Luke 10:1 – 12; 17 – 20
We recently got back from our annual
family reunion in Ocean City, Maryland. Twenty-eight of us occupied
seven adjacent rooms in a beach front hotel for four days. We all
brought stuff from home, in addition to several changes of clothing.
We brought frozen food, some kitchen utensils, lots of paper
products; The rest of the family did likewise. One son in law even
bought one of those platforms that inserts into a trailer hitch so
that he would have extra room to transport stuff. And yet, Ocean
City has a Walmart and a full service grocery store; and in fact
there is a large outlet mall there, in case you forgot to bring
something. We all came very well prepared.
Today we hear about Jesus sending out
the seventy two disciples. He sends them out two by two; he knows
that there is a better chance they will stick to the message this
way, and he knows that if he sends them out in threes, two will bond,
and the third will be the odd man out. That's just the way people
are. But if you were a first century Palestinian what would really
be odd would be his instructions: no money bag, no sandals, no staff.
Because without money, you are entirely dependent on the kindness of
strangers; without sandals, you need to watch where you put your feet
because the ground is full of stones; and without a staff you have no
way to fend off animals or the occasional thief. He isn't kidding
when he says he is sending them like lambs among wolves.
And you greet no one along the way.
There was a certain protocol when you met a stranger or even someone
you hadn't seen in a long time. You would ask about his health, his
family, his business, and listen patiently to the replies; you would
then have to answer his questions. These greetings, especially if
they involved more than a few people, could take up a good part of an
hour or so. Jesus knew his time was limited and did not want the
disciples to get distracted from their mission.
And the last issue; when they arrive
they are to offer peace to this household. Remember that the
disciples are being sent to villages Jesus wants to visit. Villages
usually consisted of several people who were related to each other.
Generally there was a village chief who resolved conflicts and made
decisions. He would be the one who would reply to the offer of
peace. These chiefs would also be the ones who would decide whether
the village should offer hospitality or reject the visitor. The
disciples were entirely at the mercy of these chiefs as to whether
they got fed or got a roof over their heads.
Now I guess the question is, why did
we go so well prepared to Ocean City, in contrast to the disciples of
Jesus going so poorly prepared? What is Jesus teaching? I think
when we went to Ocean City, we did not want any surprises; we wanted
to control everything we could control. And perhaps what Jesus was
teaching his disciples is that if you are carrying out a mission for
God, you can only do this if you let God lead you, let God take care
of things. That, after wall was the real sin of Adam and Eve; they
did not trust God who had told them of the consequences of
disobeying his one commandment.
And the surprising thing is that
everything worked out – wonderfully, in fact, because not only did
they return to Jesus intact and well fed, but they had healed people,
preached the kingdom, and driven out demons, something that showed
they had tapped into the power of God Himself. No wonder that they
were elated.
You and I as Christians are supposed
to be on mission. We are supposed to be consciously trying to
influence those around us – Christian or not – to draw closer to
God, to change their hearts, to wake up to two things: the fact that
Jesus out of love is always inviting them to follow him more closely;
and the fact that because God has given us freedom, we can choose to
reject that invitation and the consequences might very well be an
eternity without God, which is hell. Jesus is telling you and I in
this gospel example that the task is urgent and cannot wait for
tomorrow; and if we simply take him at his word and begin the
process, he will give us the power we need to preach and heal and
drive out demons.
And that's a real challenge for those
of us who are control freaks. Because the message of Jesus is that
we are not doing this on our own – rather, we are instruments that
God uses for his own purposes, and in order to be instruments we need
to let go of our need to control things.
So perhaps we should ask three
questions today. First, are we actually on mission? Who are we
trying to bring closer to Jesus? Because we should be doing that
every day. Second, how are we doing mission? Are we praying for
that person specifically? Are we looking for opportunities to preach
the kingdom by word and by example? Do we invite, because unless we
make the first move, no move will be made. And if we invite, we know
we might be rejected, and that's fine, because we've done our part.
And third, are we working on becoming better missionaries? Because
if you notice, the kind of life-style Jesus is proposing for his
disciples is basically the way Jesus lived during those years of his
own mission, a life detached from a place to live, detached from
accumulation of possessions, and open to whoever he met on the way –
a blind man calling out from the side of the road, a woman with a
twelve year hemorrhage, a little girl who just died – Jesus allows
the Father to set the agenda as he goes from town to town. So let us
go about with simplicity and humility, allowing the Father to show us
the work that we are to do, because we have been sent.
