The mountain recalls the other sites of revelation in the Gospel. All our earliest evidence indicates the Christian missionary impetus; this suggests that it originated with Jesus, as various Gospel accounts independently attest. The women offered a true report and the guards a false one; Matthew’s closing paragraph announces that we, like the women at the tomb, must offer a true report and resist temptations like money and protection to which the guards succumbed. The narrative teaches us about faith and unbelief. Some of those who see Jesus worship him, which suggests that they recognize him for who he is—“God with them”. Others, however, despite seeing him, doubt.
The narrative teaches us about Jesus’ identity. Jesus holds all authority. Disciples baptize not only in the name of the Father and the Holy Spirit, whom biblical and Jewish tradition regarded as divine, but also in the name of the Son. Placing Jesus on the same level with the Father and Spirit makes even more explicit what is implicit in the book of Acts’ “baptism in Jesus’ name”. Jesus’ continuing presence with his followers even after his departure suggests his omnipresence— an attribute limited to deity alone.
Finally, the narrative teaches us about our mission. Because Jesus’ future reign has begun in the lives of his followers in the present age, his people should exemplify his reign on earth as it is in heaven, as people of the kingdom, people of the future era. Most significant in this passage, because Jesus has all authority, because he is King in the kingdom of God, disciples must carry on the mission of teaching the kingdom. Jesus’ instructions include an imperative (a command) surrounded by three participial clauses: one should make disciples for Jesus by going, baptizing and teaching. Making disciples involves more than getting people to an altar; it involves training them as thoroughly as Jewish teachers instructed their own students. Most of modern Christendom falls far short on this count.
The Gospel closes with a promise: as Jesus’ disciples carry out the Great Commission, he will be with them to the end of the age. The text probably specifies the end of the age because at that time the Son of Man would return in his kingdom—after the nations had heard the good news of the kingdom and hence been prepared for the judgment. If many Christians today have lost a sense of Jesus’ presence and purpose among us, it may be because we have lost sight of the mission our Lord has given us. If we would be his disciples, then we must prepare the way for our Lord’s second coming and his kingdom, as John the Baptist did for his first coming. If we truly long for our Lord’s return, our mission is laid out before us until he comes.