And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  Go 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. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

These final words of Matthew’s account of the gospel leave us with what is commonly known as the great commission from our Lord.  Just as Jesus shared what was the great commandment, the command to love the Lord our God with our everything and then also love others, here He delivers to us a mission for displaying the loves He spoke of.  He began by reminding His disciples of His superiority and charge over all that is.  Such a reminder would serve to help them and all disciples following to know first of all that it is not up to man to design his own mission as this is the job of our Savior and Head.  Secondly, His words assure us that the people we will carry His message to are under His control and not ours.  In other words, whether or not people ultimately become disciples will be up to our God and not to us; all authority has been given to Jesus.

He then helps us to understand what the elements of discipleship are.  It stands to reason that in making disciples we first carry the gospel message to all the nations of the world, calling them to be disciples or followers of Him.  But then we observe that they are to undergo baptism in the name of the one God in His three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Baptism is all too often a much delayed step today, but there is really every reason to think that it should be given quickly following confession and repentance.  This step of discipleship is meant to serve as an immediate witness of the new life of devotion that has begun.  We should urge such in our churches if it has been in any way lacking.

Then there is the discipleship specification of teaching new followers to set their minds and hands to all that Jesus has commanded.  Whereas baptism is done in a moment, this is meant to be a lifetime practice toward full maturity.  Such is where we learn holiness through obedience and the Lord’s discipline, where Christians sharpen one another, always seeking to turn the attention of the other to our glorious King.  In this way, the message of Christianity is never to change.  For though we can and should learn much from saints of the past, our commands always come from the headquarters of heaven through the manual that is the Word.

Finally, for our encouragement that He is always near and for the reminder that He is present for the evaluation of all our conduct, we have the sweet, reassuring words, behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.  He is at hand for the believer even now, dear friend.  Be about the work of making disciples and growing as one today.

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Now the chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowd to ask for Barabbas and destroy Jesus.  The governor again said to them, “Which of the two do you want me to release for you?” And they said, “Barabbas.”  Pilate said to them, “Then what shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ?”  They all said, “Let him be crucified!”  And he said, “Why, what evil has he done?” But they shouted all the more, “Let him be crucified!”

It’s easy to get discouraged about certain operations in our political system, how the courts operate, and how in the world certain ideas that seem terrible end up gaining approval.  But passages like this one remind us of just how good we still have it, regardless of where we think things might be heading.  Jesus receives no true trial but subjected Himself to the whims of a cowardly governor, a blood-thirsty religious leadership group, and a fickle crowd.  Though this was God’s plan from the beginning and though Jesus gave Himself freely, from a human perspective, a person put in such a position wouldn’t stand a chance.  No deliberations, no appeals, no representation, just deceptions and screams for blood.

Here’s what we need to remember in all of this though: there are ways in which we have all been like the different groups of people who played a part in sending Jesus to the cross; we’re all guilty.  Consider the chief priests and elders.  Have there not been times when, apart from true evidence and simply out of frustration, we have tried to rally people to our side in order to protect our own skin or reputation?  We might say that the positions or jobs of the religious leaders was on the line with Jesus around; the stakes were fairly high for them on a personal level.  And then how about Pilate who was in the position of needing to make everyone happy or risk a riot?  He ended up literally washing his hands to make the statement that he was innocent of Jesus’ blood, a ridiculous comment given the fact that he had the power to stop their actions.  Have we ever stepped aside when the fire got hot instead of standing our ground for what is right and just, thinking that such exempts us from responsibility?  Though we may not face immediate consequences, God sees such actions and always works justice.  And finally, take note of the crowd.  They decided to let a murderer (Barabbas) run among them instead of the One who had only brought them blessing.  Jesus didn’t fit in though to the expectations that they had.  How often have we let our expectations of certain conveniences or privileges get in the way of calling for what is right?  Have the ways in which we have ever, say, voted during an election reflected this mentality?

My point in all of this is to simply remind us of the fact that the kinds of sins that we see leading up to the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ are not ones that we’re foreign to.  He went to His death, not ultimately because of the chief priests and elders, Pilate, or the crowds, but because of you and I and the billions of people who have walked this planet.  The characters we read about in this passage are simply our representatives.  Praise God that Jesus’ blood is enough for those of their day and for ours.  May we embrace and spread His plan of remarkable redemption through personal repentance and proclaimed faith in Jesus today.

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And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.  Then Jesus said to them, “You will all fall away because of me this night. For it is written, ‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.’  But after I am raised up, I will go before you to Galilee.”  Peter answered him, “Though they all fall away because of you, I will never fall away.”

Jesus made many statements that challenged the hearts of His disciples.  He told them on multiple occasions of His approaching death, He called for their complete devotion to the exclusion of anything that would stand in the way of their discipleship, and here we see Him informing them that it was absolutely definite that they would abandon Him in His most troubling hour.  I can understand Peter’s obstinacy, not just because of how it fits well with his fiery nature, but because it’s difficult for us to think through the idea that anything would simply have to happen regardless of how resolved against it we might be in the moment when it is prophesied.  We should read this account and declare, “Behold, the mighty, immovable, sovereign will of God.”  But, complex as it might be, we can also rest assured that when the time of Jesus’ arrest came and the disciples left His side, they very much wanted to run off.  What it comes down to however is that God said such would happen and He saw that it took place.  Talk about being moved to reverential fear and intense humility!  These responses should be induced in all of us, but I would imagine actually hearing such a prophesy from the lips of Jesus struck them more deeply than we can fully grasp.

