May 10, 2022: Day 100 – Matthew 26-28

We come to the end of the Gospel of Matthew.  It feels to me like Matthew inclues more historicity than most of the other Gospels and is more interested in the details so that if people were to go back and check they would see support for the events as they are told.  I see this not just because of the inordinately long chapters (26 has 75 verses and 27 has 66!).  The explanation at the resurrection of Jesus is unique to Matthew, where you have the chief priests paying off the Roman guards to tell people that they fell asleep and while they were sleeping the disciples took Jesus’ body is a detail that you would think would backfire and get them fired if not killed.

The presence of the Trinitarian formula in Matthew 28:19 is a cornerstone of our theological belief in who God is and how God makes Himself known.  This Great Commission that Jesus gives his disciples is centered on the command to make disciples.  We are not commanded to go and make churches or to make programs or to make whatever else most of us do in churches, but rather to make disciples.  What are we doing as a church to make disciples, to make people followers of Jesus Christ and not just people who can associate with a particular church in a particular time and place?  Disciples of Jesus Christ are solely aligned to Jesus, all the other loyalties that we face have to be secondary.  This is crucial to our lives.