Magi and the Great Commission

When was the last time you read through an entire Gospel in one sitting? While the Bible as a whole is one book, there are numerous individual books bound up in the greater whole. Take Matthew, for example, when he wrote his Gospel account he didn't divide it into chapters and verses (that came later). It was inteded to be read as a whole! And while we gain great fruit from in-depth study of a text (as with Pastor John's exposition of John's Gospel) we also gain great fruit in a full reading of the story.

Here is one observation for mission.

Possibly the most well known text in Matthew, after the Sermon on the Mount, is the Great Commission (28:18-20). At the end of Jesus' earthly ministry, after the cross and resurrection, he commands the disciples to go forth and disciple all the nations. This is clearly a fulfillment of Old Testament expectation for in Isaiah 49:6 it is prophecied of the Servant (Jesus) that he would be "as a light for the nations that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth."

Yet, let us not miss Matthew's intentional bookends to his Gospel account. Yes, the Great Commission is given at the end, but in chapter two we see Magi from foreign nations guided by the light of a star to the place where Jesus, God's salvation (1:21), is laid. Thus, even from his birth, Jesus' global significance is on display. And now, on this side of the empty cradle, empty cross, and empty tomb we proclaim him among the nations until he comes again in glory.