engleski

Uniting presence: Luther and Calvin and the command-promise of Matthew 28:18–20

The real presence of Christ in the reading and preaching of scripture is a strong reformation emphasis, closely associated with the doctrine of sola scriptura, and also linked with the reformational understanding of self-authenticating scripture. Surprisingly, the reformers did not make these connections in their interpretations of Matthew 28:18–20, where Jesus’s commission to make disciples by teaching all he had commanded is buttressed by his promised presence. Nevertheless, this paper will attempt to show that: 1) Christ’s presence in scripture, sola scriptura and self- authentication can nevertheless be confirmed and refined by the rhetorical function of this text in its original setting, and that 2) these reformational interpretive trajectories have also allowed this text to later be interpreted as a universal mission commandment for all Christians, an interpretation that has proven to be immensely influential in the worldwide growth of Christianity. In an historicized reading, the command to make disciples by baptizing in the triune name and teaching “all that Jesus commanded” was actualized in the oral kerygma, in which the risen Christ was spiritually, not bodily, present with the apostles. But, for both Matthew’s earliest and ideal reader- disciples, the command rhetorically functions to refer to and authorize Jesus’ deeds and teaching as written in Matthew’s Gospel itself, so that Christ’s presence and authority (vs. 18) may be understood as realized through the teaching and implementation of this Gospel in the continuing community of disciples in every time and place until the end of the age. The reformation principles of sola scriptura, self- authentication, and the real presence of Christ in the reading and preaching of scripture therefore both find a basis in Matthew 28:18–20, and also prove to be interpretative trajectories that made a universal mission reading possible.

Reformation ; Luther ; Calvin

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