Key Text: Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen (Matthew 28:19-20).
The Gospel of Mark begins by mentioning John, calling him “the one who baptizes” and the Gospel of Matthew gives John the formal title “the Baptist”. It is in the wilderness of Judea, the mountainous region west of the Dead Sea which includes the Jordan valley where John the Baptist began his ministry. He preached that the divine judgment was very near at hand and he called on Israel to repent of its sins. Many believed him and were baptized. John exhorted people to share their possessions, and he advised tax collectors to “Exact no more than that which is appointed you” (Luke 3:13). Soldiers were told to “Do violence to no man, neither accuse any falsely; and be content with your wages” (3:14). This is strongly suggestive of John’s life-style and ethical teaching and practices of the Essenes. Essenes practiced celibacy and may adopt boys and rear them in their religious discipline. They considered themselves people of the New Covenant and “Sons of Light,” in a constant state of military preparedness for a literal battle with the “Sons of Darkness” who were militant people. John’s apparent view of baptism echoes the ritual baths taken by the Essenes to keep their encampments free from impurity and ensure the presence of the angelic warriors who would help them in their battle against Rome. Possibly, the rite of baptism as practiced by John, was part of a ceremony of initiation into a growing eschatological “New Covenant” community expectantly awaiting the Messiah. That is, the rite of baptism would seal the believer against the day of imminent judgment. Both theories are conditioned upon repentance and the confession of sins.
In the case of Jesus, He was baptized, not for reasons of guilt, but that He might be consecrated to the dangerous mission to which He felt called. Jesus at baptism took upon himself the common sin to fulfill all righteousness. Jesus sought baptism because, in a deepening sense of destiny, he knew that God had some commission to lay upon him; and “because he believed that the voice of God might come pleadingly, piercingly, and with divine endowment through the ministry of his brave cousin (John) who was disciplined in righteousness.” As Jesus went to be baptized, he knew that the soul-shaking moment was at hand. The voice at the baptism was creatively a divine invasion, “This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased” and thus the seal is set. “How else can prisoners of the world’s transgression be released except One come from beyond: How else can they be led into light except by One who knows that Land? Yet the One must take human form, and share the dark hopelessness of the dungeon. This is the task, utter and alone, a traffic between heaven and earth–with attendant pains to rend the spirit– to which Christ at that moment was ordained, by the laying on of God’s own hands” (author unknown).
According to Bishop Marshall Gilmore, “Baptism in the name of the triune God means to be baptized in connection with the relation of God-Creator-Redeemer-Keeper. Through baptism in that name, God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, we are sealed with the name. All that name is and revealed is ours. Through baptism, we receive the fruits of the name. And on the way to sanctification, we grow up into the name. We act creatively, we serve redemptively, and we are compassionately present to the needs of others” (A Manual For Teaching Church Members, p72). When a man or woman is baptized “into the name of the Father,” he is thus given into the possession and protection of God by his own act and the act of the church, which is a token of the great act of the cross.
Baptism and the Lord’s Supper, both vivify truth; they unite the church through the Word that accompanies them by “Means Of Grace.” At the institution of the Lord’s Supper, the Matthean Jesus says, “For this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins” (26:28), the forgiveness of sins in the Great Commission.
Matthew now moves to his perception of “mission”, the Great Commission which makes mention of “teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:20). Teaching them and baptizing them appears to be the real content of disciple-making, and therefore, the heart of the Great Commission. In the “Great Commission” pericope, “when the disciples say Jesus, they worship him” (28:17). It seems that Matthew always refers to a message addressed to outsiders, a future Gentile mission (24:14) involving a universal outreach as seen in our Apostle’s Creed which announces Jesus as the universal authority. When we “Make disciples,” we acknowledge Jesus’ lordship. This is what “mission” is all about.
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