1. Starting from the end

The New Testament begins with the Gospel according to Matthew. The New Testament is the collection of books that the Christian community that had lived around Jesus of Nazareth produced during 70 years, and gathered together with the Scriptures inherited from the Jewish tradition. The first book in the New Testament collection is the Gospel according to Matthew, the first of the four gospels. Since ancient times, the Gospel of Matthew has been considered the first, the oldest.

Probably the information we have from the Church Fathers did not really refer to the Gospel of Matthew that we have now, but to some earlier edition. It is likely that the apostolic community, in the years after Jesus' death and resurrection in the year 30, did not only preach, but also began to write some of their preaching. And in the first years, there was a kind of a primitive, fundamental, primary gospel, with the basic schema of the preaching of the apostles in Jerusalem, who announced, to the people of Israel, the person of Jesus as the Messiah of Israel and of all peoples.

The other gospels that we call synoptics were derived from this primordial schema: Matthew, Mark and Luke. Probably this first text written in Semitic language was done by Matthew the publican, one who sold himself to the Romans to be a tax collector, but found Jesus, who completely changed his life; and after the Master’s resurrection, Levi, now called Matthew, was probably the one who expanded this first text that the apostles produced in order to have an official document of his preaching about Jesus.

This text was taken in mission; it is likely that Barnabas, when he was sent to Antioch, in the 40s, to verify the birth of a Hellenistic community in that great city, took the Gospel of the 12 with him, and in Antioch a first version was made in Greek, with additions and adaptations. This text that was probably brought to Antioch was known as the Gospel according to Matthew because it was precisely Matthew who presented it in Antioch. In Antioch, a lively Christian community was born, and over the years continued to develop this primary text, and into the 80s, 40 years after the arrival of the text in Antioch, a community of Christian writers, whom we conventionally call the school of Saint Matthew, made the definitive edition of the Gospel that we now have in our hands, and that we want to study, to try to get to know better, but we will start from the end. We do not start from the first page, but from the last page because it often happens that a literary work is best understood in the light of its ending. It also happens in life, where the end illumines the meaning of everything else.

Among other things, the Gospel of Matthew ends in an open, particularly interesting way from a literary point of view, that is, there is no conclusion, as the story remains almost suspended, and it is left to the reader to imagine what happens next.

The first Gospel has 28 chapters, the longest of all. The last chapter is dedicated to encounters with the Risen One. After the episode, also common in the other Gospels, of the visit of the women to the empty tomb on Easter morning, Matthew narrates the encounter of the Risen One with women, who become missionaries to the apostles. Then he narrates the case of the soldiers corrupted by the Sanhedrin, who are told to lie about the situation of the empty tomb. Finally, he presents a highly symbolic episode that is crucial to his theology. Let's read from verse 16: "The eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had ordered them.” The disciples are no longer 12, only 11. It is an indication of not being complete; there is the drama of the betrayal of Judas, one of the group closest to Jesus, who betrayed him, and walked away. He was responsible for the arrest of Jesus, which tragically ended his life. The eleven obey Jesus.

The invitation to return to Galilee may not have a historical but a symbolic value. With the reconstruction of the facts, it seems that the apostles remained in Jerusalem after Easter. On Pentecost, they are still there and the mission begins in the capital of Israel, but the return to Galilee has a symbolic value because Galilee is the land of the pagans. The name of Galilee was not really its original name, but a common name indicating the district, the region, the province, ‘GUELIL,’ with the specification of the people, ‘GUELIL AGOYÍN’— "the Galilee of the people." There the preaching of Jesus began; it is the place of foreigners, where Jews also lived, but they were not the entire population; they lived together with other people from other races and religions. Galilee, which was the starting point of Jesus' preaching, becomes the ideal place to return to.

After Easter, the apostles are invited by Jesus to return to Galilee, to return to the origins, to rethink everything that they have lived together with the Master in the years of his ministry, and participate in common life among the people, even among non-Jews. Matthew's ending is an open ending, an opening for all people. Jesus the Messiah is not reserved for Israel but for all peoples.

The mountain in biblical symbolism has a particular meaning—it is the earth that rises to heaven. The mountain is a symbolic place of the encounter between human and God. Human rises to heaven and the Lord descends to earth. On the mountain Moses found the Lord, there the covenant was made; Moses receives the law and pledges fidelity. Mountains are of particular interest to Matthew and he mentions them in some important passages of his narrative. We remember well the discourse on the mountain, the new law, the foundation of the new covenant.

The entire story of Matthew ends on another mountain, a mountain that Jesus has indicated to them. They do not go where they want, but where Jesus has indicated. It is a theophanic meeting, that is, where God manifests himself. It is the definitive revelation of God in the person of the risen Jesus. "When they saw him, they worshiped, but they doubted.” The evangelist places two aspects together. On the one hand, faith; on the other, hesitation. There were only eleven, it is an imperfect universality.

