Surprise Ending

Jesu Juva

St. Matthew 28:16-20                                         

May 31, 2026

The Holy Trinity A        

Dear saint of our Savior~

        This Holy Trinity Sunday takes us to the very end of Matthew’s gospel.  And the reason for this jump to the finale  is obvious.  Here we have the most holy name of God spoken directly from the lips of Jesus.  Here our Lord clearly commands that all nations should be baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  With that name on our lips, our babies are baptized.  With that name on our lips, we are gathered into God’s holy presence for the Divine Service.  And with that name on our lips, we begin and end each day.  When you invoke the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, you are declaring before heaven and earth that you have been received into fellowship with the one true God.

        The ending of Matthew’s gospel is well-known.  We hear it so often that we miss how this ending is also a surprise ending.  This ending takes some unexpected twists and turns.  This ending has some surprises you just might have missed.

        One of the biggest surprises for me comes as the Eleven gather on Galilee’s high mountain.  Matthew tells us that there the Eleven saw Jesus, there they worshipped Jesus, and there some doubted.  Wait . . . what?  Some doubted?  I didn’t see that coming.  “Some” of the Eleven who saw Jesus with their eyes, and who worshipped Jesus on bended knees, and who would preach Christ crucified to the ends of the earth—even among them, Matthew reports, some doubted.

        What, exactly, did those doubters doubt?  What was their doubt about?  We don’t know.  While the Holy Spirit inspired Matthew to include this surprising fact, we don’t get the details.  What we can know for sure is that “doubt” isn’t the same thing as “faithlessness.”  It’s not that some of the Eleven didn’t believe that Christ was risen from the dead, or that His Word is truth.  What “doubt” means here is that they were hesitant.  They were unsure.  They were unsteady.  They were unconvinced about exactly what to expect.  Even as they all saw Jesus and worshipped Jesus and loved Jesus—even then, some doubted.

        That’s shocking and surprising on one hand; but on the other hand, I can see it.  None of us is immune to this same kind of doubt.  It can eat away at you even while you’re sitting in church, confessing the Athanasian Creed, or receiving the body and blood of Jesus.  Even then, this kind of doubt can find you and steal from you the joy and confidence that could be yours.

        This doubt doesn’t deny that Christ is risen.  It doesn’t deny the divinity or the humanity of Jesus.  It doesn’t deny His death on Calvary’s cross or His glorious resurrection.  No, this doubt simply denies you the benefits of what you believe.  It renders you uncertain and unconvinced that our Lord’s loving and gracious care will find its way into the nooks and crannies of your life, with all its crosses and heartaches, sorrows and sins.

        Like the Eleven who gathered on the mountain with Jesus, we don’t have a record of spiritual success.  We do have a record of broken promises, selfish desires, and sin-filled thoughts, words, and deeds.  With a record like that, doubt has a way of distracting us from God’s gracious care, and hindering God’s work in us.

        But the surprises keep coming in Mathew’s glorious conclusion.  Jesus starts talking!  And the words of Jesus change everything.  Doubt is dispelled.  It turns out, Jesus has plans and promises for His frail, faltering disciples.  It turns out that Jesus wants more disciples.  That’s no surprise.  Since Jesus let loose with His very first “follow me,” it was clear that Jesus really wants disciples.  The big surprise is that Jesus is going to use disciples . . . to make disciples.  He’s going to use frail, faltering, doubting disciples to draw men and women to Himself, and to deliver His gifts of life to the world.

        Jesus uses disciples to make disciples of all nations.  Once again, surprise!  “All nations” doesn’t just mean all nationalities.  All nations was the most inclusive phrase Jesus could have used.  All races, all ages, all backgrounds.  Jesus wants disciples from all demographics. All are wanted.  All are died-for.  All have been reconciled by Jesus.  The blood He shed atones for all.

        To make disciples of all nations Jesus doesn’t use special effects and miraculous signs.  Jesus uses the surprisingly simple means of water and the word—baptizing and teaching.  Through water and the word, you were first claimed by the Holy Trinity.  Those words and that water changed everything for you—gave you a new birth, and a whole new identity as one redeemed by Christ the crucified.  You yourself became a disciple of Jesus that day.

        To that cleansing splash Jesus adds: teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.  Did you catch that little word “all” in there?  It’s important.  We don’t get to pick and choose which of Jesus’ teachings to observe and which to filter out because they don’t fit in with our crazy culture.  We don’t just teach the highlights or the bullet points—but all that Jesus has entrusted to us.

        On this particular Trinity Sunday, it’s worth noting how pastors take the lead in making disciples.  Baptizing, teaching, preaching, and absolving—setting captive sinners free.  That’s another big surprise in our Lord’s plan for making disciples.  It’s not how we would have planned it or scripted it—ordaining sinful men in an office with such awesome responsibilities and privileges.  Today we give thanks for Pastor Moldenhauer and Pastor Bakker who each celebrate twenty years of disciple-making.  Every pastor is an unlikely pastor.  Every pastor is something of a surprise—just ask those who knew them when they were seven, or thirteen, or eighteen.  But God has called them, and Aaron and Jonathon have done their disciple-making duty with distinction for two decades now.

        But no disciple could be called or crafted without our Lord’s final promise.  St. Matthew saved the best for last.  It’s the final sentence of His gospel that seals the deal for doubting disciples:  I am with you always, to the end of the age.  What a surprise!  What a comfort!  Who would have guessed it?  The same Lord Jesus who ascends higher than the heavens—He is with us always.  At the beginning of Matthew’s gospel, Jesus comes as Immanuel—God with us.  And at the end of Matthew, Jesus promises to be with us always. 

He is with us indeed; but not in some secretive, spiritual way.  He is with you in the Word of the Scriptures.  He is with you in the washing of Holy Baptism.  He is with you in the bread that is His body and the wine that is His blood.  He is with you—and for you—bringing forgiveness of sins and faith and joy and hope and doubt-dispelling confidence.

        Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit.  Amen.