Then Jesus came to [the disciples] and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 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. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
Matthew 28: 16-20
Make no mistake, this is a call to action! Jesus’ last words as a human being on this earth was to his followers to make “disciples of all nations”. This wasn’t a call to the mission field as such because modern day nation-states didn’t really exist at the time. Here, Jesus is referring to ‘people groups’ in all their diversity. In this series the people group I have been championing is my own: Disabled people. For many reading this series it may feel that I have over emphasized this group, but truth told in Bible teaching context, little has been taught on disability. There is much to learn and understand if Jesus’ command is to be realized as God intended. Taking the World Health Organisation’s 2023 statistic of 1.3 billion as our starting point, disabled people globally represents the third largest recorded population after China (1.41b) and India (1.42b). *It would also be the poorest, least educated and employed. With 95% of disabled people being the least evangelised, we represent the lowest church attendance of any people group in the world.
In this passage, Jesus is saying that the authority he possesses isn’t his alone to keep. He was passing it on! Because Jesus had the authority, his disciples also had that authority and therefore should go and make disciples of all the people groups they came across. It couldn’t be clearer. So here is the mission challenge: Disabled people are not a distant nation – we are flesh and blood people living in the same community you live in. We are parents, students, employees, retired, well-off, not so well-off, children and young people. We poses talents, skills, gifts and yearnings which we are keen to discover and share with others. But the truly awesome thing is, we don’t do it alone. The flesh and blood person of Jesus might have left this world but the Holy Spirit that replaces him enables us to do all things.
REFLECT…
PRAY…
& STEP OUT
Upon Kt Tupling’s editorial Mission and Disability for the Church Mission Society. In it she flips Jesus’ “Therefore go”command and explores the interchangeable nature of the margins to the centre.
Thank God that his eternal plan for the world extends to those at the centre and in the margins. And we don’t have to get on a airplane to find them.
Find out if your community has a mission statement? How does it compare to Jesus’ mission statement in Luke? What would you change or add?