The Kingdom Movement

A Literary & Pastoral Study Guide to the Gospel of Matthew

The Inspiration of Matthew,

by Caravaggio

On the King's Errand

Devotional Reflections on Matthew's Gospel

Power Beyond Our Own:  Jesus Goes With Us

‘And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.’ (28:20)

True, Jesus sends his disciples out into the world.  But he does not send us alone.  Nor does he simply send us with a good manual.  He actually goes with us.  Compare the beginning of Matthew’s Gospel with the end.  At the beginning, Jesus is called ‘Immanuel, God with us’ (1:23).  Now at the end, Jesus enacts what that title means:  ‘I am with you always’ (28:20).

How strange:  In Luke, Jesus ascends to the Father and sends his Holy Spirit to empower the disciples.  But the presentation in Matthew is different.  It seems as if Jesus intends to physically go with his disciples down the mountain and into the world.  Matthew simply means what Luke describes in another way.  In reality, Jesus does go with us, spiritually.  He dwells in us individually.  And he is present when two or more are gathered in his name.  Mysteriously enough, he is present in the evangelism and discipleship his disciples do, encouraging, directing and empowering us.

Matthew’s literary parallel to the Torah reinforces Jesus’ presence with us.  The ending of Matthew’s Gospel parallels but ‘improves on’ the ending of the Torah.  How does the Torah end?  With Moses on a mountain, overlooking the land that Israel was going to inherit.  Sadly, God stopped Moses from going with the people:  God took Moses home, so Moses died on that mountain and Israel had to pursue their inheritance without him (Dt.34).  So Israel lost a tremendous leader.  Compare that to the end of Matthew’s Gospel:  Jesus also stands on a mountain, but not to die – in fact, he has already been resurrected.  So Jesus’ followers aren’t going to pursue the inheritance alone – Jesus goes with them.  And this time, the inheritance isn’t land – it’s people.  This is a more important battle, led by a vastly more powerful leader.

When I first tried leading a bible study, the summer after my freshman year of college, I was really, really nervous.  Before the first meeting, I arrived 30 minutes early to pray, and went to the bathroom three times in that 30 minutes!  But even then, I vaguely sensed Jesus leading us.  I had gone back home to Los Angeles, CA for the summer and wanted to gather friends and acquaintances to meet with Jesus together in his word.  I pitched the idea of studying Matthew 5 – 7, since my mentor David had led me through that section while at school.  During the second meeting of that summer study, we were studying Jesus’ teaching on anger and reconciliation (Mt.5:21 – 26) and two people reconciled with each other in the meeting.  I was stunned.  Suddenly I felt like Jesus was there with us.

A transformation started to happen in me as well.  I’m still learning that Jesus really is at work around me, that he does things in people that I couldn’t foresee, didn’t expect, and can’t take responsibility for.  This was counterintuitive to everything I had learned in life, where effort in equaled results out.  Swimming competitively for 10 years and being an engineer by training certainly reinforced that.  But with Jesus involved, who can predict anything?  Later, in other studies and at other times, I saw people transformed, and it has definitely seemed like Jesus was there with us:  some people were healed of physical problems, some people found knowledge they ordinarily wouldn’t have, and some people came to Jesus to start a lifelong journey of personal transformation.  How does this happen?

Sometimes subtle, sometimes spectacular, yet always significant, Jesus goes with us as we participate in what he’s doing.  These are his battles – battles for human lives – and every victory is his victory.