What is also noteworthy, something that Peter seems to miss as he balks at the idea that he would be anything but faithful to the death, is that Jesus again gives them the good and hopeful news of his resurrection from the dead and reunion with His scattered sheep.  It’s as if He was telling them to remember the bigger picture that the current trial was only one part of.  Though an absolutely essential element, the cross, they were to remember, was not the end of their soon to be torn relationship.  In a very personal way for His disciples, Jesus would make the way for the redemption that they were in need of in light of the sins they would commit in the events leading up to the redeeming work that Jesus came to earth to accomplish.

We should be reminded from these things that God has us always in His mind and within His hands, that He is at every moment working out His mighty plan toward our enjoyment of the display of His magnificent glory, and that the crucified and risen Jesus is the bridge to that place of enjoyment.  We can believe this because it is also written, the saints of the Most High shall receive the kingdom and possess the kingdom forever, forever and ever (Daniel 7:18).  May we cast ourselves before Him in humble faith, worshipful adoration, and excited anticipation today.

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For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Don’t you love all of Jesus’ parables about cuddly puppies, fuzzy kittens, and fluffy white clouds?  Or maybe I’m thinking of some other storyteller.  The striking statement here from the Savior is one that comes at the end of His parable about the talents given to workers who were to invest toward the profit of the master.  Two were obedient and rewarded with more, the other buried his and was thrown into the outer darkness.  The principle that Jesus lays down for our observation in light of this story must be examined carefully if we’re to understand how the Lord looks at mankind.  At first glance, it almost sounds as if He is saying that God loves and rewards the rich while saying literally, “to hell with the poor.”  Nothing could be farther from the truth, for we must understand first that when we come to these verses, Jesus has transitioned in His story from even talking about money to revealing truth about the spiritual kingdom of heaven that He had begun with.  Everything in the middle of the account is simply an illustration for how things work within this kingdom.

Notice that the “has” and “has not” language is meant to draw our attention to what has been done with what the servants have been given by the hand of their master.  We know this because the one who doesn’t do any investing with the talent he has been given, even what he has will be taken away. In other words, to cut right to the chase, we are not saved or lost based upon the hand that we’ve been dealt in life, but evaluated according to what we do with that hand.  The “five talent man” that Jesus spoke of ended up being over twice as “wealthy” as the “two talent man,” but both were rewarded for their faithfulness, not for getting a certain sum in the first place.

The question then becomes, “What are we doing with what we’ve been given?”  If we spend our time comparing ourselves to the highly gifted or are crippled by our weaknesses instead of capitalizing on our God-given abilities, we will miss the point of being engaged in kingdom work.  All our efforts, insomuch as they are done in faith and channeled according to truth, are worthwhile efforts.  We are reminded constantly about the frailty of life and the shortness of time, so let us put to work all that the Master has entrusted to our care, however much it might be, today.

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As he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the close of the age?”  And Jesus answered them, “See that no one leads you astray.  For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and they will lead many astray.

Bible studies of the end times bring Christians to various understandings as to the exact order of when everything will take place.  There is great commonality among the orthodox however that Christ is returning in glory to earth in bodily form at the time that the Father has set.  It’s important then as we spend time in the area of eschatology that we always come back to what is very clear.  Interestingly, when the disciples questioned Jesus about what was to come in days ahead, He actually gave them a bit of a preface to His main discourse to keep them guarded against coming to false understanding about what was most central.  What they and we needed to remember is that we’re waiting on the true Jesus Christ who will come in majesty for all to behold.

To be sure, we don’t hear of people too often actually saying the words, “I am the Christ.”  But we do see many promising to be messiahs of sorts, coming to deliver or rescue people to themselves instead of calling them to be reconciled to God.  And indeed, they often end up having many followers.  Everyone is looking for a savior, which means that they’ll discover one in Jesus, another false divine hero, or put themselves forward as their own rescuer; sometimes there’s even an attempt to mix the three.  Knowing that such would be the case, Jesus tells His disciples, “See that no one leads you astray.”  They were to have their guards up, to recall the truth that Jesus was at that moment giving to them, and remember that moments of evidence to the contrary would be shown false in a coming day.  They were to have faith that He was the One.

How will we do this?  Is it simply enough to read these words from Jesus and then go out and engage the world as if we will in our own great and magnificent wisdom discover the secrets of the universe and decide whether or not we agree that He is the way?  Such is the attitude many adopt and such is the way that many are led astray.  Faith that is strengthened by relationship with the Lord is becoming a concept increasingly foreign in our day.  So many begin something with Jesus, but then, as if becoming bored with Him or disenchanted with His mode of operation, search out a mistress that performs the way they want her to.  Eventually, the engagement they had with Him is gone and He is despised.  Jesus’ words to His disciples of all generations is, “Stay close to Me; trust My plan; your faith will be sight one day.”  Anchor yourself to the true Christ today.

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