MAY282023

St. Matthew’s gospel concludes with what is called the Great Commission. Go out to all the nations! Baptize! Teach! Make Disciples! The church has its marching orders. The commission Jesus gives the disciples in St. John’s Gospel has a different emphasis. After Jesus sends them forth (“as the Father has sent me so I send you”) he tells them that they have the power to forgive. “Whose sins you forgive are forgiven.” Perhaps the difference can be explained in that John is writing a generation later than Matthew. By the time his gospel was put on paper there were already three generations of Christians. While the need to spread the Gospel had not changed the condition of those being sent had. Instead of a merry band who personified the message they were proclaiming those first generations of Christians had become divided. Disagreements about the meaning of Jesus had led to factions, separation, sectarianism. The commission of Jesus in John’s Gospel, by focusing on forgiveness might be a way of reminding the Church that the only effective way to make disciples is to embody the love, compassion, mercy, generosity, forgiveness that Jesus came to bring.