Read Matthew 28
Command and
Commission
COMMAND AND
COMMISSION: A Marine's perspective on the Great Commission. First preached and published in 1999.
To
understand the great commission, we first must recognize that God has commanded
his people throughout history. Perhaps
the most ubiquitous of these commandments are the ten found in Exodus
20. A command is direction with
authority and just part of being a Marine.
Absent authority, the Ten Commandments resemble Stephen Covey's 7
Habits--purely secular wisdom with presumed natural consequences for
deviation. While there are hundreds of
commandments in the Bible; the most recognized from the New Testament are found
in Matthew
22:36-40.
36 "Teacher, which is the
greatest commandment in the Law?"
37 Jesus replied: "'Love the Lord
your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.'
38 This is the first and greatest
commandment.
39 And the second is like it: 'Love your
neighbor as yourself.'
40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on
these two commandments."
These
commandments do not contradict what God promulgated centuries earlier. On the contrary, they embody the earlier
commandments. Having served almost half
of my active Marine Corps service as a commanding officer, I appreciate the
freedom and empowerment of these commandments.
The most difficult leadership challenge is the Marine who does exactly
what he is told. This individual lives
in fear and does not understand freedom and responsibility. Some would paint a picture of life in the
service, especially the Marine Corps, as a life of endless orders. Orders are a part of military life, but not
nearly so much as the freedom to execute a mission. Those with initiative need only the
occasional application of rudder to keep them on course. Those that look for orders at every juncture
seldom find satisfaction in life as a Marine.
Such is the case with the commandments found in Matthew. Those that can make their decisions based
upon loving God and loving one's fellow man can find contentment not available
through simple obedience to the letter of the law.
My entire
active service as a Marine was as a commissioned officer. For some, the recognizable difference between
officers and their men was simply rank and pay.
Closer examination reveals that the instrument of obligated service
distinguishes the officer from the Marine from the beginning. The Marine's oath requires him to support and
defend the Constitution and to follow the orders of his seniors. The officer enters into his service by
commission. The commission is more than
an instrument of obligation, it is an act of committing. Such is the case with the great commission.
Matthew
28:16-20 (NIV)
18 Then Jesus came to them and said,
"All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
19 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,
20 and teaching them to obey everything I
have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the
age."
There is a significant leap from following a
commandment to executing a commission.
Both require obedience and execution, but to understand the nature of our
commission, we must examine it in detail.
All
authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
This is more than introductory prose.
It is an acknowledgement by Jesus of the source of his authority and his
right to bestow the commission that follows.
Having been commissioned both as a reservist and as a regular
commissioned officer, I have been empowered to execute my commission by both
the President of the United States and the Congress of the United States. The originating authority is important
because what follows is not just a command, but the transfer of a portion of
God's authority to those commissioned.
The second
part of this presumably simple statement conveys the duration of the
commission. The words "has been
given" are the perfect tense. In
another context this would appear to be a semantically sidetracked
discussion. Here it conveys that the
commission is and will continue in effect.
Commissioned officers of the United States serve their commission at the
convenience of the President or the Congress.
It may be terminated but it does not expire. The great commission
remains in effect until death or the end of the age.
Therefore
go could be
relegated to a simple transition, but again it conveys much more. Therefore establishes the relationship
between the vested authority and the commission to follow. Go is far from a simple word. While publishers and editions vary, the
Random House Dictionary listed 81 distinct definitions for the word go. The 1st was to move or proceed and the 81st
was to function properly. Perhaps the
word is best defined by its single antonym:
to stay or remain. While the word
in Greek (poreuthentes) may
not have conveyed as many meanings as have evolved in our present-day language;
this was and is meant to be a powerful word of execution and one that directs
those commissioned to leave the comfort of their current environment. In fact
the Greek term seems to convey a perfect tense as well—past, present, and
future.
One of the
simplest and most powerful pieces of counsel delivered to Marine officers is to
be careful what you tell a Marine to do, because he will do it. There are of course exceptions that prove the
rule, but the premise is repeatedly validated.
On one particularly cold morning in Korea, I went through the field mess
line and noticed our battalion commander was trying to motivate the Marines by
serving the morning meal with the mess cooks.
All Marines that serve food to other Marines are required to have a mess
physical. This is a one or two minute
process where a corpsman looks for open cuts or sores and good hygiene habits
while concurrently interviewing the Marine on any of his sanitary habits. I took my tray of food and sat down with a
group of Marines, including the gunnery sergeant in charge of the Marines on
the serving line. I sarcastically told
the sergeant that there was a Marine on the line that did not have a mess
physical. Before I could qualify my
remark made in jest, he was at the serving line double checking every
Marine. In any other locale, this would have
been insignificant. In the freezing cold
of this Korean morning, it meant that the gunnery sergeant's morning meal would
be ice cold upon his return to his seat.
