Where 2 or 3 are Gathered

Matthew 18:20

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Today I want to talk about a verse that in the past has been a little confusing to me. I’m sure that you’ve heard it. I’m sure that you’re very familiar with it. It’s from Matthew, chapter 18, verse 20. Jesus is speaking here and he says.

Where two or three have gathered together in my name, there I am among them. (Matthew 18:20)

That can be a comfort to us, of course, as we gather together in a Bible study or for a small congregation. But then it brings up the question if two or three are gathered in my name, Jesus is with them. What about when I’m alone? Is Jesus with me when I’m by myself? Is he saying that I need another person in order for me to be certain that his presence is right here among us?

That’s not what Jesus is saying here at all. If you look at the larger context here in this section, Jesus is talking about how to handle it if a brother sins against you. If you look at someone and you see that their life, their actions, their attitudes are contrary to what God says in his Word, he says, the first step is to go and speak to them. Not to bring your own opinion, not to bring your own judgment, but to say, this is what I see in the truth of God’s Word and this is what I see in your life.

The next step is to take another person to speak to that one, and then to bring a church elder. And then if they still don’t repent, if they don’t turn away from their sin to tell them the sobering news that they are outside of the grace of God. That they are holding on to their sin in exclusion of Jesus’s grace and his forgiveness. And this is not a process that we want to do alone. So Jesus is here as a conclusion to this. He says, if you and someone else of two or three are gathered together and literally here, it’s united in this decision, in this process, and do it in faith, according to God’s Word, that he is there with you, that he is there approving of the process and he is there backing your decision and your words because it’s not based on you, it’s on him.

We don’t have to be concerned that Jesus is not with us unless we’re with someone else. He promises, Surely I am with you always, even to the very end of the age. He promises that this is why he came. To live for us. To die for us. To redeem us. This is why he won for us forgiveness by giving his life on the cross so he could be with us always. This is why he rose in victory. Why he ascended into heaven to be at the right hand of God so that we can be certain that He is with us in His Word and his sacrament. That he is united himself to us in our heart for our entire life, not just for here now, but forever, where two or three are gathered in God’s name. There He is with us. And where we are alone, we are certain and sure God is with us. Let’s pray.

Dear Jesus, we thank you for your continual presence through the joys of life and for the difficulties. We ask that you would enable us to base our entire life on the truth of your word, to use that as our foundation with your salvation and your victory, as our joy and our motivation. In your name we pray, Lord. Amen.