We Are the Evidence--June 2, 2026

We Are the Evidence--June 2, 2026

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, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you...." (Matthew 28:18-20a)

This is one of those times where what Jesus doesn't say carries as much weight as what he does say. These words, often called the Great Commission, begin with a pretty hefty claim on Jesus' part: "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me."  That's not the sort of thing one jokes about or brags about--unless one really can back it up. Here the risen Jesus effectively tells his circle of disciples that his resurrection from the dead is evidence that he is Lord over all things, even over the now-broken power of the grave, and with it, everything else in all creation.  But that, of course, is just the beginning of the sentence.

What is surprising to me (or maybe, knowing Jesus' character, not really all that surprising after all--just different from the world's way of doing things) is the way Jesus completes this thought.  The rest of Jesus' declaration is: go make disciples of everybody else you can find, wherever they're from, and whatever their background.  Jesus is interested in building a community, not in burnishing his reputation or inflating his status. Or to put it differently, the proper response to recognizing Jesus really does have "all authority in heaven and on earth" is for our lives to be formed in Jesus-shaped ways.  Jesus is interested in making us into a certain kind of people, whose lives reflect what he says about how the world really works.

In other words, if we really believe that Jesus is Lord of all things, we will take him seriously when he teaches us to love our enemies, share our abundance generously, speak truthfully, avoid making a show of our piety, and welcome others lavishly. If Jesus is right when he says all authority has been given to him, then he knows what he is talking about when he says thigs like "Blessed are the peacemakers" and "Blessed are the merciful."  If Jesus truly is sovereign over all creation, then "When you did it to the least of these, you did it to me" is not just an optional suggestion, but a description of how the world really is.  The risen Jesus doesn't give any hint of changing the policies or priorities he taught and spoke about during his ministry; if anything, he doubles down on them and now tells the disciples to teach everybody--insiders and Judeans like them, and outsiders and Gentiles as well!--to practice this same way of life.  The authority of Jesus will be visible, Jesus says, in the way people live their lives as they become his disciples. (Or, as John's Gospel says it similarly, "By this will all people know you are my disciples: if you have love for one another.")

But like I say, it is also striking what Jesus does not say here.  Jesus' claim to have "all authority in heaven and on earth" doesn't conclude with, "So therefore build statues of me to impress the nations." The Lord of all creation does not say, "Therefore erect monuments in my honor with my name engraved in big, impressive letters." The Risen One, unlike Caesar, doesn't even want his face stamped on a coin. All of those kinds of gestures were the Empire's standard tactics for claiming to have "authority," along with occupying armies, bread-and-circus distractions, and gladiator battles in the Emperor's honor.  Jesus will have none of those things; instead, he is interested in seeing people taught and shaped to live in his particular way of love, justice, and compassion.  Emperors like Caesar always want to project their own sense of self-importance with monuments, statues, and hoopla to cover up their own raging insecurity and nagging awareness that they will one day be consigned to the dustbin of history. Jesus, however, would have us recognize his authority by practicing his kind of enemy-embracing, outcast-welcoming, abundance-sharing love. We are the evidence that Jesus is Lord, not a building, sculpture, parade, or propaganda.

It is worth admitting, of course, that over the course of the past twenty centuries, we who name the name of Jesus have not always done a great job of following Jesus' instructions here.  There have certainly been eras in which "being a Christian" was reduced to "reciting a creed and then going on your merry way unchanged." There have certainly been times when we built monuments and statues of Jesus carved out of marble and covered in gold leaf rather than building our lives on Jesus' teachings or shaping our choices on his priorities.  We have not done a fantastic job, by any stretch of the imagination, of "making disciples of all nations" so much as we have more frequently just "added church members to official rosters" or built humungous edifices. We easily slip into the Empire's same old list of "looking impressive" rather than what Jesus has specifically directed us to do.

But still his words remain, and they still call us to take him seriously.  For us who dare to believe Jesus' claim that "all authority in heaven and on earth" have been given to him, then we are indeed called to both live the Jesus-shaped way of life and to apprentice others to share in it.  It is a joyful life--with loaves and fish abounding, towel and basin passed around as we wash one another's feet, outcasts and "sinners" treated as honored guests and friends, and the lowly lifted up.  There is every reason for us to spend our whole lives letting Jesus train our hands, feet, and hearts to live in his way.  But ultimately, Jesus is entirely uninterested in the world's trappings of authority--power, monuments, wealth, pomp and circumstance--and wholly invested in making disciples out of us... and making more disciples through us.

You might well know the old line of Gandhi's; when he was asked what he thought of Christianity, he responded: "I like your Christ; I do not care for your Christians--your Christians are so unlike your Christ." Jesus is much more interested in making us to reflect his character and to shine his light than in the standard displays of power and might that the world obsesses over.  What if today we let Jesus' shape us in his likeness, and to see if that isn't a better way of pointing to his authority?  What if we let our practice of Christ-like love be the most compelling evidence that he really is Lord?

Lord Jesus, let our lives reveal to the world that you hold all authority. Let us love in ways that embody your love.