When the average person is at the mercy of politicians wrangling over the economy, when culture wars are fought over which books to ban in schools, when your heritage is either of the oppressed or the oppressor, where is the unity and harmony of God? Doubt becomes not so fluid, but more of a certainty that’s just the way the world works. Pandemic social distancing exacerbated the inequities of society and is here to stay. No heaven on earth here.

A Doubtful Reality

When they saw him, they worshiped him—but some of them still doubted!

At the least, you could say this is an example of the accuracy and veracity on the record of Jesus that doubters are mentioned. Remember, this passage reports Jesus’ appearance to the disciples after his coming to them alive following a bloody execution and burial. It’s crucial to Jesus’ story. A good persuasive document leaves no holes for attacks. You’d think the record would be something like, “They saw and believed and got right in line and etc..” (Today, of course, we’d need a good quality video close-up to seal it, preferably with several camera lens angles.) Admitting that some, right there when Jesus appeared, didn’t fully accept it though is huge.

To be fair, after all they’d been through, maybe some of them needed to do this. If this was so, they needed to examine their thoughts fully so they could deal with whatever challenges they would meet going forward. Was this figure a ghost-like spirit or phantom? Or were they afraid what they saw was only what they wanted to believe, something too good to be true? Or let’s give them the proverbial benefit of the doubt (sorry, couldn’t help it…) to say that the record shows they did not swallow everything thoughtlessly; they had to work through any kind of acceptance such that some were convinced more quickly than others. In brief, The Trouble with Jesus: Worship allows room for doubt.

Still, it began with worship. Whoever they saw, in whatever form, they worshiped. Not at all unusual, for who really understands God fully as she or he brings a devotion and honor along with varying degrees of belief? For some, that belief lies in an undeniable spiritual experience of God meeting another in the soul-journeys of life. For others, it’s the unmistakable realization that a power greater than oneself has had a divine hand in steering life circumstances that preserve and lead to wholeness and balance. And yet others, while not exactly viewing a viral video tape, have witnessed the impossible to a degree which  bring some to their knees. All of it hinges though on what came next.

Final Directive

Jesus came and told his disciples,…

They had seen him, even worshipped him, but now Jesus came to them. He came to not as a surreal heavenly figure, not wrapped in ecstatic emotions, not even as they had known him in the same sense in which they had followed him for these last three years. Jesus came to them in an intimate nearness which revealed his fullness as God. He spoke of “complete authority in heaven and on earth.” Their purpose in this revelation and plan was now given as he told them, “go and make disciples of all the nations…”

Go: don’t huddle together anymore but stretch out to the world with my message. Make disciples: no one would know better than they what that meant, for these had answered when he called, “Follow me,” and so they would take that call to others. But there was more.

Three-in-One

Baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Baptize them. Not by their individual assent and acceptance of God. Not only just to be washed, cleansed, forgiven of any and all separations from God and others. And certainly not for empty ritual into a religious organization. Baptize them in, that is, may they know the Divine mystery of God in three-in-one, and yet the only One, this holy paradox of Creator Father, Friend and Savior-Son, Spirit Counselor and Advocate.

That many can be one is a stretch of intellect, let alone faith. Doubt certainly seems an option. But as a body is made of millions of cells acting as one human being, why should the divine not be similarly constructed and revealed? When those cells act in harmony, there is health. So in the knowing of God and in being known by God through these many facets yet interacting parts, there is a unity between each one and everyone, bringing heaven and earth together.

Unity Through Love

Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you.

So they would. They knew what they were up against. If Jesus himself died by the evil intentions of the powerful, these eleven disciples knew their fates would face the same. Not much has changed there.

Still, the message hasn’t changed either. It is met with Jesus’ new commandment, “Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other.”  As God is known in a communal sense, so Jesus’ message is to love in ways that do not separate and divide but brings a belonging to one another than extends beyond the individual. “Do for others as you would like them to do for you.” It’s the link that blurs and erases differences and divisions and ties each to all. It never goes away.

And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.

Matthew 28:16-20

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