They prostrate themselves in adoration before Jesus, however, they still have uncertainties and doubts in their hearts. "Jesus approached them...” The verb to approach has a particular nuance for the evangelist Matthew. It is a technical verb of the priestly language that indicates the fact that the priests approach the world of the sacred, of the divine. Using this image, Matthew uses this verb to indicate that which is divine approaches the human. It is Jesus who approaches the disciples, he goes forward to those who are prostrate, kneeling on the ground in adoration.

“Jesus approached and said to them, ‘All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, 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 that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.’” We come to the end. The end point of the text. But it is not the end of the episode. We left the disciples on the mountain, kneeling before the risen Lord. After hearing these words, what happened next? Did they speak to him? Did they move? What did they do? And where did Jesus go? The evangelist Matthew says nothing about this. The Gospel ends with a significant episode on the mountain where the risen Lord gives the disciples an operational indication. It is the Magna Carta of the Christian community of Matthew. We reread these words because they are important.

First, Jesus makes a statement in which he describes his own person and the authority that has been given him. "All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me." All the "exusia," the "divine potestas," was entrusted to Jesus, in heaven and on earth. It is the polar expression that with two opposing elements wants to indicate everything. The Risen One has been enthroned and received cosmic power. The humiliated has been glorified; he whom they cast out has been exalted by God. It is a ‘passive’, which is technically called ‘divine passive.’ "It has been given to me...” Who gave it to Him? It is not stated explicitly, but it is clear that it is ‘God.’ It is a typically Semitic way of avoiding the name of God. We could say: ‘God gave him all power over the universe,’ therefore, ‘walking’ make disciples.

We must pay attention to the importance of ‘therefore.’ It creates a relationship and a consequence link. ‘Since I have received all the power, you, my disciples make disciples.’ Although 'go' is translated as an imperative, in the original it is a participle. We translate it better with a gerund: "walking" make disciples. The imperative refers to the commitment of 'discipling.' This verb does not exist in English; it strains the language because in the original Greek there is the verb that has the same root as the word ‘disciple,’ causatively. Some old translations put 'training.’ It is not a good translation because this verb is used for animals, and especially because it contains the idea of being a ‘teacher,’ while the original has the idea of being a disciple. Jesus' followers don't become teachers, but continue to be disciples who make other people become disciples. The recipients of this commandment of Jesus are the disciples, and the goal is that all the people in the world become disciples. So they ‘learn.’ The disciple is the one who learns.

Consequently, as they walk, throughout all their lives, they make all peoples become disciples. Here is the universal opening, ‘πάντα τὰ ἔθνη’ = panta ta ethné = all races in the world. It is an ethnic opening, while Israel is a unique ethnic group and they consider themselves isolated, here is the call to all ethnic groups in the universe. All these human races are called to become disciples of the only Master, the risen Lord, who has all power in heaven and on earth.

But how to make disciples? In two ways: baptizing and teaching. The first verb recalls the sacramental dimension, the liturgical work of the Church that through the sacraments communicates the grace of the risen Lord. And here we find the formula that we still use today in baptism: "In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." It is a perfect Trinitarian formula that we take from this end of the Gospel of Matthew to make the sign of the cross, to celebrate baptism and give blessings.

To baptize means to immerse. Sacramentally immersing all peoples in the relationship that exists between the Father, the Son and the Spirit, making them enter into communion of life with the divine Persons as they are manifested in the life of Jesus. Baptizing and teaching. It is a didactic work of a formative, educational kind. It is not enough to celebrate the sacrament; it is also necessary to introduce knowledge. And what should they teach? They must teach to observe, to conserve, to guard everything that Jesus has commanded.

Let us note the insistence on the whole. In these few verses, in various ways, the adjective 'all' is used. “All power has been given to me; to make disciples of all peoples; teach them to fulfill all that I have commanded; I am with you every day”. The community of disciples transmits everything that Jesus taught, and not only transmits it, but it saves it and teaches how to maintain it, to conserve it. The last word is a promise; it is an affirmation of identity: "I will be with you." The formula: 'I am,' is very important: it is the name of God, it is the revelation of the name of God made at Sinai to Moses.

Now, Jesus presents himself as "I am" ... not only that: "I am with you." It is the revelation of God with us. What was initially announced as the Emmanuel: "I am with you." Now, Jesus, recognized as God, in close relationship with the 'Lord Adonai,' the God of Israel, who revealed himself in Sinai, and with the community, identifies with his group. "Every day" — continuously, in all the daily realities, in the Galilee of every day. "Until the end of the age," or saying it in another way, “until the end of the world.” It is the end: the term and goal to which everything points. It is the fulfillment of historical time, of the reality of this world that has been transformed by the presence of Christ.

The community of Matthew lives, experiences with force the presence of the risen Christ. "I will be with you always." This communion of life opens up to mission. The church is by nature missionary ... towards the Galilee, towards the peripheries of the world, towards all reality. Every day, teaching everything that Jesus commanded. And the goal is to make disciples. Reading the Gospel of Matthew means, once again, putting ourselves in the school of Jesus, the only Teacher to become true disciples and help others become disciples like us.