Breaking the Word

After this the Lord appointed seventy (-two) 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.' (Lk 10:1-9)

 

 

Jesus sent seventy (+two) ahead of him. They were sent to prepare for his visit. It is only a preparatory work. Hence they had no need to stay longer there and they did not have the need to take extra money and extra cloths etc. Their mission was urgent and hence they did not have the need to build up relationship with anyone greeting them etc. Their mission was only to announce the coming of Jesus and prepare for his visit. It had nothing to do with themselves.

 

Were there seventy or seventy two? There has been much discussion on this. It should have had some symbolic meaning. If Luke was seeing Jesus in the light of Moses then the symbolic meaning had an interesting result. Moses chose 70 elders to assist him and thy were given a share in God’s spirit (Numbers 11.16,25). The 70 were to assist Moses in leading the people (exodus). Here Jesus has begun a journey of New Exodus and hence the 70 were appointed to assist in this mission.

 

The message of the 70 was, 'Peace to this household’.  But the Jews of the time of Jesus were for all out war against the Romans and Samaritans etc. They wanted justice to be done which would only mean destroying the enemy. But the kingdom that Jesus was ushering in was to reveal the love of God and that too a healing love of God. This healing love of God was seen in peace, peace with everyone. So the new exodus was leading people forward to the kingdom with peace and not looking backward (to Egypt for the people of Israel at the time of Moses) with violence and hatred towards enemies.

  

Then he told them a parable about the necessity for them to pray always without becoming weary. He said, "There was a judge in a certain town who neither feared God nor respected any human being. And a widow in that town used to come to him and say, 'Render a just decision for me against my adversary.' For a long time the judge was unwilling, but eventually he thought, 'While it is true that I neither fear God nor respect any human being, because this widow keeps bothering me I shall deliver a just decision for her lest she finally come and strike me.'" The Lord said, "Pay attention to what the dishonest judge says. Will not God then secure the rights of his chosen ones who call out to him day and night? Will he be slow to answer them? I tell you, he will see to it that justice is done for them speedily. But when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?" (Lk 18:1-8)

 

 

Jesus came into the world to usher in the kingdom of God. He went about preaching and doing the deeds of the kingdom. Besides this he also corrected the wrong image the people had of God. He picked up different aspects of God and through parables and stories corrected them and gave them the right image of God. Here, he corrected the image of God as a judge. People believed that God was a judge and would perform justice to all the people, particularly to the people of Israel.

 

The judge in the story has no respect for God and he doesn’t care whether he does the right thing for people or not. The main point of the story is: if even a rotten judge could be persuaded to the right thing by persuasion, the how much more God would do for his own people; God who is justice personified.

 

The story is about the Christians who are living a life of suffering, holiness and service. The enemies attack them and the Christians would  want God to act on their behalf. And God will surely act and show that they are truly his people. God will vindicate them. His people should wait in patience and in prayer (relationship with him).