The Great Sending
Chapter 14
The Great Sending
pages 98-100
Reverand Dr. Paul Maier
John 20:17-18
Jesus said to her, “Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brothers and say to them, “I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord” – and that he had said these things to her. –
The Resurrection accounts in Matthew, Luke, and John focus on Mary Magdalene as the “Apostle to the Apostles” at the beginning of God’s Great Commissioning to spread the news of His plan of salvation through Christ, although only the destination of Galilee is mentioned. This all took place during the forty days between Jesus’s Resurrection and Ascension, a fascinating period about which we know very little. At the Ascension, according to Matthew, however, we have the start of the Great Commissioning of Our Creator, of which we all remain recipients today. Jesus gives the eleven disciples assembled on the Mount of Olives an absolutely limitless goal for the Gospel: that of making disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:19)… For the disciples, who rarely, if ever left the Holy Land, this command must have sounded like ordering a missionary today to take the Good News to the Moon. And yet the disciples were armed with the knowledge of a God who could do the impossible as demonstrated by the arrival of the Holy Spirit at the first Christian Pentecost, and the addition of Saint Paul of Tarsus, who made disciples all over the Mediterranean world in one lifetime, with astounding success.
Prayer
Our Universal Lord, with cosmic gratitude we praise and thank You that You did not limit Your Commission to one chosen people, but on the Mount of the Ascension, You involve all nations, all people as candidates for salvation. Saint Paul assured us that You would have all people be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth for which we, as Gentiles, are endlessly grateful even as we pray for the conversion of Your own chosen people. Thank You that our own Gentile conversion was included from the very start of our Lord’s ministry. Please receive our gratitude for Your loving our sinful world so much that You gave Your Only Begotten Son that all who believe in Him may not perish, but have everlasting life, as John the Evangelist assured us (John 3:16). Through faith in Jesus, in whose name we pray. Amen.