Luke 10:1-24.

There’s a lot going on here, take a look. https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%2010%3A1-24&version=NLT

Field trip number two.  This time Jesus picks seventy-two of his followers and basically gives them the same instructions he gave the twelve, but we do get a few more details here.  He’s sending them out, but he’s also asking them to pray for more workers to join the team.  Jesus knows this task of sharing the kingdom is a worldwide one.  The fields are ready for harvesting, they’re going to need more gatherers.  He warns them to be cautious.  You are lambs going out among wolves. Don’t stop along the road.  Go where I’m sending you.  When you visit a home, bless it.  If you are welcomed and cared for, they will be blessed.  If you are rejected, the blessing will return to you.  Don’t be ashamed to eat their food and accept a place to stay.  You are working by sharing the Good News about my kingdom and healing people.  It is appropriate that you be taken care of in return.  

Wherever you go, whether or not you are welcomed, share the news of my kingdom.  If they reject it, it’s their loss.  Jesus recalls towns where he has shared the truth and been rejected.  These are Israelite towns, people who should be prepared to receive the news that the Messiah is finally here to establish his kingdom, but they ignored him and drove him out.  It won’t go well for them, he explains.  It will be better for some of the Gentile towns full of idol worshippers than for those who rejected a message they had been taught to expect all their lives.  Jesus even tells them, in a way foreshadowing the future spread of the Good News beyond the borders of Israel, that if the Good News was preached in those towns, they would repent and be saved.  

“This isn’t about you, it’s about God the father.  It’s his message you are spreading”, he tells his followers, “If they welcome you, they welcome me.  If they reject you, they reject me and by doing that they reject God.”  

They’ve been given their instructions, so off they go. And it appears they had a really exciting time and saw incredible things happen. They come back super excited because even demons had to obey them because they were representing Jesus, so whatever they said carried his authority.  Clearly some major upset happened in the spiritual world because when they come back to tell Jesus how the demons fled from them, Jesus was already aware.  I picture him laughing as he says, “Oh trust me, I saw it.  Satan was having a very bad day.  Are you beginning to understand my authority?  Do you grasp the power that my name has?”  It’s like back in the day, when the boss’s signature would be engraved on a rubber stamp, and whoever had that stamp could send out letters on behalf of the boss that had just as much authority as the boss, because it had his signature stamped on it.  When Jesus sent them out he equipped them with the same authority he had.  So when he says you can step on snakes and scorpions and squash them, he’s not giving them a cool party trick, he’s equipping them for spiritual battle. He isn’t suggesting, as some people have tried, that you collect snakes and scorpions and have a dance party.  He’s talking about demons – they were what the disciples were just talking about.  What do we think of when we think of snakes and scorpions? Venomous, disgusting and frankly scary things.  They are a physical picture of a spiritual reality, But the disciples don’t have to fear demons.  They have access to Jesus’ authority over them. 

And Jesus is really happy about this.  He spontaneously praises God for the way he is choosing to share this truth with the disciples – everyday people from every walk of life.  This isn’t privileged empowerment for the priests and the religious authorities.  This is available for every one who is sent by Jesus on the mission of sharing the Good News of his kingdom.  

Jesus looks at his disciples, these people who had become so precious to him as they learned from him and practised what he showed them.  “I’m so excited that you get to see the kingdom coming.  This has been centuries, even millenia in the making.  The patriarchs of Israel and the prophets heard about it.  They were so excited for it.  But you are the ones who get to see it finally beginning.”

I think as I read this passage I see a joy in Jesus that is contagious if I allow it to infect me.  The message he came both to preach and to fulfill is incredibly hopeful.  It offers the opportunity for God and people to live in relationship as we were designed to.  Not only does it mean people can experience the greatest joy of which we are humanly capable because we will be enjoying life exactly as it was designed for us, but God will also enjoy being among us.  For real, those two ideas are staggering.  

First, we were designed to actually reflect God’s image.  He made us incredible creatures.  So many of his qualities were intended to be available to us.  Even in our broken world and sin-strapped bodies we can love and be creative and seek justice and behave honourably.  But when the kingdom is fully realised we will be able to do that and so much more to the fullest extent for which we were designed. Humans are already remarkable, and God loves us even in our mess.  But one day we will live up to our potential. God designed us for joy!  He designed us for peace and dignity and beauty.  Being human in God’s kingdom is going to be amazing.  Jesus knew that, and in this moment he is seeing some broken humans begin to realize a tiny bit of their potential and he is SO excited.  Like a parent watching their child find something that makes them come alive, he is loving this so much.  

Secondly, he is excited because the relationship that he and the Father have longed to have with humans is going to be possible.  Sometimes I look at humanity and think, what could God possibly want with us?  We are gross, we are a mess, we are mean and ugly and selfish.  But I see glimmers of our intended beauty in so many diverse individuals.  It’s all over the place, little splashes of his character even in the most unexpected people.   I think, when I notice this, I am seeing people a little more like the way God sees us. He wants to be close to us.  He wants to enjoy being around us.  He wants to watch us exercise our potential, and he wants to be right beside us when we do it.  There is something really disconcerting about the way God can look at the most broken, evil behaviour and see the person he created us to be.  When I think of my favourite people on earth, they have all had days that I would have gladly spent in someone else’s company.  But God can see the best in us, through the worst and he wants to be with us.  Jesus was elated at the thought!  I’m also feeling really encouraged 🙂