Mountainside UMC
June 1, 2014
No Series Series - Elevenish - Matthew 28:16-20
One of the experiences of being a grandparent is that you
occasionally relive in a remote sense through your children the
forgotten experiences of parenting. One of them is feeling
unprepared. It’s not uncommon for our daughter Karli(mother of
Finley (AKA-The Finster) to call about something that Finley has
done or hasn’t done and ask what in the world to do. It’s a regular
reminder about how unprepared parents are for parenting.
Which reminded me of a funny true story I recently read related to
this from John Ortberg. He related this story. When our first child
was born, we took her home from the hospital. Nancy had gotten a
kidney infection so, on top of having just given birth, she was quite
sick. At one point, she just started to freak out. This was quite
unusual for her. Her mom was staying with us, and I had to take
Nancy into a separate room. This anxiety just came gushing out of
her. "What if the baby gets sick and we don't know what to do?
What if one of us drops her on her head? What if we discipline her
too much? What if we discipline her too little? What if we're too
emotionally unhealthy? What if we mess her up her whole life
long?" John said, "Nancy, we can always have more children."
If at first…almost every parent has this sensation. When they get
that kid home, they find themselves saying, "I'm not ready for this!
I thought I was, but I'm not!" Then the kid grows up, and it's time
for the kid to leave home and face the world, but the world is scary
,complex and expensive. The kid says, "I don't think I'm ready for
this!" The parent says, "Yes, you are. Ready or not, it's coming!"
So one of the common experiences of life is feeling unprepared.
God wants us to try to equip ourselves and be educated as best we
can and prepare, but it's just reality. Life, opportunities, challenges,
relationships, commitments, eventually aging, and ultimately death
all kind of have a way of saying, "Ready or not, here I come.
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We all face this problem. The truth about you is, when it comes to
being ready, you'll never be entirely ready for the most important,
most daunting challenges of your life.
The truth about Jesus is that Jesus actually uses people who say,
"Yes," even when they don't feel ready. This is true all through the
Bible. There's a hidden story not being ready but going anyway at
the end of the gospel of Matthew. It’s not what you might consider
a not ready story but after a little explanation it might be more so.
After Jesus has been crucified, after he has been resurrected, he is
going to send the disciples out. Hear Matthew 28:16-20
"Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where
Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped
him; but some doubted. 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.'"
He gives them this remarkable assignment. It's a commission. It's
sometimes called the Great Commission because it is so
comprehensive. He says, "All authority...has been given to me." He
keeps using this word all. "So you go and make disciples of all the
nations, all people, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son,
and Spirit, teaching them to obey all the things I have commanded
you to become truly great people as I have instructed you. I will be
with you all the days, to the end of the age.
This is a really big commission, but it's to people who are not
really ready to go. The first little indicator we have of that is the
word eleven. That word would jump out at people reading this text
back in the day of these events. But not today. Some of you know
the ancient world was fascinated by numbers. They would often
associate certain meanings with certain numbers.
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The number three was associated with God and holiness. The
temple was divided up into thirds. The Holy of Holies, the holiest
place, was one-third of the temple. The Holy Place was two-thirds
of the temple. The great blessing of God was, "Holy, holy, holy
Lord God Almighty." Three times. The number three was
connected to the notion of holiness in God. It’s also related to
transformation, resurrection, death to life took place in three days.
The number four was associated with the earth and with physical
creation. There were four directions (north, south, east, and west),
four dimensions (height, width, length, and breadth), and the four
corners of the world. The product of these two (three times four)
then was associated with the union of the holy (the divine) and the
human (God and people, heaven and earth). So it was a revered
number. There were twelve loaves of bread in the temple. There
were twelve gems in the priests' vestment.
Twelve was often a number for wholeness in the ancient world.
The lunar calendar had 12 months. That was when something was
complete. For Israel, 12 especially meant the 12 tribes of Israel.
The whole family. Everybody.
By Jesus' day, this was all broken. It was all wrong. Centuries
earlier (about 722 BC), Assyria came and decimated the northern
kingdom. All that was left were the tribes of Benjamin, Judah, and
about half the tribe of Levi. They were not the 12 tribes anymore.
They longed, they ached, they grieved for the day when God
would set things right and restore the 12 tribes.
Then Jesus comes, and he says, "...the kingdom of God is at hand."
God is at work. God is setting things right." Then Jesus selected
some disciples. Back in his day, all rabbis had disciples. Jesus was
the only one we knew of who actually recruited, who chose,
disciples. That was generally beneath a rabbi's dignity. Rabbis
generally accepted applications. Jesus was unique in this respect.
He went out and selected disciples.
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Does anybody remember how many disciples Jesus chose?
Twelve. This is not a coincidence, okay? It's not an accident. No
other rabbi had 12 disciples. All other rabbis had disciples. No
other rabbi we know of had 12 disciples. Nobody would have. It
was too presumptuous. When Jesus chose 12 disciples, he was
making a claim. It was a really clear claim, and it was a very
dangerous claim. It was part of what got him killed.
He was saying to all of Israel (he was saying to Rome, for that
matter) that what God began so long ago with the 12 sons of Jacob,
with the 12 tribes that have been lost, that have been broken, that
everybody aches to see restored, God is now beginning again,
redeeming, recreating through Jesus. This is one of the most
audacious acts of Jesus' whole ministry. It's the number 12. He
chooses 12 disciples. He says, "Take a look at these 12 guys. These
are the 12 tribes. This is the whole people of God, God's redeemed
community on earth. God's dream is beginning again with me and
these 12 disciples."
That's why you also see 12 in the New Testament. In Revelation,
12 is everywhere. The city we look forward to as a picture of when
life is finally redeemed will have 12 gates, one for every tribe.