Despite the counsel I had received and generally lived by for fifteen years,
the lesson had finally hit home. The
current application of this anecdote is not to live by the maxim taught to
Marine officers. The lesson is the
urgency with which the unstated task was executed by the gunnery sergeant. If a senior Marine noncommissioned officer
can drop whatever he is doing to execute only a hint of a task, how can
believing Christians not do the same when commissioned by their savior to do
what is surely of great importance.
Make
disciples of all nations is the first element of this important task. A disciple in basic terms is a pupil or
adherent of another. Any professed
follower of Jesus Christ during His life on earth was considered a disciple. The commission did not task followers just to
set a good example. It task followers to
recruit from all nations. Recruiting is
a tough business. The typical
individual that walks into a Marine recruiter's office eventually gets around
to the question, "What can you give me?" My typical reply was, "a pack, a rifle,
and a hard time! Do you want to
join?" Those that still had some
interest and could qualify might also make it through boot camp. The individual that was looking only for
college money usually decided that there was probably an easier way to get
it. Contrary to the mystique associated
with Marine Corps boot camp, the Corps does not make men. Joining the Marine Corps is a lifestyle
choice and not a remanufacturing program for young adults. Likewise, recruiting disciples for Christ
means asking people to give up their idols of this world for a God of
forgiveness and often includes alienation from the world they are forsaking.
Baptizing them in the Name of the Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit is the physical manifestation of what the new disciple
has accepted internally. There is significant
discourse on the subject of baptizing, some of which only serves to widen the
gulf among denominations. Regardless of
the method, timing, or relationship to salvation; this is an essential element
of the commission. The subtle wisdom of
the great commission is that it requires only this one act that approaches
ceremony. All other growth is
demonstrated through acts of faith and obedience.
Teaching them to obey all that I have
commanded rounds out the three basic pillars of this commission. What is not said here is perhaps as important
as what is. Missing from this task is
the qualifier that such teaching must follow four, six, or eight years of
study. The apostles learned from a
primary source reference. Today we learn
from those accounts but are task to
teach those whom decide to follow the teachings of Christ. The qualifier is not there because it is not
needed. Each follower exercising this
commission does so in accordance with his talents. The newest second lieutenant is expected to
teach his followers--even though many of them have served in the Corps for
years. Lieutenants do not start off by
teaching their Marines the strategy of the National Command Authority. They start by teaching squad and platoon
tactics, physical fitness, and other subjects within their expertise. As they grow in their Marine Corps experience
so does their ability and desire to teach more complex subjects. Such is the case with the great
commission. Disciples teach, learn, and
teach again.
If you have
read any of Stephen Covey’s books, you might note that he finds teaching to be
our own best teacher. If we want to
learn something, teach it. Your learning
curve will be much steeper.
The subject of this teaching is to obey what
Christ has commanded. The commandments
have not been abandoned in the execution of this commission. Instead, the commission is an instrument of
their fulfillment. There may appear to
be a contradiction in this part of the commission. Obedience at first glance appears to be a
throwback to compliance with the law from which Christ's sacrifice freed
believers. It is not. From the day a Marine recruit sets foot in
boot camp, he is taught instant, willing obedience to orders. The instant obedience requirement roots
itself in the demands of combat. An
order to shoot, move, or cease fire that is accompanied with hesitation
frequently reaps friendly casualties.
The link between the insistence upon this standard and combat necessity
is implicit and obvious. The willing
obedience part of this equation is the seed of leadership and
professionalism. A recruit learns
obedience to his drill instructor within minutes of his arrival at boot
camp. Somewhere between the midpoint of
his basic training and graduation, he learns willing obedience. His will has been fully subordinated to that
of his seniors, his unit, and his Corps.
This does not mean that he ceases to think for himself. The contrary prevails: the greater the submission, the greater the
freedom. This is the case with Christian
obedience. The sooner the believer
submits to Christ's will, the sooner he realizes freedom.
No commander
sends his Marines on a difficult mission without some concept of support. This may be in the form of intelligence, fire
support, logistics, or other demands of the mission. In some cases, the commander deems it
necessary to accompany one of his subordinate units. Marine commanders are frequently criticized
by other services for placing themselves too close to the front line and the
hazards of the men in the fight.
Marines seldom justify this approach to their business outside of the
Corps. Likewise, the Apostles could have
been provided a variety of support from their savior. Jesus chose to accompany them through his
intercession with God and by sending the Holy Spirit: And surely I am with you always, to the very
end of the age.
The
Christian understands that he exists in contrast to his society. He is tasked by the great commission to make
disciples from that society, but just as Paul did not convince everyone he
encountered; neither will today's commissioned. The commissioned must not become
discouraged. An old Marine Corps
documentary titled To the Shores of Guadalcanal best conveys the culture
of the Marine and the disciple executing his commission. The documentary was of actual footage of the
fighting ashore once the Navy was ordered out of the theater. The footage was narrated by survivors of
these first Pacific battles by U.S. Marines in World War II. The narrator said, "Seven times we
attacked the hill. Seven times the
Japanese kicked us off. We came back
eight."
We should
fulfill our commission with the same faithfulness and tenacity. We should be
just as tenacious with our commission.
Semper
Fidelis and Amen.
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