The Great Suggestion and the Lazy Bride of Honor

Did you know that the words “The Great Commission” are nowhere to be found in Scripture?

That’s right.  As a matter of fact the word “commission” [epitropē] is only used once in the New Testament and in regards to the Apostle Paul. It was used in a negative connotation in his commission from the chief priest to persecute Christians (Acts 26:12).

Nowhere in Scripture does Jesus sit His Apostles down and says something along these lines, “Okay guys, here is the great commission for you.” The essence is there―coined by someone much later (possibly more than 1600 years later), but that phrase did not originate in the words spoken by Christ nor was it inspired by the Holy Spirit. 

WHAT!?

Because of the heavy emphasis on global missions expressed within the commissioning passage of Matthew’s gospel, this catch phrase was later popularized by Hudson Taylor. Subsequently these words made it into some translations of the Bible as a heading by well-intentioned translators.

Here is the problem.

Because of the elevated status of a commission so great that “The Great Commission” of Matthew’s gospel stands alone in the spotlight (Matt 28:16-20). The notoriety of this passage affords it so much attention that many Christians are unaware that it is only ONE of FIVE commissioning passages in the New Testament. There are several reasons this one stands head and shoulders above the other four.  For example it mentions of Trinity by naming the Father, Son and Holy Spirit which are found side by side for the first time in the New Testament. It mentions the authority of the risen Christ as well as the promises that He will be with us always. Good stuff―No―Great Stuff. However, the other four passages stand in the shadow of its fame by comparison. 

I often wonder how Dr. Luke (Luke 24:44-49; Acts 1:4-8), The Beloved Apostle (Jn 20:19-23), and Peter’s scribe, Mark (Mark 16:14-18) feel about being so overlooked (hyperbole).

If there are four other commissioning passages, what do they say and how can they be used to either debrief or to turbocharge “The Great Commission” which has been watered down, lost so much of its punch and has an implied interpretation that has given permission for disobedience?

I’m glad you asked.

I.                   Matt 28:18-20 “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” In this passage there is one command. There is ONLY one command and that single imperative in this passage is to MAKE disciples.  “Go” is a participle i.e. “going” as are the words “baptizing” and “teaching.”

II.                Let’s check in next with the good doctor. Luke 24:44-49 (post resurrection) Jesus tells his disciples they are to be witnesses of Christ in the preaching to all nations by the power of the Holy Spirit that God promised to send.

III.             In Acts (just before the ascension into heaven), Luke reports the words of Christ, which are essentially the same thing. When I go you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit promised by my Father and when this power comes upon you - you will be my witnesses from here in Jerusalem to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:4-8).

IV.             Mark writes, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation” (Mark 16:14-18). Some people may want to discount this because these verses at the end of Mark’s gospels do not appear in the earliest manuscript.

So let’s put this on the shelf for a minute and turn to John’s Gospel

V.                John 20:19-23. This is Jesus’ appearance to disciples just after the resurrection where he breathes the Holy Spirit on them and says, “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” I know this doesn’t seem like much, but in context this “commissioning” packs a wallop according to Bible scholar Andreas Köstenberger (saving Köstenberger for later, let’s put all five into the collective stew pot and see how they inform each other).

The cumulative weight within these commissioning passages is on proclaiming Christ and preaching the gospel. “I’m leaving. I’m going away,” Jesus says. “When I go, my Father will send you the Holy Spirit. When that power comes upon you―I send you to be my witnesses to testify about me―proclaiming the gospel―making me known to the ends of the earth. As you are going (poreúomai - “go” in “The Great Commission”) whereby men get saved―MAKE DISCIPLES (the command), baptize them and teach them to obey everything that I taught.

Without these four other passages to keep The Great Commission in check the commissioning in Matthew becomes less-than-great as it loses its potency and sense of urgency. Since the imperative is to make disciples and we are to be doing that as we are going, we do it as we are going about all of our other business. We turn the participle go into a lazy maid of honor. She’s become worthless to the bride whom she is supposed to be serving. 

Or it would be like anxiously waiting at the door for your son to return home from the pharmacy with a prescription for a very ill loved-one. Two hours later you’re ready to kill the kid (again a hyperbole) when he returns after a game of kick-the-can with some neighbor kids when he tells you the Greek meaning behind your command to go the drug store. He looks you in the eye and tells you the command was to get the medicine and that the word go (poreúomai) you used was not the main directive in the sentence only the means of moving from one place to the other.

You can’t find fault with the kids Greek interpretive skills, but you had no intention of your participle “as you are going”―being so passive. 

This is where the bride and her maid of honor example comes in. According to one of the foremost Greek scholars in the world the word “go” is an “Attendant Circumstance.”

HUH?

Daniel B. Wallace of Dallas Theological Seminary says in his Greek Grammar beyond the basics: An Exegetical Syntax of the New Testament, that this weak rendering of the participle “to be going” turns the Great Commission into the Great Suggestion. 

The word going here, though a participle is what he calls “an attendant circumstance.”  Wallace writes, “The participle in effect then, “piggy-backs” on the mood of the main verb.”^[1] He gives scriptural validation to this claim by citing Matt 2:13 where the angel says to Joseph and his mother. “Rise and take the child and flee.” In the same way here rise is a participle and loses the urgency if translated the same way we tend to translate the participle “go” in the Great Commission.

In keeping with same methods of interpretation and applying that to Matt 2:13, the angel’s words would look something more like this, “After you have arisen…take and go.”  Joseph’s immediate response, to get up and go, however, helps us to understand that the urgency of arising was more than a mere suggestion. 

In the same way we have made the “Go” in the great commission nothing more than a lazy attendant which refuses to help the Command to carry out its primary function of making disciples.

“Go cat!” 

“Don’t bother me here…(yawn)…I’ll take that as a mere suggestion.”

Our focus on just “The Great Commission” of making disciples loses both the urgency and the commissioning force of the other four commissioning passages which is to proclaim and to share the gospel.  This is not “The Great Suggestion.” In obedience to Christ we should get after what He has commissioned us to do as His sent ones.

You have the Power, the supernatural equipping and the unique gifting to make Christ known and to bring God glory right where He has put you―His purpose for you.  

Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
    and gave him the name that is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
    in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
 and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
    to the glory of God the Father. Phil 2:9-11

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[1]Daniel B. Wallace, Greek Grammar beyond the basics: An Exegetical Syntax of the New Testament   p 639-640   Zondervan

* Picture credit (http://lovingtheclimb.com/2014/02)