The Whole Earth

One day I read the Great Commission.

"Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

"All nations?" I pondered. "How would eleven disciples go into the entire world?"
I decided that Jesus must have meant for everyone from that point forward to be part of this commission. "What joy Christians must get, having the honor to live out the very same commission granted to the eleven so many years ago. I bet they love to go out and share the Gospel. There must be missionaries all over the world," I thought.

I decided to check out exactly what Jesus must have meant about sharing the Gospel with all the nations.

Then I took a look at a map of the earth. My eyes went right to Antarctica and I chuckled. "Evangelism to penguins," I thought with a smile. So I chose to remove Antarctica from the map. I figured the North Pole fell under the same criteria, so I scratched it out too.


"There," I thought. "Now we have an inhabited earth to talk about." Then I remembered reading about how much of Canada and Russia are uninhabitable. If I scratched out the North Pole and Antarctica on those criteria, I couldn't very well justify leaving those sections of Canada and Russia, right? Since I couldn't remember what parts of Russia and Canada are uninhabitable, I just removed them completely. I also wasn't very skilled in high school geography, so rather than looking up a map with governmental borders, I just wiped out everything that looked VERY white on the map. Who wants to live in the permafrost anyway, right?

"Wow," I thought. "The earth is still rather large. How are all the Christians going to reach so much land mass and so many people?"

After studying the map for a while longer, I began to think about Europe. Since that continent is mostly made of white, affluent people, and mission work is typically targeted to those of lesser means, I decided to remove them next. Aussies and Kiwis speak just like the Brits of Europe, except have a prettier landscape. I hated to see them go, but since they are mostly white and affluent cultures, others just need the Gospel more than them. So away went Europe, Australia, and New Zealand.


After some more thought, I remembered a politically conservative elder getting up during church and praising our troops for the work they are doing in Iraq and Afghanistan. I overheard another person at church saying that they wouldn't be surprised if Iran is next, the way Ahmadinejad is acting. "If so many people from my church are in support of our military's efforts on foreign soil, it must be the Lord's work being done, right?" I considered. I zoned out for a few minutes and thought of all of those email forwards I've received with pictures of soldiers praying. "Wow, and to think I had always thought wars were just political," I smiled. "Now I know that God's democracy is being spread the those nations." Upon that epitome, I scratched out the remaining portions of the middle east, because our soldiers pretty much have that region taken care of.


I keep hearing Christians on late night news commentaries on MSNBC and Fox News debate that we are a Christian nation. They give evidence in everything from the Pilgrims to the Founding Fathers, even citing scripture to suggest that the United States is a holy, ordained nation. Since this country is so well cared for, I took it off the list. "Who needs to send missionaries to a Christian nation?" I jested.

But after removing so much wasted space that is uninhabited, nations that have already seen Christ, and rich nations who don't need to hear the Gospel, I still thought the earth look rather large. While I've been able to draw on my own experience and my own intuition until this point, it is clear to me that I now must begin some intensive research. It is imperative that I know exactly what Jesus meant when he said "all nations." Surely, with an earth this large, he really meant to just pick a few target areas, right? I mean, the whole earth, really? C'mon.

So I took it upon myself to research congregation after congregation. Their websites were very resourceful. After exhausting the list of congregations I could remember off the top of my head, I turned to non-profit organizations with a Christian heritage. While not churches, these are organizations that use media, missions efforts, and other means to spread the gospel. Their websites and fundraising mailouts were instrumental in gathering information. Finally, after researching churches and nonprofits, I turned on the Christian channel on the TV. Almost immediately, there was a host to the program in some poor nation talking about feeding the poor and hungry and how Jesus wants us to care for those less fortunate. I noted the countries this show visited and added those nations to my list. After much research, I noticed Asia, with the exception of the Indian slums, was noticeably missing from the Lord's work. If God's people--by that, I mean the churches, organizations, and media sources that claim his work--are not working in a certain area, then surely that is because God's will has them working elsewhere, right? Along the same logic, if I see God's people referencing the Lord's work in the same places from completely unrelated, independent sources, then it must mean that God desires us to focus in these areas, right? I was rather proud of my newfound logic, and made my final cut.



As I sat back and looked at my new visual interpretation of the Great Commission. Surely Jesus must be proud that I took the time to read into his words and finally figure out the puzzle. I had finally gotten to the bottom of this. I thought I might share it with my pastor and elders too, so that they might be able to share with the congregation that the riddle is finally unwrapped... we now know where Jesus desires us to put our focus thanks to some careful consideration. Being so proud, I decided to go back to the Great Commission again. I read it out loud.

Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

I looked at my map. Somehow, there was a disjunct. My logic was sound, though, so what was the problem?

"All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

After reading these verses aloud again, I looked back at my map.



Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.

My eyes began to tunnel in on the verses. Something was amiss.

go and make disciples of all nations.

all nations.

Oh, wait.

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In this fast-paced world, we always want to get to the meat 'n taters of the verses. You know, the main point. We want a synopsis, the reader's digest version, the Cliffs Notes. The biggest problem is this:

When you spend your time trying to reduce Christ's words to your own logic, your own meat 'n taters version, and your own worldview, you won't make the right cut.