God with us (Mt 28:16-20)

Thursday of Holy Week, March 27, 2008

Matthew 28:16-20

"And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age."
(Matthew 28:20)

Matthew's last verse brings back the promise of chapter 1:23 -
"Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
and they shall call his name Immanuel"
(which means, God with us).

Though we never hear him called "Immanuel" - we have here in the conclusion of the gospel a wrapping together of the coming of the Son of God (3:17), the son of David, the son of Abraham (1:1), the Christ, the son of the living God (16:16). "He has risen, as he said" (28:6). He will always be "God with us," as he said.

And he is with us even in this going before us to meet us in the place to which he calls us, and goes forth with us in the work he has given us to do - making disciples, baptizing them into the life of the Trinity, and teaching them to obey his commands (the commands we not only teach with our mouths but demonstrate with our actions - by our obedience).

This life with him and work with him is a corporate enterprise. It's not just me and Jesus. Even as we are to immerse people into the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, into the life of the Trinity, the holy community, so we are called to this work together, in bands of disciples who experience his presence in their midst, who worship him, listen to him, and obey him together.

"For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them."
(Matthew 18:20)