The authority that marked Jesus’ teaching at the beginning of Matthew (7:28-29) now closes the book: “All authority . . . has been given to me” (28:18). This authority leads to the commissioning of his disciples.

• Connection: Genesis 12:1-3-“Go from your country and your kindred . . . in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” Now the disciples are to leave home and to go to the nations at Jesus’ bidding. What exactly are they supposed to do once they arrive? They are to baptize into the Name-Father, Son, Holy Spirit.
• Trinity Sunday is the ultimate revelation of God’s character and the Name is revealed as the disciples go forth into the mission of making disciples.
• Connection: Moses at the burning bush (Exodus 3:1-15). The call comes: “Go and set my people free.” Moses replies, “And who should I tell them has sent me?” Again the naming is connected to mission: the Name is revealed to help Moses accomplish God’s mission of saving people. [1]
• Jerome (AC 347-420): “They were baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit so that the three who are one in divinity might be one in giving themselves. The name of the Trinity is the name of the one God.” [2]

Where are you in this story? More of a quick believer or slow doubter (28:17)? I wonder where most of our Christian community fits-gradual or immediate?

Notice the four “alls” (panta)-all authority / all nations / all I have commanded / with you always. Why such all-inclusiveness? What difference would this blank-check commissioning have had on early Christian witness? Which of those “alls” seems off-putting to post-modern congregations?

Why the command to baptize? Lots of other Christian tasks to do. I wonder if baptism was viewed by Matthew’s community as the mark of transition from outside the Christian community to discipleship within.

The proclaimer may consider letting the homily become an interplay between name and mission as we view it in Genesis 12 / Exodus 3 / Matthew 28. Perhaps this could offer us another way of understanding the connection between the Matthean commission and the use of the Trinitarian Name.

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1) I am indebted to Diane Jacobson for the Abraham/Moses connections. New Proclamation (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2002), page 87.
2) Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture Ib (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2002), page 313.