Great Blessing

Doug P. Baker takes a closer look at the Great Commission

Photo: gallery.hd.org

After creating a new life for his people by rising from the grave, Jesus spoke some of His most wonderful words to His disciples: “Go and make disciples…” (Matthew 28:19). But the beauty of Jesus’ words in what has come to be called the Great Commission, is lost on those who see them simply as marching orders. This was far more than a bare command. Bearing in mind that the term “commission” is nowhere in scripture applied to this phrase, I will attempt to present a case for a very different reading of Jesus’ words.

The first time that God spoke to our newly created first parents, He greeted them with the words, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth …” (Genesis 1:28). I have heard this blessing referred to as a commandment, but if it were then it was the most unnecessary command that God ever gave us. As we look around the world we find that the inner drive to reproduce is at least as strong as the urge to eat. And when we consider the refuge camps in Somalia, and see families that have lost six children to starvation and who have no prospects for another meal; and we see these parents choosing to have more children; children who will only be able to help scrape the already empty rice bowl; we begin to realize that the desire to give birth and raise a family is even stronger than the urge to eat. Such an ordering of human needs is obscured in situations where there are few hindrances to either, but their order becomes more apparent when the two needs are pitted against each other.

So if reproduction is the primary (or at least a primary) human desire, then why would God feel that He needed to command Adam and Eve to reproduce? They were going to do that anyway. Did God not understand the creatures whom He had just made?

Of course God understood what our desires and longings would be for He had made us with those longings. God knew that the bearing and raising of children would be the greatest natural urge and would provide for His creatures their greatest earthly joy. Therefore God did not say, “Be fruitful and increase …” by way of command, but rather as a blessing. In fact God’s words are prefaced by the phrase: “God blessed them and said to them”. He blessed them in doing what He knew that they would desire to do and find real pleasure in doing. This blessing declared that their joy was His joy, thereby removing any shadow of selfishness from their pursuit of their own enjoyment in their children.

When Jesus rose from the grave He made us to be a “new creation” (2 Corinthians 5:17). The parallels to the Genesis creation are extensive but I want to concentrate on only one point of contact: the blessing. Just as the Creator had blessed humanity at the first creation, so the New Creator blessed the new humanity at the new creation. Compare these two passages:

Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.

Genesis 1:28

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.

Matthew 28:19–20

These two passages share many characteristics. First, it is worth noting that just as the first blessing was God’s first greeting to the first creation, so Matthew places these as Jesus’ first words to the eleven after he rose from the grave.

More significant is the content of the two statements. Jesus seems to have been intentionally duplicating the creation blessing. He was saying, “You are a new creation. Be fruitful and increase in number. Fill the earth and subdue it.”

And just as we must consider the creation blessing more in terms of its being a blessing than a commandment, so also with this one. It is in the nature of Christ’s disciples to long to see others brought into the same fullness of life that they themselves have been, just as much as the natural person longs to bear and raise natural children. This is not something which Jesus needed to command, but rather to bless. To hear the baby’s first cry; to see her first steps; listening to the child’s first words; watching the miracle of growth; these are the greatest beauties on earth, whether considered in the natural realm for the natural person or in the spiritual realm for the spiritual person. In these are to be found the Christian’s greatest spiritual joys, and Jesus’ blessing assures us that in this our joy is His joy.

Doug P. Baker