Citation: Matthew 28:16-20, the closing scene of Matthew's gospel.
The narrative
The eleven disciples go to Galilee, to the mountain Jesus had appointed. "When they saw him, they bowed down to him, but some doubted." Jesus comes and speaks:
"All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I commanded you. Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." (vv.18-20).
The structure: authority → mission → presence
- "All authority… has been given to me", the risen Christ's universal, cosmic authority is the ground of the mission (note the echo of the Son of Man given universal dominion in Daniel 7:14).
- "Make disciples of all nations", the single main imperative. The three surrounding verbs ("going," "baptizing," "teaching") are participles that describe how: as you go, by baptizing and by teaching obedience. The reach is panta ta ethnē, "all the nations", Matthew's gospel, which began with Gentile magi (Matthew 2) and a genealogy including Gentile women, ends by flinging the doors open to the world.
- "I am with you always", the promise that sustains the sending. It forms an inclusio with Matthew's opening name for Jesus, Immanuel, "God with us" (Matthew 1:23): the gospel opens and closes on his presence with his people.
Interpretive notes (presented fairly)
The triune baptismal name, "in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" is one of the clearest single-verse trinitarian formulas in the gospels. Some critical scholars argue it reflects the developed baptismal liturgy of the later church rather than Jesus' exact words (noting that Acts records baptism "in the name of Jesus"); the traditional reading takes it as dominical. Both are presented here, with no commitment to either historical reconstruction.
"But some doubted", Matthew's candid detail; the very ones commissioned are not uniformly certain. Read variously as lingering uncertainty, hesitation/awe at the appearance, or honest worship-mixed-with-doubt, a note of realism, not triumphalism.
Relation to the other sendings, each gospel and Acts has its own commissioning emphasis: Mark's "preach the Good News to the whole creation" (Mark 16:15), Luke's "repentance for forgiveness… to all nations" (Luke 24:46-47), John's "As the Father has sent me, even so I send you" (John 20:21), and Acts' "you will be my witnesses… to the ends of the earth" (Acts 1:8). Together they frame the church's worldwide mission.
Theological framing
The missionary mandate, across traditions this text grounds the church's call to evangelism and to forming disciples (not merely making converts): baptism and "teaching them to observe all things."
Disciple-making, not just decision, the goal is obedient followers of Jesus among every people, shaped by his whole teaching.
Presence over strategy, the commission rests not on the disciples' adequacy (some doubted) but on Christ's authority and abiding presence.