And with that doubt we realize that we, as disciples or students of Jesus, are just like those early disciples to whom Jesus gave his command. We are called to go and do the same as them. In fact, one of the Great ends of the Church that the PC(USA) has as part of our constitution is the Proclamation of the Gospel for the salvation of humankind. We are told in our own documents as well as in the Bible what we are to do. Do we do it? The answer is one I will let you think about. But remember this, what we do, we do in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, not in our names. Go forth in triplicate doing what Jesus commanded even when we think we cannot. Amen.

[1] Hagner, Donald A. Matthew 14–28. Vol. 33B. Dallas: Word, Incorporated, 1995. Print. Word Biblical Commentary. [2] The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1989. Print. [3] The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1989. Print.