Church Fathers Commentary Matthew 28:16-20

"But the eleven disciples went into Galilee, unto the mountain where Jesus had appointed them. And when they saw him, they worshipped [him]; but some doubted. And Jesus came to them and spake unto them, saying, All authority hath been given unto me in heaven and on earth. Go ye therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I commanded you: and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world." — Matthew 28:16-20 (ASV)

The Venerable Bede: After Saint Matthew has confirmed the Lord's Resurrection as declared by the Angel, he recounts the vision the disciples had: Then the eleven disciples went into Galilee, to a mountain where Jesus had appointed them.¹

For as He was approaching His Passion, the Lord had said to His disciples, After I am risen, I will go before you into Galilee (Matthew 26:32); and the Angel said the same to the women. Therefore, the disciples obeyed their Master's command. Only eleven went, for one had already perished.

St. Jerome: After His Resurrection, Jesus is seen and worshiped on the mountain in Galilee. Though some doubted, their doubting confirms our faith.

Remigius of Auxerre: Luke tells this more fully, recounting how when the Lord appeared to the disciples after the Resurrection, in their terror they thought they saw a spirit.

The Venerable Bedeⁱ: The Lord appeared to them on the mountain to signify that by His Resurrection, He had exalted the Body which He had taken at His birth from the common dust of the human race, raising it above all earthly things. He also appeared there to teach the faithful that if they desire to see the height of His Resurrection, they must strive in this life to pass from lowly pleasures to high desires.²

He goes before His disciples into Galilee because Christ is risen from the dead, the firstfruits of them that slept (1 Corinthians 15:20). And those who are Christ's follow Him, passing in their turn from death to life while contemplating Him as He appears in His own Divinity. This also agrees with the fact that "Galilee" is interpreted as "revelation."

St. Augustine of Hippo: But we must consider how the Lord could have been seen bodily in Galilee. It is clear that this was not on the day of the Resurrection, for He was seen that day in Jerusalem at the beginning of the night, as Luke and John clearly agree. Nor was it during the eight days that followed, after which John says the Lord appeared to His disciples. This was when Thomas, who had not seen Him on the day of the Resurrection, saw Him for the first time.³

For if the eleven had seen Him on a mountain in Galilee within those eight days, then Thomas, who was one of them, could not have seen Him for the first time after the eight days. Unless, perhaps, the "eleven" mentioned there were from the larger group of disciples and not the eleven Apostles.

There is another difficulty. After recounting that the Lord was seen by seven disciples who were fishing not on the mountain but at the Sea of Tiberias, John adds, This is now the third time that Jesus shewed himself to his disciples, after that he was risen from the dead (John 21:14).

Therefore, if we understand that the Lord was seen by eleven of the disciples within those eight days, this appearance at the Sea of Tiberias would be the fourth, not the third. Indeed, to understand John's account, it must be observed that he does not count each individual appearance, but each day on which Jesus appeared, even though He may have appeared more than once on the same day, as He did three times on the day of His Resurrection. We are therefore compelled to understand that this appearance to the eleven disciples on the mountain in Galilee took place last of all.

In the four Evangelists, we find in all ten distinct appearances of our Lord after His Resurrection.

1. To the women at the sepulcher. 2. To the same women on their way back from the sepulcher. 3. To Peter. 4. To two disciples as they went into the country. 5. To many together in Jerusalem; 6. when Thomas was not with them. 7. At the Sea of Tiberias. 8. On the mountain in Galilee, according to Matthew. 9. To the eleven as they sat at a meal, because they would not eat with Him again on earth, as related by Mark (Mark 16:14). 10. On the day of His Ascension, no longer on the earth but lifted up in a cloud, as related by both Mark and Luke.

But not everything was written, as John confesses, for Jesus had much conversation with them during the forty days before His ascension, being seen by them, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God (Acts 1:3).

Remigius of Auxerre: The disciples, then, when they saw Him, knew the Lord and worshiped Him, bowing their faces to the ground. And their affectionate and merciful Master, so that He might remove all doubt from their hearts, came to them and strengthened their belief, as it follows: And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, All power is given to me in heaven and in earth.

St. Jerome: Power is given to Him who, just a little while before, was crucified, was buried, but who afterward rose again.

The Venerable Bede: He says this not with respect to His Deity, which is co-eternal with the Father, but with respect to the Humanity He took upon Himself, according to which He was made a little lower than the angels (Hebrews 2:9).

St. Peter Chrysologus: The Son of God conveyed to the Son of the Virgin—the God to the Man, the Deity to the Flesh—that which He had always possessed together with the Father.⁴

St. Jerome: Power is given in heaven and on earth, so that He who previously reigned in heaven should now reign on earth through the faith of believers.

Remigius of Auxerre: What the Psalmist says of the Lord at His resurrection, You made him to have dominion over the works of your hands (Psalm 8:6), this the Lord now says of Himself: All power is given to me in heaven and in earth.

And here it should be noted that even before His resurrection, the angels knew they were subject to the man, Christ. Christ, therefore, desiring it to be known to humanity that all power in heaven and on earth had been committed to Him, sent preachers to make the word of life known to all nations. From this follows the command: Go ye therefore, and teach all nations.

