GO: ALL NATIONS

THE PRAYER      

• Find a quiet space.      
• Breathe deeply and recognise God with you in this moment.      
• When you are ready, speak to God about this time together.      
• After you've finished praying, go through the following passage a few times slowly and thoughtfully (preferably out loud).   
• Allow God to meet you in these words.

Sing God a brand-new song! Earth and everyone in it, sing! Sing to God, worship God! Shout the news of his victory from sea to sea, Take the news of his glory to the lost, News of his wonders to one and all! For God is great, and worth a thousand Hallelujahs. His terrible beauty makes the gods look cheap; Pagan gods are mere tatters and rags. God made the heavens. Royal splendour radiates from him, A powerful beauty sets him apart. Psalm 96: 1-6 (MSG)

THE FIRST READING

Read this passage slowly (preferably out loud) as you allow God to meet you in these words. Pay attention to anything God might be saying as you do.

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, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age." Matthew 28:18-20 (ESV)

RESPONSE

Take some time to respond (write down, draw, pray, etc.) to God’s prompting in the first reading of the passage. What is he highlighting and saying to you through this?

THE SECOND READING

Read the passage again (slowly and preferably out loud) through the “lens” of what The Spirit highlighted in the first reading. Listen for anything else the Spirit might be saying.

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, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age." Matthew 28:18-20 (ESV)

THE REFLECTION

As I write this, I’m a 35-year-old white male who grew up in Johannesburg, South Africa. When I was younger, everyone I knew was like me. White. Middle class. South African. At school I mixed with “them”, the children of colour, but “they” weren’t my friends. “They” didn’t come to my parties, share my lunch or laugh at my jokes. I, like so many other children of my generation, lived in a post-apartheid South Africa that was rainbow by name, but certainly not by nature.

Legalised racism had been overturned, but its psychological stains lingered on. Dividing walls were not physical anymore; they didn’t need to be. We had been locked into an island of self, that kept us alienated from those who shared our world by an impenetrable barrier labeled, “the other".

In Matthew 28, Jesus clearly calls us to the mission of discipling all nations. Why? Is it because his ego won’t settle for just one, or because we’re only really Christian when we’re backpacking through the Amazon to some unreached tribe?

No, it’s because Jesus knows what so many of us have yet to learn. People can only be “the other” from a distance. Jesus came to re-human the world. He came to reconcile us to the Father so that, having reclaimed our status as divine image-bearers (human beings), we might step into the kind of reconciling life that tears down the wall of hostility which turns an “us” into an “us” and “them." This ministry of reconciliation is an up-close and personal kind of work. It happens around dinner tables through shared stories, cultures, and experiences. When “they” have a name, a face, and a soul, it's hard to keep “them” at a distance, because we start to realise that they are us in so many ways.

This is what Paul is saying when he declares that, “There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus." The work of the Gospel eradicates our barriers of separation and opens our eyes to see that God so loved the world, all of it, and so should we. This is partly why Jesus calls us to all nations. He is directly attacking that ancient lie of separation that has caused untold damage in all of its forms from racism to sexism to classism.

He is re-humaning the world by reminding us that all of us are human.

When it comes to sharing our faith we need to make sure that we check our prejudice at the door. We need to repent of our barrier-building ways and follow the Spirit of God into cultures, neighbourhoods, and nations not our own. Yes, it will be difficult to do so. Sanctification is rarely easy. But we must do it regardless. And, when different people with no earthly reason to care for one another find common ground in Christ, He will be greatly glorified. After all, “you can tell the quality of a spring by how many different kinds of people come to drink at its waters.” (C.S Lewis)

Finally, and ultimately, we go to all nations for Jesus’ sake. This is not a popular motivation in a culture preoccupied with self. But, the simple truth is this: by his blood Jesus has purchased for God those from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. Every nation is rightly his.

It is true that not all of us will have to leave our country to reach these nations, but all of us will have to leave our comfort. We must be willing to count the cost of stepping into other peoples' worlds so that Jesus can get what he paid for.

The worship of all people.