Famous Last Words

A father left his son, Charlie, in charge of the family business—a huge strawberry farm—because he was getting older and wanted to travel abroad while his health still permitted. The farm was handed down to him by his father forty years earlier and since then he had invested all of his time, energy and resources into raising the best strawberries in a five-state area. Charlie had never seen anyone work so hard and everyone in the family agreed that his father and mother really deserved some time away.

Raising strawberries is not rocket science but even if it was, the son had been well trained. When the day finally arrived, just as the last berries of the season were being shipped, the older couple set off on their journey, but not without the father’s friendly reminder that the family’s entire future rested on whether Charlie would follow his time-tested but simple strategies of raising strawberries. He knew what was at stake, so he determined to be a faithful, obedient son.

When his Mom and Dad returned the following year, Charlie met them at the airport. They looked great; in fact, he was surprised at how much younger they looked as they walked through the international arrivals gate! Thinking back, he seemed to remember a lot more wrinkles and gray hair—and they were more pale a year ago—but touring the world had really worked wonders for both of them. He filed a quick mental note to follow their example in twenty more years.

As soon as the old farmer spotted his son, he gave him a big hug and the first words out of his mouth were, “So Charlie, tell me, how’s the business?” He was a little disappointed. It wasn’t “Good to see you, son! We’ve really missed you!” Of course, his mother made it up to him. But Dad…he wanted to know every detail about the strawberry farm: the entire ride home consisted of Charlie’s answers to his probing, rapid-fire questions. The young man was exhausted when they drove up to the house, but his father’s serious tone eased when he counted six tractor-trailer rigs waiting to be loaded, the last of the year’s bumper crop. He finally broke into a big smile and said, “Charlie, I knew you could do it! I’m really proud of you, son!”

In my attempt to write this modern parable, there’s one basic message to the story: did Charlie take his father’s words and his work seriously? Did he pursue his father’s passion with every ounce of his own? And most importantly, did Charlie raise any strawberries?

In the Great Commission statement of Matthew 28:19-20 we read these words of Jesus:

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, to the end of the age. (English Standard Version)

I have underlined the only verb in this English translation of the Greek: it’s an aorist active imperative that could literally be translated “disciple all the nations.” It’s written in the second person (you) plural, meaning “all of you.”

At first glance, what some have called “the last will and testament of Jesus” seems quite clear, doesn’t it? He’s going away. He commands his followers to make disciples and then he gives them only two strategies by which to accomplish his will: (1) to baptize those disciples in the name of each member of the Trinity, and (2) to teach those same disciples to obey everything He commanded us.

So how are we doing? Is the church of Jesus Christ discipling the nations? Is baptism a priority? Have we simply taught His disciples, or have we taught His disciples to observe/obey His teachings?

Unfortunately, I don’t think we’ve done very well with component number one of Jesus’ disciple-making strategy. We can’t even agree on what constitutes “baptism,” even though the literal rendering of the Greek word (baptizo) has been known for 2,000 years. Some Christians believe that a few drops of water sprinkled on the head is sufficient; others believe it requires more water than that—like maybe a cup or jug of water poured over one’s head; and those who are sticklers for exegetical accuracy point to the commonly-accepted meaning of everyday Greek (Koine) and insist that it means “to immerse in water” or “to plunge under water.” Some practice one mode exclusively: others allow a cafeteria approach and let the baptismal candidate choose the mode, based on personal preference.

So we can’t agree on the “what” of baptism; but neither can we agree on the “who” of baptism. Amazing, isn’t it? Not one single instance of infant baptism in the New Testament, and yet many scholars insist that it must be there because (they reason) infant baptism replaced circumcision as the sign and seal of the covenant. I have often teased my Presbyterian friends about their four-year seminary degree program versus the three-year Baptist program, saying, “The extra year is necessary to learn the art of arguing the case for infant baptism, because it’s just not in the Bible.”

As I understand their argument, it goes something like, “Since the Jews circumcised their male children as a sign of their covenant with Jehovah, therefore Christians are to mark their infant offspring with the new covenant equivalent: a little water sprinkled on the heads of both male and female children.” One time I offered a counter-argument, “Wait, the Jews only circumcised their male children.” I thought that should settle things rather quickly. “Right,” my friend responded, “that’s because females don’t have foreskins!” “Wow!” I added, “It’s amazing how much you can learn in just one more year of seminary training.”

In addition to the “infant baptism” (pedobaptist) versus the “baptism of believers only” (credobaptist) debate, we also have an intramural disagreement among credobaptists as to when a believer can legitimately be baptized: some baptize children so young they could almost be accused of being pedobaptist, while others seem reluctant to baptize a believer until they’re old enough to vote or begin drawing their pensions. I have friends in ministry who refuse to baptize anyone under eighteen. Can you quote chapter and verse on that one, my dear “sola scriptura” brother? Uh-huh. I thought so. And you’ve got a problem with pedobaptists? Why was that again?

So what about component number two: teaching disciples to obey everything Jesus commanded us? How are we doing here? I can just hear my Arminian evangelist friends saying, “Wait just a minute? Did you rewrite the Great Commission? I don’t remember it saying anything about obedience! I thought we just had to get them to raise their hand or walk the aisle? We count ‘em that way even if you Reformed crazies don’t like to do so!” Sorry, but that’s what Matthew recorded under the influence of the Holy Spirit.

But I also hear pages turning over in the other corner. My inerrantist, Reformed, expository, 45-minute-sermon-preaching friends are also confused. “We thought Jesus simply meant for us to teach people the Truth? Obviously, we can’t make people obey what they hear. So we devote our entire lives to crafting expository sermons and preparing Bible studies and authoring books. Our emphasis is teaching, teaching, teaching.” But the words of Jesus are clear, aren’t they? We’re not just supposed to teach. Teaching is not the goal, is it? He said, “teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.”

So, back to our parable. The father returns and wants to know, “Did you do what I asked? Is the family business secure? Did you get a good harvest?” And when the Lord returns, what do you think His primary interest will be?

“Lord, we sprinkled lots of babies.”

“I didn’t ask you to baptize babies. Disciples. Did you make disciples? Did you baptize them?”

“Well, Lord, some of them aren’t quite old enough. But they have made a profession of faith!”

“Those disciples you have baptized: have they learned how to obey Me? How are they doing?”

“We have a literature table, Lord, and lots of sermon tapes and CD’s. I preach nearly an hour twice on Sunday, plus I lead two home Bible study groups every week. We’re a teaching church, Lord.”

“Teaching what?”

“The 1689 Confession, Grudem’s Systematic Theology, verse-by-verse exposition…it took us five years to go through the Book of Romans!”

“Are my people obedient? Have they learned how to live out my principles and teachings and commands? Are they really disciples at all?”

So, how are we doing? Really.