“Following Christ: Led by the Spirit” Matt 28: 16-20

Jesus has been crucified, buried, and is now resurrected. As one of his last act, the last act and last words of the Gospel of Matthew in fact, he is telling his disciples that the time has come for them to go out into the world and do what he has done -  to go make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that Christ has commanded. Not a small task. 

We may have heard this scripture passage before. In fact, we may have heard it more times then we can count. As United Methodists, its the basis of our mission statement: “to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.”  But I think in order to understand what Jesus is asking, even commanding, in this passage, we need to understand what it means to be a disciple.

When I was in college we were required to attend chapel. When school was in session, chapel would be held before lunch several times a week. Usually it would be a guest speaker or the dean. Sometimes special groups would come and offer music. But during the summer session, when fewer students were on campus, we would gather into the student center and watch devotional videos and spend time discussing them. 

One of those videos was Dust by Rob Bell, where he talked about what it meant and felt like to be a disciple. As disciples of any rabbi, and most importantly to us, Jesus, disciples would follow their teacher around. They didn’t just glean the knowledge being offered to them - they wanted to be like that rabbi. They ate what their teacher ate, slept where their teacher slept. When you were a disciple, a follower, you wanted to be covered in the dust from your rabbi’s feet because you followed after them so closely and for so long. I remember watching that video and thinking I want that. I want to be covered in the dust of Jesus’s feet. I want to be known, known, brothers and sisters as a disciple of Jesus. 

But as much as that image struck me, so did some of the wisdom about being a disciple that Rob offered - believing in Jesus does not make you a disciple of Christ. Let me say that again, believing in Jesus does not make you a disciple of Christ. They are two different things. We could believe in the power and message of Christ without feeling the need to go and live out the great commission commanded in today’s passage of scripture. But I believe that when we do not desire with our beings to follow Jesus, to know what Jesus knows and to be like Jesus, and we don’t strive to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world by baptizing and teaching others what Jesus has taught us, that we are not being the church.

There are lots of reasons that we would rather know Jesus ourselves instead of being disciples – discipleship is hard. Its messy. But above all, I think that we do not go and spread this message of hope, love, and peace, because we do not think that we are good enough. We don’t have a seminary education. We haven’t studied the Bible enough. But brothers and sisters Jesus called the not good enough’s, those who others had rejected and gave them the same authority that he had been given. He invested time in them and they changed the world. We do not need to know everything about Jesus or have our methods for sharing Christ perfected. We are simply called to go, and share our love for Jesus.

I’m sure the disciples felt in this moment, this time of sending that they weren’t ready as well. Sure they had done some of the things that Jesus had done - being sent out two by two to teach and bring healing - but sometimes they returned triumphant and sometimes they returned feeling like failures. I call this their internship phase of being disciples -  they could test the waters out before having to fully do it themselves. They could return to Jesus and ask for help. They could be tentative up to this point - learning along the way. 

I have to believe that at least some of the disciples are thinking about what took place after they returned from the mountain top where Jesus was transfigured. Didn’t Jesus remember how they couldn’t even heal a son struggling with epilepsy and Jesus had to step in. Did Jesus really trust them to be the ones who brought the good news? 

And what Jesus was commanding them to do was hard. The instructions were given to the disciples in Galilee - the land of the Gentiles. When Jesus is telling them to go and baptize all nations, it isn’t what we imagine it to be today - all of the nation states of the world. No, Jesus is telling them in the land of foreigners to go to those who are not like them. Those who don’t believe what they believe. Those who don’t speak like they speak. Those who may not look like them. They are to go to everyone and proclaim the Good News, not just those who they are comfortable with. 

It is this call that Jesus leaves his disciples with. To go and do the hard thing. To go and doing the seemingly impossible thing. Which may be just be the point. The disciples could not live into this commandment apart from the mercy and strength of God. In the words of Shirely Guthrie, author and theologian, “The same God who is God over us as God the Father and Creator, and God with and for us as the incarnation of the Word and Son, is also God in and among as the Holy Spirit” It is the power of this God that was sending the disciples into this mission field and would not leave them there alone. And brothers and sisters, we are not done in that mission field. We are not done inviting people to come and know the grace of our saving God. But we can only do it by the power of the Holy Spirit. 

The truth is, we are bearers of a powerful message. But we have to believe in the power of that which we are called to share. And if we believe in the power of our God and the power of the Gospel, then what is stopping us? How can be we go from those who believe in Jesus to those who cannot help but share about Jesus? Go from those who know about Jesus to being disciples who venture out in Christ’s name?

Are we willing to be disciples, risking ourselves for a message that is bigger then us? Are we willing to venture into the messy places in life, to share the good news that someone once dared to show us? Are we so in love with Jesus that our feet are covered with the mud of the same places that he traveled? And are we willing to truly believe that this is what Jesus has called us to, no matter what? The harvest is plentiful my friends, are we willing to believe in ourselves as Jesus believes is us, and go?  Amen.