At that time the Lord appointed seventy others whom he sent ahead of him in pairs to every town and place he intended to visit. He said to them, “The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest. Go on your way; behold, I am sending you like lambs among wolves. Carry no money bag, no sack, no sandals; and greet no one along the way. Into whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace to this household.’ If a peaceful person lives there, your peace will rest on him; but if not, it will return to you. Stay in the same house and eat and drink what is offered to you, for the laborer deserves his payment. Do not move about from one house to another. Whatever town you enter and they welcome you, eat what is set before you, cure the sick in it and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God is at hand for you.’ Whatever town you enter and they do not receive you, go out into the streets and say, ‘The dust of your town that clings to our feet, even that we shake off against you.’ Yet know this: the kingdom of God is at hand.” (Luke 10.1-12)
After a long intermission, our Sunday readings correspond to Ordinary Time as the liturgical calendar describes that period of the year outside of the seasons of Advent-Christmas and Lent-Easter. Actually, we’ve been in Ordinary Time since June 15th, but the readings on that Sunday reflected the Feast of the Holy Trinity, not the Tenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, followed the next Sunday by the Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ, and last Sunday we observed the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul.
The last time we saw Sunday readings for Ordinary Time was on the Ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time on March 2nd. The problem for us is that the Gospel of Luke is laid out sequentially over the Sundays of Ordinary Time, the many interruptions since March making it difficult for us to hold onto the continuity of Luke’s message. It is the same problem students face after Christmas Break or Spring Break as they try to retain what they learned before they vacated the classroom for an extended period of time.
But, as always, we work with what we have and on this Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time we have the story of the Lord Jesus sending out seventy disciples in pairs to evangelize the people in the places that he intends to visit in the near future. The first thing we want to note is that the story is unique to Luke. It appears nowhere else in the other gospels.
Also, it bears striking similarity to the story of the sending of the twelves on a mission of preaching and healing, a story that Matthew and Mark also share with Luke. The uniqueness of the story presents several problems, the first being its historicity. Did it really happen as Luke says? That question becomes more apparent when a close analysis of the story shows it to bear marked parallels with a story found in the Hebrew scriptures where we are told that Moses selected seventy elders to accompany him to the mountain where the Spirit of the Most High God rested upon them.
Scholars are quick to point out that Chapters 10 through 18 of Luke’s gospel seem organized around passages from the Book of Deuteronomy, at least twenty-two of them that Luke appears to replicate or implant in his book. History aside, it would suggest that Luke is portraying Jesus as a prophet much like Moses, using the ancient texts to buttress his case.
Also, we want to remember that Luke wrote his gospel a half-century or more after the death of Jesus. Much has happened during the intervening years and a small Galilean movement has grown into a much larger affair. Each of the evangelists writes his gospel with a clear purpose, addressing it to a specific audience, working the material at hand to advance a certain argument.
The fact of the matter is that the sending out of seventy disciples may more accurately reflect the time in which Luke wrote than the time in which Jesus walked the roads of Galilee. The community of believers has grown since the time of Jesus and evangelizing is very much on the front burner as Paul makes clear in his letters, documents written earlier than any of the gospels.
Interestingly, in Genesis 10 we find listed the Gentile nations that have descended from Noah. The names of seventy nations are provided, so this fact argues for Luke’s using the story as a means to emphasize the need for the Christian believers to share the good news of the Risen Lord with the whole world, seventy representing the totality of the world as understood in Hebrew history.
In short, the story may be rooted more in the current circumstances that surround Luke than in the past circumstances of Jesus’ ministry. That does not diminish the story nor its importance, but may owe much of its source material to the sending out of the twelve than meets the eye, a story that almost certainly has historical facts on its side.
Regardless, Luke tells the story and we should look at it more closely to see what he wants to tell us by way of the story. As already noted, he clearly intended to invoke Jesus as a prophet in the line of the greatest of the Hebrew prophets, that of Moses. We certainly could spend some time looking at the parallels, but I am drawn more to the seventy missionaries than to the prototype of Moses. I think we will find an important message in their work for our own times when we also are expected to be missionaries carrying into the future the words and works of Jesus of Nazareth.
If we put the story of the sending of the twelve (Luke 9.1-6) alongside this story of the sending of the seventy, similarities stand out, such as the disciples’ taking little with them and instead relying on the hospitality of their hosts. Also, both groups are to cure the sick and they are to stay put in one place, not bouncing all over the place.
However, the dissimilarities are what interests me the most, aside from the obvious one such as the difference in numbers or the fact that the seventy are to work in pairs whereas there is no information on whether the twelve worked individually, in pairs, or in a group. Instead, I want us to focus on three important points that Luke seems intent on stressing in this story that he does not emphasize in the story of the twelve.
First, there is a sense of urgency this time around. That urgency is found in Jesus’ referring to the work in terms of a harvest, telling the seventy that the harvest is rich. The word harvest implies that the crop is ready. And, as any farmer will tell you, there can be no delay in getting the crops in when the wheat is ripe or other produce has matured. If there is a delay, then the crops can spoil in the field or the weather can damage them or pestilence of one sort or another can steal the crop away from the farmer. The analogy is meant to convey the urgency of getting the message of Jesus into the world without delay.
Also, it explains why Jesus tells the seventy that they are to greet no one along the way. There is no time to waste on idle talk or chitchat. One good reason is that the world is desperately in need of the message of salvation, each day without the good news becoming another day spent in darkness. Also, the sense of urgency is meant to offset the human tendency to push off and to delay, a lackadaisical or classic attitude that any number of us find ourselves harboring, unable to get motivated to do the task assigned us as followers of the Lord Jesus, kicking the ball down the road for another day.
A second matter that the story seems intent on pointing out is that the seventy can expect rejection and hardship. There is a much greater emphasis on rejection in this story than in the sending out of the twelve. Before he says much of anything else, Jesus tells the seventy that he is “sending them out as lambs among wolves.”
That is an image meant to invoke dangers ahead and even a bloody slaughter. He is not painting a picture of an easy life as a missionary on the road. Quite the opposite. The one who is tasked with sharing the words and ways of Jesus can expect to be surrounded by enemy forces on all sides, snarling and sinister in every way. It is for that same reason that Luke has Jesus give advance warning to the seventy that there will be towns that do not receive them.
The reason is not all that difficult to find. The ways of Jesus are counter-cultural, counter-intuitive, and a counterpunch to the ways of the world. The world as a whole is ruled by strong men who build their kingdoms on the backs of the weak and the oppressed. It is a world where the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, where the well-fed sit at banquet tables while the starving search through garbage bins for a bite to eat, and where insiders hold all the cards while outsiders hold nothing in their hands.
The message of Jesus is a threat to those who sit on the seats of power, a challenge to their control over the lives of others, an argument for another way of life in which the poor have enough, the foreigner is welcomed, and the voiceless have a say. As a result, those who enter into this hard-knuckled world ruled by henchmen and mercenaries can expect blow-back and bloody battles. Few lambs enter the liar of wolves and live to tell the tale. Jesus is laying the cards on the table for those who would follow in his footsteps.
Which brings us to the third point, that of the scarcity of people who want to do the work of Jesus. Or as we hear Jesus say in this story, “The harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few.” All things considered, it makes sense. It takes a special person of incredible strength to withstand character assault, criticism, and crucifixion. Only those truly convinced and convicted that the way of Jesus is the right way can stand before the firing squad of outrage and ostracization from those opposed to the narrow way.
In all likelihood, this may be one of the reasons that Luke provides the story of the seventy disciples sent out by Jesus, a clear clarion call to all who claim to follow the way of the Galilean Teacher that discipleship cannot be the duty of only a dozen or so. If the Kingdom of God is going to do battle against the kingdom of the world, then many foot soldiers on the side of good and righteousness are needed. If few step up to face the foes, then the stomachs of the hungry stay empty, the cries of the poor remain unheard, and the tears of the foreigner in our midst are ignored.
When Luke employs the number seventy, a number not simply drawn out of a hat, especially when understood in terms of the seventy nations of the world, he is making a strong statement that discipleship is the responsibility of the many, not only of the few. Already at that moment in the history of the early Christian community, it was becoming apparent that it was all hands on deck if the Kingdom of God stood a chance of making inroads in this world hellbent on doing the opposite of what God wants for his creation. I think Luke used the number seventy to leave no doubt in anyone’s mind that reinforcements were needed and needed now.
Having said all this, I want to return to something that Jesus said to the seventy when he sent them out to spread glad tidings to the poor, to proclaim liberty to the captives, to restore sight to the blind and to let the oppressed go free. He said to them, “Go on your way.” There is something both clear and direct in those four words. Go on your way! The only question that needs an answer is if we have listened to him.
–Jeremy Myers
Sunday Brunch 