The Boldest Initiative

Luke 10:1-25

1Now after this the Lord appointed seventy others, and sent them in pairs ahead of Him to every city and place where He Himself was going to come. 2And He was saying to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest. 3”Go; behold, I send you out as lambs in the midst of wolves. 4”Carry no money belt, no bag, no shoes; and greet no one on the way. 5”Whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace be to this house.’ 6”If a man of peace is there, your peace will rest on him; but if not, it will return to you. 7”Stay in that house, eating and drinking what they give you; for the laborer is worthy of his wages. Do not keep moving from house to house. 8”Whatever city you enter and they receive you, eat what is set before you; 9and heal those in it who are sick, and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ 10”But whatever city you enter and they do not receive you, go out into its streets and say, 11’Even the dust of your city which clings to our feet we wipe off in protest against you; yet be sure of this, that the kingdom of God has come near.’ 12”I say to you, it will be more tolerable in that day for Sodom than for that city.

13”Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles had been performed in Tyre and Sidon which occurred in you, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. 14”But it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the judgment than for you. 15”And you, Capernaum, will not be exalted to heaven, will you? You will be brought down to Hades!

16”The one who listens to you listens to Me, and the one who rejects you rejects Me; and he who rejects Me rejects the One who sent Me.”

17The seventy returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name.” 18And He said to them, “I was watching Satan fall from heaven like lightning. 19”Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing will injure you. 20”Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are recorded in heaven.”

21At that very time He rejoiced greatly in the Holy Spirit, and said, “I praise You, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants. Yes, Father, for this way was well-pleasing in Your sight. 22”All things have been handed over to Me by My Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.”

Luke 10:1-2

Sent them in pairs ahead of Him

In Chapter 9, Jesus sent out the twelve to preach and heal. In the following weeks they would astound both themselves and the Galilean countryside with their works until even Herod Antipas was informed about their works.

Now Jesus sends out 36 more pairs, but this time his instructions are to pray for laborers and heal the sick. There is some discrepancy as to whether the number sent forth was 70 or 72. The earliest Greek manuscripts read 72 while later manuscripts say 70. This discrepancy is probably due to the differences between the Hebrew Old Testament, which lists 70 as the number of nations in the world whereas the Greek translation, the Septuagint, lists 72 as the number of nations [Genesis 10].

The discrepancy is minor, what is important is that Jesus sent out one disciple for each nation believed to be in the world, not just one for every tribe of Israel (as he did with the first commission). This was to be a world religion, destined from the start to expand far beyond the boundaries of Judaism.

We tend to think of Jesus’ discipleship work as limited to the twelve but we need to remember the many women who followed and these 72 who were sent forth in power. 1 Corinthians 15:6 tells us that Jesus had at least five hundred followers by the time he had finished his ministry and 120 went to begin the church in Jerusalem [Ac 1:15].

This reading clearly establishes the true goal of a Christian community, not to use its resources to care only for its own, but to bring Christ to all. We are to send forth laborers to all the nations, to send forth to heal and pray.

What comes to mind is the catholic, with a little “c.” Kata means “cast out,” Holas means either “to the whole” or “to become whole.”

In our case the two meanings unite as one. We are both “cast out to the whole,” and we are not whole until we go. Soon the disciples would learn that you couldn’t contain church either in the upper room or Jerusalem. We must be, “cast out to be made whole.”

“The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.”

Most Churches seem intent on stealing church hoppers from each other with the trump card being how well a Pastor preaches or the wizardry of a multimedia worship show. Many Christian Leaders seem content in just stealing husks of grain from empty grain elevators while the harvest wilts in the field. Meanwhile our jails overflow in capacity, our homeless shelters stretch to the breaking point with single mothers and their children and our detention centers have children sleeping on the floors because the beds are full.

The harvest is only empty if viewed from inside the grain elevators. We don’t need managers maintaining grain elevators. We need laborers in the harvest. Leaders should be in the field with a scythe modeling the behavior they want Christ’s church to emulate.

The church is not who comes to us, the church is who we send into the harvest.

Leaders who model Jesus’ Way do not spend a majority of their time in an office. Our Lord was a laborer in the harvest! Jesus didn’t lead from an office; his pedagogy was four-fold and took him constantly to his people:

1. Model

2. Invite

3. Teach

4. Send forth

True leaders never send people where they would not go themselves or teach what they will not model. It is laborers who are needed, not distant supervisors or closeted academics. Let our theology be love and our preaching be the sweat of our brow. Let us slough off the comfortable role of waiting for the wheat to come to us and instead, lead our people into the field.

Luke 10:3

3”Go; behold, I send you out as lambs in the midst of wolves.

“Lambs in the midst of wolves…”

“Lambs in the midst of wolves?”

This isn’t a very comfortable thought or a motivating rallying cry. However, it wipes away every excuse we might have of saying; “Well, I have no expertise in this area” or, “I’m not really comfortable going to those places.”

We must get beyond thinking that laboring in the field is an elective the Christian can choose or cross off their task list because they send money to missionaries. Do we hear Jesus say to his disciples; “Would any of you mind doing this?”

We can be relieved that God does not call us for our expertise. In fact, the more inept we are, the more God is able to use us.

1 Corinthians 1:26-29

26For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; 27but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, 28and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are, 29so that no man may boast before God.

It is not appropriate to tell God what we cannot do for we do not rely on ourselves. Our only appropriate response is to go faithfully as “lambs among wolves” and be amazed at what God can do! He wants our faith not our expertise.

Paul heard our Lord tell him: And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me [2 Corinthians 12:9].

There is more to Christ’s statement than the fact we are sheep. It is that we must also choose to remain sheep among wolves. We are not to become like wolves among wolves. We are not to take on the world’s ways. We go out choosing to increase our reliance on the shepherd not to take on the nature of the wolves. We are to choose weakness, to strive for humility, to model reliance on God and not to become adept in the ways of the world. If we are ever to boast, let us say, “I had no idea what I was doing but you should have seen how powerfully Christ used me.”

Again Paul, in a shining moment said it like this, “Who is weak without my being weak? Who is led into sin without my intense concern? “If I have to boast, I will boast of what pertains to my weakness [2 Corinthians 11:29-30]”

Luke 10:4-8

4”Carry no money belt, no bag, no shoes; and greet no one on the way. 5”Whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace be to this house.’ 6”If a man of peace is there, your peace will rest on him; but if not, it will return to you. 7”Stay in that house, eating and drinking what they give you; for the laborer is worthy of his wages. Do not keep moving from house to house. 8”Whatever city you enter and they receive you, eat what is set before you;

“Eat what is set before you.”

It sounds as though Jesus is promoting an ascetic lifestyle for his followers. However, Jesus was no ascetic. He did not choose a life like John the Baptist, the Spartan existence of stoicism or the way of the Essenes. At times, Jesus would glean grain like the poor of Jerusalem but he also attended many feasts and was the honored guest at many banquets. We never see Jesus standing outside a wealthy house refusing the faire offered to him.

Others might think that Jesus is suggesting his disciples look down on those who are not of their mission or belief. He tells the 72, “greet no one on the way.” However, that would obviously be an absurd thought in light of the life Christ modeled.

Rather what we hear Jesus saying and see Jesus modeling is a life totally unencumbered by this world, even unencumbered by the ruse of asceticism.

It is the unencumbered life that serves Jesus, a life that is not enamored with social climbing, ostentatious presumptions or making a show of position or possessions. It is a lifestyle that totally disregards the strife of this world because the freeing message of Jesus is all that matters. Such a person is telescopically focused on loving like Jesus — they have no concern for their comfort, possessions or positions. Such things will be gone someday in a heartbeat.

They are blind to the status symbols and distractions of the world about them except to the extent that every chance encounter, every table offering an invitation, rich or poor, leper or lawyer, they are all an opportunity to love like Jesus loved. Each opportunity presented is not viewed as a chance to climb a social ladder or increase power. Every opportunity is an opportunity to love like Jesus loved.

Luke 10:9-16

9and heal those in it who are sick, and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ 10”But whatever city you enter and they do not receive you, go out into its streets and say, 11’Even the dust of your city which clings to our feet we wipe off in protest against you; yet be sure of this, that the kingdom of God has come near.’ 12”I say to you, it will be more tolerable in that day for Sodom than for that city.

16”The one who listens to you listens to Me, and the one who rejects you rejects Me; and he who rejects Me rejects the One who sent Me.”

‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’

We have already seen the 72 disciples had two critical assignments:

1) To pray for laborers who would help bring in the ripe harvest and

2) To heal the sick and tell them that the kingdom of God is near

I love the words used in the sentence; “And heal those in it who are sick, and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’“

It is worth a look at these words in the original Greek form.

· To heal [G2323 therapeuo]; this word not only means to heal and to cure, but the origin of the word is “to serve [G2324 therapon].”

· The sick [G772 asthenes]; this word covers not only those who are sick, but also those who are weak helpless or “without strength.”

· The Kingdom [G932 basileia]; the Kingdom does not indicate a “place” it is an indication of “the reign” of a king or the King’s sovereignty. God’s reign reaches everywhere his word is put into practice. It doesn’t matter if it is in a church or down an alley. As Jesus tells us (author’s paraphrase), “My kingdom comes when my will is done on earth as it is in heaven.”

· Is near [G1448 eggizo]; Eggizo could be used interchangeably as “approaching, at hand or near.”

When we look at these words combined, we can see the bold initiative to which our Lord’s disciples were called and the even bolder message they were to share. This bold initiative is as relevant to Followers of Christ today as it was 2,000 years ago: “Go! Serve the weak, give them strength with the knowledge that God’s rule is at hand.”