And Jesus coming up spoke to them, saying, All power has been given me in heaven and upon earth.
The risen Jesus meets His eleven disciples on a mountain in Galilee. Before He sends them out, He tells them what He now holds. Everything He commands next rests on this one sentence. What has He received, on what ground, and what does it mean for His people?
Authority, Not Raw Force
Older English translations render the word "power," which can suggest raw strength. One writer points out that the Greek word here is not the word for the power that went out of Jesus in healing.
When Christ speaks of "virtue" going out of Him, in the case of the woman who had been bleeding, the word in the Greek means "power" (dunamis). It is not the same word as in Matt. 28:18, "All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth." There it should be "authority."
The word chosen for their own task is just as exact.
When the Lord is risen from the dead, and the kingdom is ready to be proclaimed, He says, "All authority" — not power — "is given unto Me, in heaven and in earth: go, and disciple all nations." It is plain He would not say "Make children of God": this was within His own power only. "Disciple" was the suited word in reference to the kingdom.
Given — and Given to a Man
Authority that is given implies someone who receives it. What is new here is the place He has taken as a risen Man.
The Lord speaks to them from the place that now belonged to Him. He will take that place fully in power later on. It belonged to Him as the risen Lord, and it was His by right of the new place He had entered as man. "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me." Not everything is finished yet, and all things are not yet put under His feet. But this is His place as the risen Man who has glorified God and completed the work given Him to do.
He came to that place by going low first. The same words also say why the gift was given.
We see that power has been given Him "in heaven and in earth." This power was given Him because He humbled Himself. This is very precious. It could be given to Him because He was man, and it was His as Son. It was in order that He might give life to all those whom the Father gave Him, and that He might claim His right for them.
New Ground, Wider Reach
Matthew's Gospel presents Jesus to Israel as their Messiah, and Israel refuses Him. When He speaks on that mountain, the footing has changed.
Then Jesus met them, and as He spoke He stated the completely new ground on which His present commission to them rested. It was not Messiah's authority over the Jewish people, whatever gathering there may have been to that. It was the wide, universal authority of the risen Son of man. That authority was His because of His death, which alone redeemed them to God and vindicated His character.
So the mission now reaches past one nation, and the baptism changes with it.
Here we have Messiah raised to all power in heaven and earth, and the commission that follows from it: to disciple all the nations. This stands in contrast with the mission in chapter 10. His exaltation came through His rejection, and it now took a wider scope, the result of Israel's rejection of Him. So they were to baptise the nations, not into John's baptism or even Messiah's, but into what His death and resurrection fully revealed — the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
No Door Closed to Him
If His authority covers heaven and earth, no kingdom and no shut door stands outside it. That changes how a servant of Christ meets obstacles.
Whatever wall stands in front of you, go forward in simple confidence in the Lord Jesus Christ. All authority is given to Him in heaven and on earth. No kingdom has the power to resist what He decrees... So we need not go outside of Christ to gain authority to enter any place or to do any service. We may appeal to Him directly, with no one in between, and we may do this among all nations.
Forgetting It Is Our Weakness
One writer turns the point back on the reader, and on how we size up other people's needs.
How we measure out what others need, forgetting Him who has all power in heaven and on earth — the One who, in the same breath that assures us of it, has sent us out to meet the deepest needs of sin-darkened souls!
Summary
- All authority — the word means right, not raw force. He holds it over heaven and earth alike, so nothing lies outside it.
- All given — it belongs to Him as the risen Man who humbled Himself and finished His work. He received it so He could give life to those the Father gave Him.
- All nations — Israel refused Him, so His exaltation widened the mission past Israel. Baptism is now into the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
- All discipled — "disciple" is the fitting word: they can enrol people under His rule, but only He can make children of God.
- All obstacles — no kingdom can resist what He decrees, so we may appeal straight to Him for any place and any service, instead of measuring people's needs as though He had no power.