Matthew 28:20, “Behold, I am with you every day, even to the end of the age.’
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Having announced the universal authority placed into His nail-pierced hands through His death and resurrection (28:18), and—on the basis of this authority—having called His people to make disciples of all nations (28:19), our Lord sends His disciples (His Church) out with a final promise to be with them every day until the end of the age.
Just consider the beauty and strength in these words. Every day (that’s a literal rendering of the Greek here), every day the risen Jesus Christ is *with* His people, present with them, aware of them, leading them, upholding them, empowering them, covering them in the mercies of His cross. But notice something about this promise: in comes in the context of the ‘Great Commission,’ that is to say, in the context of making Christ known among the nations.
In other words, Jesus promises His presence to His people *as they go and make disciples.* Yes, its true that He is always with any who trust in Him as comforter, Shepherd, etc…But this text makes that promise with particular emphasis on the task of making Him known…It is as we go out to do *this* (in our families, workplaces, and relational circles, as much as on the mission field), it is as we go out to *lift up Christ* that we can lay hold of this promise with special assurance and fervency.
So, as I open my mouth to commend Christ, as I declare Him to be my Lord, as labor to see my children raised up in His name, as I listen to and pray for my coworkers, as I go—to the nations and my neighborhood—in the name of the slain and risen One, I go in the blood-secured assurance that *today,* right now, in this very moment, the One who holds ALL authority in the cosmos is WITH ME to see His will done, His Kingdom come, and the Father’s Name in Him hallowed.
Genesis tells us that the Sun, Moon, and Stars were created—in part—to mark the seasons, i.e., as temporal signs. So, I’ve drawn on cosmological imagery to picture the continual nature of Christ’s presence with His people.
The twelve stars represent not only the fullness of the people of God, but the fullness of Christ’s presence with them across time (the 12 hours of day and of night). The five phases of the moon picture the same idea, but with a further emphasis on the *character* of Christ’s presence.
The five phases represent the five sacred wounds of Jesus (hands, feet, and side, cf. Lk. 24:39, John 20:20), reminding us that God’s presence with us in Christ is not a generic presence, but the presence of the One who has borne our sin and death and hell, removed our judgment, and conquered every spiritual power in the love of the cross. Further, the phases are pictured so as to depict the incremental rolling away of the stone from the tomb, a reminder that the one who is present with us in love from the cross is simultaneously the one who is risen and reigning as Lord over every molecule and moment of our experience.
Christ’s presence with His Church is visualized in His embrace of the Bride whose feet are upon the mountains of the earth (Is. 52:7). From His hands (in which all authority resides) flow two streams of redeeming blood, covering His Bride and so pouring from her hands onto the earth. This represents two things 1) That the Bride’s witness in this world is nothing other than the slain and risen Lord, and 2) that the blood the Bride herself may shed in that witness is, supremely, the blood of her Lord Himself (on these, see Rev.12:11).
From these streams of blood, springs up a harvest of life (John 12:24), ready to be reaped by the Spirit flowing from the side of the slain, risen, and reigning Lord.
And finally, the Sun rising over the earth visually echoes the opening of Christ’s tomb. As the Church labors in the fields of this world, she is confident not only of the presence of her Lord, but the assurance that, because He is Risen, she too will rise with Him into the New Creation.
