But Some DoubtedEven if we doubt, fear not; Jesus is always with us, and our mission’s success is guaranteed.
Scripture ReadingMatthew 28:16-20The eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. 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. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”Scripture ReflectionIn Matthew’s account of the Ascension, Jesus himself explains its implications: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” This is not new information; he is repeating himself. Even before his Passion, Resurrection, and Ascension, how many times he spoke of himself in this way: “All things have been entrusted to Me by My Father…The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hands…You granted Him authority over all people, so that He may give eternal life to all those You have given Him.” (Mt. 11:27; Jn. 3:35; Jn. 17:2). Perhaps it is because that, even after Jesus’ Resurrection, some still doubted, he reiterated this stunning doctrine. It was equally crucial that the disciples also understand that Jesus’ Ascension, at which a cloud took and hid him away into the presence of God, was not his departure. Rather, it is the sign that “I am with you always” — “to the consummation of the age”, he adds. This last qualifier is worth a deeper look. The Greek reads “synteleias tou aionos”. English can’t quite do justice to this statement. It is tempting for us to translate it, “to the end of the age” — but that implies Jesus’ being-with-us might come to an end when “the age” reaches its terminus. This is not quite the sense of the Greek that Matthew used here. Synteleias does not refer to the “end” in the terminating sense so much as the “end” in a teleological sense — that is, the “telos” of a thing, its very purpose for being. Synteleias is the thing’s attainment to that purpose. The “thing” here is the aionos, a Greek word which does not exactly mean “age”, especially when used by writers of the Hebrew spiritual tradition. The 1st century Jewish theologian Philo, for instance, described the being of God as aiōnic. This is not to say that the nature of God is somehow comprised of “ages” as we understand them, since he is timeless, both preceding and transcending temporal ages. Aion here really means something different from “age”, and rather much more sublime; it may be understood as divine being manifest. In the Hebrew mystical tradition, the Holy One expresses himself in innumerable aions; the Kabbalists would later call these sefirot. St. Gregory Palamas used the term “energies”. The creation emerges from God as an aion of aions (this is a term we find throughout the Bible) — it is not merely a mechanical cosmos wound up like a clock at the beginning of time, but a confluence of divinely purposed, living and dynamic divine energies. Buddhists might recognize in this metaphysics the doctrine of dependent origination — a lively superstructure of divine cause and effect with many invisible, “angelic” pillars if you like, all emerging from the ineffable Great Mystery. The 1st century Hebrew mystics who embraced Christianity carried a theological tradition, perhaps the early protological source of Augustine’s “original sin” doctrine, that ours is a fallen aion in need of redemption because it is in some ways deficient, straining in vain to attain to its divine telos by its own natural powers. It was for this purpose that the Word of God came by divine intervention; St. Paul in Romans taught that the creation’s subjection to futility was in fact divinely ordered by God towards its redemptive liberation (Ro. 8:20-21). The sense of Jesus’ statement about the synteleias tou aionos, then, might be better understood as: “I am with you always for the redemption of the creation, the attainment of its divine purpose.” It’s not a warning about the limited duration of Jesus’ spiritual sojourn with his Church; it is our “forever” joint mission statement with Christ. Even if we doubt, fear not; Jesus is always with us, and our mission’s success is guaranteed because all authority in heaven and earth belongs to our Savior — it is in his presence among the faithful that the mystery of the synteleias tou aionos subsists. In the Church, God’s creation attains to the summit of her divine telos, restored to fulness by the baptism of the Holy Spirit and obedience to her divine decrees spoken through Christ. In fact, since scripture’s visionaries saw our “new creation” as the bride of Christ, synteleias might therefore be understood to speak of this marital union’s consummation. Far from being absent, Christ is and must be present; it is his presence in the Church which brings the cosmos’ purpose to fruition in the consummation of the divine marriage. It cannot be so otherwise. Hence, he sent his Spirit to dwell in us, crying out to the Father as he often did in the days of his flesh (Gal. 4:6; Heb. 5:7). In the child of God, it is the Holy Spirit who hears all the words of our Father; it is the Spirit who teaches them; it is the Spirit who understands them (Jn. 14:26). In other words, the Holy Spirit fulfills the Great Commission, “making disciples of all nations and teaching them to obey everything commanded” by the Word of God. We should take comfort in this, knowing that we, like the apostles, may sometimes be limited by our own doubts. No matter; it is not by our own power that we fulfill the Great Commission. The same Spirit who gave the Great Commission through Christ will also fulfill it in us, to whom the Spirit is given even when our faith is as only small as a mustard seed. Such is the greatness of God’s grace. Should we ever doubt, let us call to mind that our ever-present Savior, the guarantor of our Great Commission’s success, suffered. He took on and lived through the fallenness of this aion, and it was precisely in his trials that the Spirit wrought victory through him, and raised him. It is through similar trials, as we travail in this valley of tears, that the Spirit will be victorious in us as well, so bringing about the synteleias tou aionos purposed by God before the ages came to be. That the Great Commission may be fulfilled, may the Spirit give us wisdom, enlightening us with true vision so that we may see — even past our doubts — the true nature and purpose of the creation in her bridegroom Christ, and our true role as God’s children in the consummation of that blessed divine marriage which holds this aion of aions together. Amen.
Song Meditation: “Fight For Me”
Inspiration has struck!This Holy Week I found myself writing and recording companion songs for the journey, from the Triumphal Entry to the Resurrection. You can find all these brand new songs here:
ICYMI: New Album “Hymns & Homilies” Out NowI invite you to download and listen to my album, out now: “Hymns & Homilies” — an eclectic collection of songs for worship and musical sermons. This is not your grandaddy’s Christian music. Name your price — your support for my work of music ministry is a blessing!
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