GOOD SHEPHERD LUTHERAN CHURCH “Living Into The
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GOOD SHEPHERD LUTHERAN CHURCH Gaithersburg, Maryland “Living Into the Resurrection” An Easter Sundays and Pentecost Sunday Series – The Year of our Lord 2021 The Fourth of Six Sessions – Easter VI – May 9, 2021 “The Missionary Mandate” 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, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” – Saint Matthew 28:19-20 I. “Matthew May Have Said it Best, But . .!” All four of the New Testament Gospels bring us something of the same message. Having read Matthew’s version, probably the most quoted and the most “complete” of the “Great Commission,” it is not the only one. It appears that it just might be that all four of the Gospels contain the world-wide mandate. Consider Saint Mark. We remember that the oldest text of Mark’s The Missionary Mandate Gospel account that is available to us ends with the women fleeing from the tomb and saying “not6hing to anyone for they were afraid.” 1 Some scholars have argued that Mark intended to leave it this way, reminding readers that it is for all of us to live in such a way as to “finish the Gospel.” Still others offer the simpler answer that the last page or so has been lost to us. Others suggested that it is altogether less likely to lose the last page of a scroll! And then, there have been “redactors” who have seen to it to either replace the closing words of Mark’s work, or more likely, to “finish it for him.” The Revised Standard Version of Mark’s Gospel has supplied two other such endings that have included later manuscripts.2 1. Saint Mark 16:8. 2. These two examples of “redactions” to Mark are thought to be from around 400 CE. Easter Series – 2021 Session 4 of 6 Rev. 5 pdf Page 1 This first example appears to, for the most part, pick up some material from the two other Synoptic Gospels, though one sentence is unique to the usual “resurrection message.” ( See the paragraph that follows this next one and footnote 4.) And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the good news to the whole creation. The one who believes and is baptized will be saved; but the one who does not believe will be condemned. So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. And they went out and proclaimed the good news everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by the signs that accompanied it. Amen.3 – Saint Mark 16:15-16,19-20 Unique information to the longer redacted closing to Mark is the following information, not included in the other “Great Commission” passages. And these signs will accompany those who believe: by using my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes in their hands, and if they drink any deadly thing, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover.” 4 — Saint Mark 16:15-16 And finally, a much shorter concluding redaction to Mark’s Gospel, also reported in the Revised Standard Version of Mark, is the following. It too is considered to be late 4th 5 or very early 5th century origin. But they reported briefly to Peter and those with him all that they had been told. And after this, Jesus himself sent out by means of them, from east to west, the sacred and imperishable proclamation of eternal salvation.6 All of this said, Saint Mark as we have it today does include the “Great Commission.” 3. Saint Mark 16:15-16, 19-20. 4. Saint Mark 16:17-18.– This information is unique to Saint Mark in the resurrection narratives or in the Great Commission.” So it is repeated here. These might well have been sayings of Jesus. It may also be rooted in Isaiah 11:8: “The infant will play near the cobra’s den.” Mark’s “message” is that children will pick up snakes safely.The message is that the child will play safely. 5. 400 CE sounds rather late to be an addition to one of the canonical Gospels. However, to put that into perspective, it was in 325 CE that Constantine I convened the Council of Nicaea, the first of the Ecumenical Councils. This was just after the persecution of Christians was ended. It is also the Council that gave the Church the Nicene Creed! In thinking of Christianity, the 4th century is still “very early.” 6. Other ancient authorities after verse 16:8 add these following words. Easter Series – 2021 Session 4 of 6 Rev. 5 pdf Page 2 And it may already have done so in it original version, from which a section had been lost.7 For us who study Scripture today, the Great Commission with a world view is there, to be sure! II. Onward to Saints Luke and John When we think of Saint Luke, we recall that Saint Luke not only wrote the Gospel according to Saint Luke, but that Luke also wrote the Book o Acts of the Apostles. In fact, he actually concludes the Gospel and interfaces it with the Acts of the apostles. From Saint Luke’s closing we read: Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, and he said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. – Saint Luke 24:45-48 And, from the opening chapter of Acts we read: But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. While he was going and they were gazing up toward heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood by them. They said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.” – Acts 1:8-11 Saint Luke reports the Great Commission for us not once, but twice! III. “Feed My Sheep” By now in this series, and over and again in our past studies of the Gospel of John, we have learned that John’s Gospel in not rooted the Synoptic Gospels, and may in fact be the only one of our Gospels that is rooted in the witness and preaching of one who was a disciple of our Lord, whether that be John himself or one of John’s own disciples who has been himself rooted in John’s teaching and preaching. John’s world view is evident in the very first chapter of the book. “Jesus was with God 7. Many Biblical translations, including the King James Version nof 1611 and many contemporary English translations have also included the longer of these “redactions” in the regular body of the test of the Gospel of Mark. In fact, the popular New International Version makes no mention of the questions surrounding these particular paragraphs. It is the same with the New Revised Standard Version, though with some footnoted annotations. Easter Series – 2021 Session 4 of 6 Rev. 5 pdf Page 3 and Jesus was God” Moreover, “without nim was not anything made that was made.” Let’s listen to John: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. – Saint John 1:1-3 In the course of the resurrection appearances, we hear that authority given to the disciples: When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” – Saint John 20:19-23 Jesus says to the disciples, “As the Father sent me, so I send you.” He breathes on them and says “receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven. If you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” It’s not altogether unlike Matthew’s “all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.