The Venerable Bede: He who before His Passion had said, Go not into the way of the Gentiles (Matthew 10:5), now, rising from the dead, says, Go and teach all nations.⁵

By this, let the Jews who say that Christ's coming is for their salvation only be put to silence. Let the Donatists also blush, who, by seeking to confine Christ to one place, have said that He is in Africa only and not in other countries.

St. Jerome: They are, therefore, to first teach all nations, and when they have been taught, to dip them in water. For the body cannot receive the sacrament of Baptism unless the soul first receives the truth of the Faith. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, so that they whose Godhead is one should be conferred at once; for to name this Trinity is to name one God.

St. Peter Chrysologus: Thus, all nations are created a second time for salvation by that one and the same Power which first created them into being.⁶

St. Jerome: And if someone has such a contrary spirit as to baptize in a way that omits one of these names, thereby contradicting Christ who ordained this as a law, his baptism will accomplish nothing. Those who are baptized by him will not be delivered from their sins at all. From these words, we gather how undivided the substance of the Trinity is: that the Father is truly the Father of the Son, the Son is truly the Son of the Father, and the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of both the Father and the Son, and also the Spirit of wisdom and of truth—that is, of the Son of God. This, then, is the salvation of those who believe, and in this Trinity is forged the perfect expression of ecclesiastical discipline.⁷

St. Hilary of Poitiers: For what part of human salvation is not contained in this Sacrament? All things are full and perfect, as proceeding from Him who is full and perfect. The nature of His relation is expressed in the title "Father," but He is nothing other than Father. For He is not Father in the way humans are, deriving His fatherhood from something else. He is Himself Unbegotten, Eternal, having the source of His being in Himself, and known to no one except the Son.⁸

The Son is the Offspring of the Unbegotten, One of the One, True of the True, Living of the Living, Perfect of the Perfect, Strength of Strength, Wisdom of Wisdom, Glory of Glory, the Image of the Unseen God, the Form of the Unbegotten Father.

Neither can the Holy Spirit be separated from the confession of the Father and the Son. This consolation for our longing desires is absent from no place. He is the pledge of our hope in the effects of His gifts, He is the light of our minds, He shines in our souls.

Since the heretics cannot change these truths, they introduce their own human explanations. For example, Sabellius identifies the Father with the Son, thinking the distinction is one of name rather than person, and so presents one and the same Person as both Father and Son. Or Ebion, who, by deriving the beginning of Christ's existence from Mary, makes Him not a Man from God, but a god from man. Or the Arians, who claim that the form, power, and wisdom of God were derived from nothing, and in time. What wonder is it, then, that people hold diverse opinions about the Holy Spirit, when they so rashly create and change the Son—by whom that Spirit is bestowed—according to their own pleasure?

St. Jerome: Observe the order of these commands. He bids the Apostles first to teach all nations, then to wash them with the sacrament of faith, and after faith and baptism, to teach them what they ought to observe: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.

Rabanus Maurus: For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also (James 2:26).

St. John Chrysostom: And because the command He had laid upon them was great, He adds this to lift their spirits: And, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. It is as if He were saying, "Do not tell Me about the difficulty of these things, for I am with you, and I can make all things easy."

He often made a similar promise to the Prophets in the Old Testament—to Jeremiah, who pleaded his youth, and to Moses and Ezekiel, when they tried to avoid the office imposed upon them. And He says He will be not only with them, but with all who will believe after them. For the Apostles were not going to live until the end of the world; rather, He says this to all the faithful as one body.

Rabanus Maurus: From this, we understand that until the end of the world, there will not be lacking those who are worthy of the divine indwelling.

St. John Chrysostom: He brings the end of the world before them so that He might draw them onward all the more, encouraging them not to look merely at present difficulties, but at the infinite good things to come. It is as if He were saying, "The grievous things you will undergo will end with this present life, since even this world will come to an end; but the good things you will enjoy shall endure forever."

The Venerable Bede: The question is raised how He can say here, I am with you, when we read elsewhere that He said, I go unto him that sent me (John 16:5).⁹

What is said of His human nature is distinct from what is said of His divine nature. He is going to His Father in His humanity, but He remains with His disciples in His divinity, in which He is equal with the Father. When He says, to the end of the world, He expresses the infinite through the finite. For He who remains with His elect in this present world to protect them will also continue with them after the end to reward them.

St. Jerome: He, then, who promises that He will be with His disciples to the end of the world, shows both that they will live forever and that He will never depart from those who believe.

St. Leo the Great: For by ascending into heaven He does not desert His adopted children, but from above strengthens for endurance those whom He invites upward to glory.¹⁰ May Christ, who is the King of glory, God blessed for ever, make us partakers of that glory.

1. Beda in Hom., non occ.
2. Hom. Aest. in Fer., vi., Pasch.
3. de Cons. Ev., iii, 25
4. Serm. 80
5. Beda in Hom. non occ.
6. Serm. 80
7. Didymi Lib. ii, de Spir. Sanct.
8. de Trin. ii, 1 etc
9. Beda in Hom., non occ.
10. Serm., 72, 3