‘Once in a lifetime, not to be repeated special offer’; all the slogans that the stores use to entice us to buy the latest consumer offering were literally true at this point in Jesus’ ministry (Luke 10. 1-11, 16-20). He had made up his mind and set out on his way to Jerusalem. He would not pass this way again and that was why he challenged those he met to leave everything there and then and follow him. No excuses, no distractions.
As we heard last week (Luke 9. 51-62) some could not rise to the challenge but this week we hear that there were at least seventy or seventy-two who were disciples and ready for Jesus to send out to prepare the way for him to come into the lives of those in the villages and towns that he was to visit before he arrived in Jerusalem.
We see from this that disciples aren’t just followers; they are also those that are sent out and entrusted with playing a part in bringing in the kingdom of God. This passage challenges us regarding the call of God on our lives. There is still a large harvest to be reaped? Just as Jesus sent out his disciples to tell others that he was about to arrive in their midst, so we are called to do the same. Do we hear that call? Do find reasons to put it to one side? Are we responding as fully as we might? At St John's Seven Kings, we are currently planning a Vocations Sunday for September which will provide lots of information about opportunities to develop the ministries that each of us have in church and community so that we are better able to play our part in bringing in the kingdom of God. But don’t wait until then to say yes to the call of God on your life and do let others know how you are thinking and responding.
Interestingly the numbers at our services regularly mirror the number of disciples that Jesus sent out. This passage is headed up ‘Jesus sends out the Seventy-Two’ in our pew bibles but it should really read as ‘Jesus sends out the Seventy or Seventy-Two’ as there is a little asterisk after the first mention of 72 men and in the note at the bottom of the page it says that some manuscripts on mention 70 men.
Why the difference? Tom Wright has explained that it is most probably to do with the story of Moses choosing 70 elders during the Exodus from Egypt who were “given a share in God’s Spirit and thereby equipped to help him lead the people of Israel (Numbers 11. 16, 25).” On that occasion, two others who were not part of the original 70 also received the Spirit.” So, whether it’s 70 or 72, it is a sign from Jesus to the people of his day that a new Exodus is happening and they need to get on board if they are going to be set free from slavery to sin and led to the Promised Land of life forever with God.
In the original Exodus the Israelites rebelled, grumbled and didn’t want to go the way God was leading. Jesus prepares his disciples for a similar reaction from those he sends them to saying that he sends them out as lambs among wolves. Jesus even mentions the town of Sodom when he speaks about the judgement which is to come on those who don’t welcome his disciples. The destruction of Sodom is the most frequently mentioned Genesis event in the whole of the Hebrew scriptures and it is a symbol of every sin that stands in contrast to covenant with God.
There is a story told by Jewish rabbis that helps in understanding this aspect of the passage. The rabbis teach that Abraham left off a discussion with God and went to greet guests when they arrived at his camp. He ran to greet them during the hottest day on record and served them the best food he could put together. Based on this example, the rabbis say that taking care of guests is greater then receiving the divine presence.
This story gives a sense of the importance of hospitality towards strangers within Judaism. The fundamental wickedness of Sodom, however, was their hostility to vulnerable strangers and the violence they enacted on the innocent. The people of Sodom had a moral responsibility to offer protection and hospitality to vulnerable strangers, as all the ancient laws of the east demanded, and they stand in scripture as an example of extreme wickedness because they attacked and abused those they should have protected.
This links too with Jesus’ talk of Satan. Satan literally means ‘the accuser’; the one who points the finger at others in condemnation of them. Jesus is then saying that Satan (the accuser) falls like lightening from the sky at the return of the disciples from their mission because they have not been accused but welcomed during their mission.
So Jesus, here, is highlighting the importance of welcome and hospitality. Before the disciples go Jesus warns that those who fail to welcome them are not only turning God’s messengers away from their homes and lives but God himself too. As he says, “Whoever listens to you listens to me; whoever rejects you rejects me; and whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me.” When they return, he rejoices at the welcome which they have received and the sense, in the verses which follow today’s reading, that the Gospel has been received from “the diverse and motley group he has chosen as his associates.”
The emphasis in this passage is on the hospitality provides by others to Jesus’ disciples. We have already thought of ourselves as being called like them to take the good news of Jesus to others, so we will naturally identify ourselves with the disciples in the passage and think about the response we receive from others when they know that we are Christians. But to really get the force and challenge of what Jesus is saying in this passage we have to put ourselves in the shoes of those the disciples went to and ask ourselves how well do we receive others? The challenge in this passage is about the quality of the welcome provided to others. The great sin here is to be inhospitable and to be inhospitable is actually to reject the divine in our lives.
So, how do we rate on that basis? I know we think of ourselves as a friendly, welcoming church but let’s not rest on our laurels and instead ask ourselves how we can be more welcoming, more hospitable to those who come for the first time and those that we don’t know well. When we are here in church, let us make those people our priority, always seeking to speak first to those we don’t know, don’t know well or haven’t spoken to for some time.
God calls us not just to be those who follow him but also to those sent out to prepare the way for him to come into the lives of others and challenges us too to be those who are also welcoming, always hospitable towards others.
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James MacMillan - A Different World.
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