They'll be made of 12 pearls. If you've ever heard of the pearly
gates, it comes from the book of Revelation. Its walls will be set on
12 foundations. They will be guarded by 12 angels.
They will be fed by a tree of life that bears 12 kinds of fruit in each
one of 12 months. There will be great abundance, no need in that
community. It will be filled with people...144,000 people. Again,
that's a symbolic number. Twelve times 12,000. Every tribe filled
up. They loved 12. Israel loved 12! They couldn't wait for 12.
That's why the disciples loved being the Twelve. It was like,
"We're it!" Individually, they didn't look like much. There was
Peter the denier, Judas the betrayer, Thomas the doubter.
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Individually, they looked a lot more like Snow White and the
seven dwarfs, but together, they're the Twelve. They loved being
the Twelve. That's why they argued about who was the greatest.
"We're the Twelve. It's all starting again in us!" Now at the end of
the gospel, there's the crucifixion, the resurrection. Jesus is going
to send them out, but Matthew says there are only 11. In other
words, they're not whole anymore. They're not perfect anymore.
This is a wrong number. There are not enough. There eleven.
It's not just that they're the wrong number. Matthew goes on to say
when they saw Jesus, "...they worshiped him." Look at this next
phrase. Let's read it together. "But some doubted." That's an
amazing statement, and it's right there. Matthew doesn't try to hide
it. Now they have not only a quantity problem; they have a quality
problem. They don't have enough disciples, and the ones they have
don't believe enough. They worship, and they doubt.
Imagine that moment. Jesus meets them on the mountain. That's
where everything began in Galilee. They see the crucified,
resurrected Lord of the universe. "Hail Jesus, crucified and
resurrected Son of God, creator, redeemer of the earth. Oh come
let us adore him." In their hearts, they're saying, "Maybe… Really?
Seems kind of crazy. I'm not sure what I believe, to tell you the
truth." Eleven, not 12. They worship, but some doubted. That's the
group to whom Jesus is going to say, "Go into all the world."
Dale Bruner, who a New Testament scholar, writes this: "The
number 'eleven' limps; it is not perfect like twelve. [...] The church
that Jesus sends into the world is 'elevenish,' imperfect, fallible."
Inadequate. Jesus did not say, "First let's get enough numbers." He
doesn't say, "First let's get enough faith." He says, "You go. We'll
work on the numbers thing, and we'll work on the faith thing while
you're doing the obedience thing. You will learn as you go, but I'm
going to send you out ready or not. I'm going to send you out ready
or not!"
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When you think about it in the Bible when God calls somebody to
do something, as far as I know, nobody ever responds by saying,
"I'm ready! Good timing! You came to me at just the right moment
when my tank is all filled up, and I'm adequately prepared
The truth about us is we will always have a reason to say, "Not
ready," because for us, ready is to be so completely self-sufficient
that success is guaranteed. The truth about us is that we don't know
what we can do until we actually do it. The truth about us is if we
wait until we feel fully ready, we will be dead. Only God knows if
we're ready. God knows more than you do.
"Elevenish" doubting. Jesus says, "Go." Jesus doesn't say, "Go.
You're ready." Jesus says, "Go, because all authority has been
given to me. Therefore, I'm sending you out, and I will be with you.
I will be with you!" That's the reason why you go.
Even though there are not enough of them. The ones who are there
don't have enough faith. It doesn't matter. The reason is not that
they're ready; the reason is Jesus is ready. The reason you do it is
not that you feel ready. It's because you won't be alone. See, we're
"elevenish." We always are. But elevenish has one advantage.
The advantage of being eleven is that you are continually reminded
that you are one person short of being able accomplish what is
before you and becoming who you were created to be.
For you sports fans there is one fairly popular sport that is
continually reminded of this reality. They are elevenish. It’s
football. I know it’s not football season but baseball has nine
players, basketball five but football/soccer have eleven.
Do some of you remember who won the Super Bowl this year?
The Seattle Seahawks. They won the Super Bowl, and they
believed they had a secret weapon. They say they have the loudest
fans in the NFL. Nobody wants to play in Seattle. They actually set
a Guinness World Record of 136.7 decibels in their stadium.
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One hundred decibels of sound will create hearing loss. One
hundred and thirty decibels is like being within a 100 yards of a
jumbo jet takeoff. They cranked up to 136.7 decibels. They called
their fans the "twelfth man." They actually put a flag up in their
stadium to the twelfth man. They say, "We never would have won
without the twelfth man."
Well Jesus is on a mountain in Galilee giving the Eleven
insufficient doubting disciples the Great Commission and he
reminds them it’s okay that you are elevenish, because you’ve got
a twelfth man. I am and will always be with you and as long as you
remember I am with you, you won’t be elevenish like you think.
Jesus then sends them forth with that which is far greater than
being 12 or complete or feeling fully ready and complete. He sends
the disciples out and today he sends us out with the most important
reality that they could ever need or have. He sends them and he
sends us out with himself and with the heart of God. Do you know
that wherever you go God sends you out with the heart and life of
his one and only Son. Do we know how important that is.
This past week I listened to an interview with Larry Randolph
(Author-speaker-prophet) and he was asked by the interviewer
about God speaking to him about giving him his heart. Larry said,
“Gifts are given, but character is grown through adversity. God
impressed upon him this…“When you come to see me you won’t
need your gifts you won’t need a word of knowledge, it’s all here,
you won’t need the gift of healing, everyone’s healed. The only
thing you can bring here is your heart and a few talents. Today you
live in a world where your gifts are bigger than your heart but in
heaven the heart is bigger or more important than the gift.”
Yes we all face this world unprepared but if we look at everything
we face in light of heaven our elevenishness will always be overwhelmed by the reality that Jesus, the twelfth man, the one with
God’s heart is always with us and we then have all that we need.