The eleven go to Galilee, to the mountain Jesus had directed. Mountains mark turning points in this Gospel: the temptation (Matthew 4:8), the Sermon (Matthew 5:1), and the transfiguration (Matthew 17:1). The Gospel's last scene happens on one too. 17"when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted." Matthew could have ended with a tidier scene. This Gospel used the word doubted once before, of Peter sinking in the water (Matthew 14:31). These are real men, some of whom had scattered at Gethsemane, standing before something too large to process cleanly. To these men, with worship and hesitation mixed together, Jesus hands the mission.
He begins with his authority: 18"All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me." Daniel saw a figure given dominion over all peoples (Daniel 7:13-14), and Jesus cited that vision before Caiaphas (Matthew 26:64). That claim got him convicted of blasphemy. Now it is spoken as plain fact to his own followers and needs no defending. In the wilderness Satan had offered him authority over every kingdom for one act of worship (Matthew 4:8-10). Jesus took the long road through obedience and a cross, and he now holds more authority than the shortcut could have given.
On the strength of that authority he sends the eleven: 19"Go therefore and make disciples of all nations." For most of this Gospel he had sent them only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel (Matthew 10:6). That boundary is gone. He tells them to baptize 19"in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit," one name for three persons, with the teacher they followed and abandoned named in the same breath as God. The work is making disciples who observe 20"all that I have commanded you," which is a long labor of teaching, carried out one person and one season at a time.
The sentences are built on the word all: all authority, all nations, all that he commanded, and always. Each one widens the circle a little further. The last sentence answers the first chapter. Matthew 1:23 says the child will be called Immanuel, which means God with us. Now Jesus says I am with you always, to the end of the age. The Gospel is framed by one promise, with us at the start and with you at the close. Everything between, from a manger in Bethlehem to a mountain in Galilee, was building toward it.
The mission was handed to men who were still doubting, and the promise was made to men who had already failed him. Their doubt and their failure disqualified neither the mission nor the promise, and neither disqualifies a reader now. Ask where you have been waiting to feel more certain before you obey. Go with the doubts you have, and take the promise with you. The presence he promised does not wait for your certainty.
Prayer
Father, thank you for the whole story this Gospel tells, from Immanuel in a manger to the risen Christ on a mountain, one unbroken promise that you would be with your people. Forgive our doubt, and use us anyway, as you used eleven men who were still working through theirs. Send us to the neighbors and nations you have set before us, teaching what Christ commanded and resting in the presence he promised. In Jesus' name, amen.