This abuse of Matthew’s text ignored the larger teachings of Jesus found throughout the Gospel of Matthew. Jesus consistently rejected domination and violence. He taught humility, service, love of neighbor, and solidarity with the marginalized. The same Gospel that contains the Great Commission also contains the Sermon on the Mount, where Jesus blesses the poor and commands love for enemies. Colonial uses of Matthew 28 often emphasized authority while neglecting compassion, justice, and mutuality.
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This is Part 3 of the series The Great Commission, Doubt, and Post-Colonialism
(Read this series from its beginning here.)
The phrase “all nations” was transformed from an inclusive vision into a program of religious and cultural control. Rather than recognizing the humanity and wisdom of different peoples, colonial Christianity often attempted to erase them. This created lasting wounds that continue to shape relationships between Christianity and Indigenous communities today.
Many theologians today, especially those from postcolonial and liberation traditions, argue that Matthew’s Great Commission should be understood differently. It is undeniable that The Great Commission in the Gospel of Gospel of Matthew has too often been distorted into a mandate for domination rather than discipleship. In the hands of colonial powers, “go and make disciples of all nations” became an excuse for conquest, forced conversion, cultural destruction, and the blessing of empire. Indigenous peoples across the world experienced the “gospel” arriving alongside military violence, economic exploitation, and racial hierarchy. In this misuse of the Commission, Christianity was separated from the teachings of Jesus and fused with power, nationalism, and control.
Yet the Gospel of Matthew itself points toward a radically different vision. The risen Jesus does not commission armies or empires. He commissions disciples who have learned the way of the Sermon on the Mount: peacemaking, mercy, humility, justice, reconciliation, and love of neighbor and enemy alike. The Great Commission is not a command to erase cultures or dominate nations. It is a call to embody the liberating teachings of Jesus within every culture and community. In many of the Indigenous populations Colonialism erased, these ethics were already being practiced, and rather than being affirming, Colonialist Christians committed the exact opposite of what the Jesus of their gospel story intended.
Recovering Matthew’s commission from its colonial misuse requires repentance, listening to marginalized voices, and separating the message of Jesus from the history of empire that too often claimed to speak in his name. A healthy, life-giving understanding of the Great Commission sees these words in Matthew not as a justification for seeking control over others but as a call to solidarity with them. It calls Christians to confront systems that crush human dignity and to participate in healing, liberation, and restoration. To “make disciples” means nurturing communities shaped by compassion, economic sharing, nonviolence, truth-telling, and radical welcome.
Matthew’s Gospel ends, not in the centers of imperial power, but in Galilee, a marginalized region far from Rome’s throne. From the margins, the disciples are sent into the world carrying the love, compassion, inclusion and justice of Jesus rather than the sword of empire: “I am with you always,” Jesus tells them. In this vision, the Great Commission becomes an invitation to join the Divine’s work of justice, liberation, and beloved community among all peoples. It becomes an invitation to form communities shaped by the teachings of love. These teachings are rooted in mercy, justice, reconciliation, and humility shared through teaching and learning. The Great Commission calls Christians especially not to impose power but instead to embody a radically different way of living together: one where all humans find around them a safe, compassionate, just space where even the most vulnerable among us can feel at home.
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