Luke 10:1-11
After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go. He told them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves. Do not take a purse or bag or sandals; and do not greet anyone on the road.
“When you enter a house, first say, ‘Peace to this house.’ If someone who promotes peace is there, your peace will rest on them; if not, it will return to you. Stay there, eating and drinking whatever they give you, for the worker deserves his wages. Do not move around from house to house.
“When you enter a town and are welcomed, eat what is offered to you. Heal the sick who are there and tell them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ But when you enter a town and are not welcomed, go into its streets and say, ‘Even the dust of your town we wipe from our feet as a warning to you. Yet be sure of this: The kingdom of God has come near.’ (NIV)
I am always a little amazed, and a little envious, at this passage. Jesus had 72 followers that knew his teachings well enough to go out two by two and share them in the villages of Samaria and elsewhere as Jesus was heading toward Jerusalem. Wow! I can never get more than one or two people to be willing to lead a Bible study. They say, “Oh Pastor, I don’t know enough to lead a Bible Study.”
Malarky.
All you have to know is Jesus. And trust your experience. Each person who has an experience of Jesus can teach, can tell their story. But don’t think it will always be easy. Jesus says himself…It is as dangerous as being a lamb in the middle of a pack of wolves. Because you see, to really tell people your experience of Jesus, you have to put yourself out there. You have to make yourself vulnerable, because really, you are at the mercy of the people you are talking to. You have to tell them your story in a way they can understand. You have to go to them. You have to make yourself subject to their ability to understand.
Jesus said not to take a wallet, a bag or extra sandals.
The disciples have to leave their security at home. They had to put themselves at the mercy of the people they were reaching; depend on their hospitality. Stay in their home. Become part of their family. In our day and age, we have to put ourselves at the mercy of their willingness to listen. If they won’t, it isn’t on us. We cannot force them. They are not OUR disciples after all. We must let the Spirit do its work. The Spirit is the one that moves the hearts and minds of God’s people.
Jesus said to eat what is put in front of you.
That was probably the most shocking of his instructions. Remember these were all good Jewish boys he was talking to. To send them off into Samaria, where they didn’t really practice pure Judaism was one thing, but to be OK with eating whatever was put in front of them? That was quite another. Almost certainly in Samaria many people didn’t keep the dietary laws. For a people who defined their identity in part by what they would and would not eat, this was drastic. It was radical. They were to be respectful of the other no matter who they were. It was loving the stranger as Jesus had loved them.
The Jews were not good so at being the guest. At other times in history, when they were the ‘guest’ it was because they were slaves and had been conquered. That is part of the reason hospitality was so important to them. Treating the guest in a way that honored them and didn’t enslave them was a very important part of the Torah teaching. But the Torah didn’t say much about being a good guest. They didn’t have much experience with that. The followers of Jesus had to learn how to be a guest. WE need to know that.
Christianity has not been good at being the guest; respecting the host’s perspective. We, over the centuries, have been much more likely to act like the host, even when we actually were the guest. Christianity has a pattern of going to a new place and expecting the locals to change to conform. We need to own that. Our ancestors didn’t do us any favors, because now we have to bear that shame, confess of that un-Christ-like behavior, and try to do better.
So how did it go for the disciples?
Tomorrow you will get the rest of the story…
Blessings to you,
Pastor Karla
New International Version (NIV)
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Words To Live By 