“See, I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves. Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals…..” (Luke 10.3-4)
Remembering that St Luke is also responsible for the Acts of the Apostles, its perhaps not too surprising to note that he seem to be rather keen on mission. This morning’s gospel reading from Luke 10 records how Jesus sent out 70 disciples (there’s a slight discrepancy in different manuscripts-some say 72, but its hardly of any significance!) In one sense they continue the theme which is the starting point for his gospel account. In chapter 1, Zechariah and Elizabeth are told they will have a child, John, who go before Jesus to prepare the way. He’s remembered as John the Baptiser but ought really to be John the Forerunner. And now, in the same was that God sends John, these 70 disciples are sent out by Jesus as forerunners. They are dispatched to those towns and villages in which Jesus intends to minister. Of the four gospels, only Luke records this episode, and we ought to immediately note that it gives perhaps a different picture of Jesus’ ministry than we might otherwise assume.
Firstly there is clearly a much larger community around Jesus that just the twelve disciples. Not just a benign crowd – like extras on a filmset – but 70 men and women (well why not?) who are sufficiently engaged and committed to Christ’s ministry to go on the road as his envoys and ambassadors. And secondly of course, this is quite deliberate. A strategic mobilising of disciples in outreach ministry, unprecedented in the gospels before Easter.
Now because of that, some New Testament scholars would suggest that Luke is actually recalling the early church rather than recounting the actual events of Jesus’ ministry. Whether that’s the case or not, Luke includes the Sending out of the Seventy disciples to demonstrate that the missionary zeal of Peter, Paul and the apostles in Acts was nothing new but had always been a crucial element of faith in Christ, of Christian discipleship. Mission is in the church’s DNA.
Mission is in the Church’s DNA. And part and parcel of that is a sense of risk. It demands faith and trust in Christ, but also the ability to step out in faith, into the unknown. To step out and see what happens, and go where-ever you are carried. Sending lambs into the midst of wolves is never a comfortable business – especially not for the lambs!
I’m already starting to worry about the final arrangements for my sabbatical in the autumn, which starts with 6 weeks in Canada. I’ve never been away for 6 weeks before – how big does my suitcase need to be? And more crucially, how on earth am I going to carry all the books I will want to read in that time…..? Looking again at the gospel, I wonder how many of us would be prepared to embark on a journey with such poor provisions? ‘Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals’. It’s a bout travelling light, yes. But more importantly it’s about trusting heavily.
How do we compare with Luke’s model of a mission-focused church that is willing to risk the unknown and the new, in order to prepare the way for Jesus today? What are the things we need to hold on to, and what are the things we have to let go of and risk losing in order to do what Jesus asks of us? What are those things for you as an individual disciple? And what are those things for you together as a congregation, and for us as a Deanery and Diocese?
Luke reminds us that discipleship and mission (and if we are to be faithful to Christ and our Christian tradition, then we can avoid neither) are costly, risky, and make us vulnerable. But Luke also reminds us very subtly of the context of that costly risk….
Chapter 10 begins with the words “After this, the Lord appointed seventy others and sent them on ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself intended to go….” AFTER THIS….. after what, exactly?
We need to remember that the chapter and verse numbers are entirely artificial to the Bible, added much later as ‘navigational tools’ by scribes and copyists – so where the flow is broken for us, it would have been far more apparent to the earliest readers. The end of chapter 9, from verse 51 says “When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. And he sent messengers ahead of him…..” Those two words, After this…., link the sending out of the 70 disciples to the momentous journey that Jesus begins on his way to the cross.
Our journey is Christ’s journey. Our mission is Christ’s mission. His great work, risk and vulnerability is the model for ours as a Church.
“See, I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves. Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals…..”
God give us the courage and grace to take the risk of Christ-like mission and ministry, travel light and trust heavily – in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen