There is a story in Luke 10 that is referred to as Jesus ‘sending out’ the 72. It’s a fascinating story as Jesus gives His marching orders to a group of disciples to go out and proclaim the gospel to the people.
If you haven’t read this in a while grab your Bible and take a read of Luke 10 verses 1-17.
That’s a great story, right?
Jesus send out His people telling them to trust that they will be provided for and that not everyone will accept them, or even want to hear their message. These are hard truths. But I think they still apply to us as disciples of Jesus today.
I am a United Methodist pastor, which means I ‘itinerate’. This word hearkens back to our frontier days of circuit riding preachers travelling miles on horseback to villages to preach the gospel and share in the sacraments of Holy Communion and baptism. Thankfully the travelling has changed, because I don’t own a horse. But I do now serve 2 churches in what we call a ‘circuit’ or a ‘charge’, Telford UMC and Asbury UMC.
I am appointed to these churches by our bishop. So, being itinerate means I agree to be appointed and to go where the bishop (and presumably where God) is sending me.
When I read verse 1, I am reminded of this; “the Lord appointed 72 others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place that he was about to go” (Luke 10:1).
But as I read this I am also reminded that it is not just United Methodist clergy that are being appointed and sent….it is all Christians!
We are appointed.
We have been given a task to do and we have been consecrated, or set apart, to do it. There are great opportunities in being appointed, as well as great responsibility. Being appointed means that we don’t know for sure all that we will need to do, or even what we will need to do what we need to do. So we trust. We trust that God is faithful and that He will equip us since He has called and appointed us.
We are sent.
We aren’t called to sit and wait. We aren’t called to open church doors and wait for people to come in. We are called to be the Church that is sent by God to where the people are. We are a Sent-People because we have been appointed by God to go.
We are not going alone.
They were sent out two by two. I can’t help but think about the animals marching up the ramps into Noah’s ark two by two. The animals were called as well, called by God to come into the ark for protection so that they could be spared the death that would happen outside the confines of God’s protective boat. And here the disciples are sent out into the world, two by two, with a message for all people. A great reminder of this picture is that we are not in ministry alone, we were never meant to do anything alone. The 2x2 concept is a pretty important visual image of what life is supposed to be like.
We are heralds of Christ.
The disciples were sent out to get people ready for Jesus coming to town! They were able to be the herald of Jesus, going ahead of Him to announce the good news that the Kingdom of God has come near! And we still get to do this as His Church! We get to go out into the communities where we live and announce the good news of Jesus Christ in love and peace, grace and forgiveness.
It’s not always an easy task, some appointments are harder than others. But this is who we have agreed to be as His disciples, as His children. To be appointed. To be sent. To be able to say, “Peace to you, the Kingdom of God has come near.” And to know that we are not alone in this. We have each other, but best of all we have God with us.
