The Great Passion (abridged version)

“Then Jesus came to them 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 28:18-20

Most, if not all, Christians know the preceding verses as The Great Commission. It is the charge given by Christ to all His disciples to make disciples of all people of all the different people groups.

At first, it is a great joy for new Christians to take part in this. But sadly a lot of Christians lose sight of the love of God, the gospel, of grace and start focusing on “more advanced” teachings, maturity, works, spiritual fruit, commitment, effort.

As a result, for a lot of Christians, they start to see The Great Commission as The Great Obligation because it is indeed a command given by Christ. But for a lot of people The Great Obligation means The Great Chore or The Great Burden which then results in them begrudgingly taking part. All the joy is gone. All there is is burnout.

For others, things turn for the worse. They see a lot of other people caught up in The Great Commission. They see that that is the “in” thing if one is to be considered serious and committed about the “things of God” and they feel the pressure to keep up. The Great Commission sadly becomes The Great Peer Pressure. Their reason mostly for sharing the gospel is so that they would be considered committed, faithful, a leader, mature.

The Great Commission is indeed a command of Jesus but the above examples are what usually happens when people focus too much on the command. They read verses like the one below and immediately their eyes focus on the phrase “I am sending you.”

“Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.”
John 20:21

But things will be so much different if we focus on Jesus Christ. Our eyes then shift to see the phrase, “As the Father has sent Me…”

We then see the Father’s and Christ’s love, their extreme sacrifice of love as expressed in grace. We see the Father sending Jesus and Jesus gladly being sent. We see the humbling He went through to save us by dying on the cross for our sins.

“…Christ Jesus:
Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
but made himself nothing,
taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to death—
even death on a cross!”
Philippians 2:5-8

If we truly understand the grace and the love of God, then The Great Commission ceases to be The Great Obligation, The Great Chore, The Great Peer Pressure but instead becomes The Great Passion. We cease to respond out of compulsion and obligation to the command. We cease to compare ourselves with others in regards to this. Instead it becomes our heart’s desire, our passion, because it becomes an expression of love to the One Who loved us by giving His life for us.

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Related posts:
The Great Passion (full version)
Sinful Obedience?
Living up to personal convictions 

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