Gospel Notes by Michael Whelan SM
After this the Lord appointed seventy others and sent them on ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself intended to go. He said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. Go on your way. See, I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves. Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals; and greet no one on the road. Whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace to this house!’ And if anyone is there who shares in peace, your peace will rest on that person; but if not, it will return to you. Remain in the same house, eating and drinking whatever they provide, for the laborer deserves to be paid. Do not move about from house to house. Whenever you enter a town and its people welcome you, eat what is set before you; cure the sick who are there, and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ But whenever you enter a town and they do not welcome you, go out into its streets and say, ‘Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet, we wipe off in protest against you. Yet know this: the kingdom of God has come near.’ I tell you, on that day it will be more tolerable for Sodom than for that town.
The seventy returned with joy, saying, “Lord, in your name even the demons submit to us!” He said to them, “I watched Satan fall from heaven like a flash of lightning. See, I have given you authority to tread on snakes and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing will hurt you. Nevertheless, do not rejoice at this, that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven” (Luke 10:1-12 & 17-20 – NRSV).
Introductory notes
General
Luke continues his journey narrative.
Luke is the only Gospel to tell us of a second mission and that it involved 70 disciples. Some manuscripts have the number as 72.
All three Synoptics tell us of the first mission reported by Mark 6:7-12. Luke’s account of that first mission, is found in 9:1-6. Matthew’s account is found in 10:5, 8 & 9-14. Each of these accounts contains instructions by Jesus. Mark 6:8-11 records those instructions as follows: “He ordered them to take nothing for their journey except a staff; no bread, no bag, no money in their belts; but to wear sandals and not to put on two tunics. He said to them, ‘Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave the place. If any place will not welcome you and they refuse to hear you, as you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them’.” Luke 9:3-5 is obviously dependent on Mark: “He said to them, ‘Take nothing for your journey, no staff, nor bag, nor bread, nor money—not even an extra tunic. Whatever house you enter, stay there, and leave from there. Wherever they do not welcome you, as you are leaving that town shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them’.”
In today’s Gospel, Luke repeats much of the foregoing, if not verbatim, certainly in concepts. However, the instructions of Jesus as recorded by Luke when describing the second mission, are very similar to those recorded by Matthew 10:7-16. One commentator notes that Luke, from 9:51 onwards, “stops following Mark, returning to it as his main source again only in 18:15. The material in this long section comes from Q (shared with Matthew) or L (Luke’s own source or composition)” (Luke Timothy Johnson, The Gospel of Luke, Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 1991, 163).
One commentator writes: “It seems best to regard 9:1-6 and 10:1-16 as one sending” (W J Harrington OP, “St Luke”, A New Commentary on Holy Scripture, edited by Reginal C Fuller et al, London: Nelson, 1969, 1007).
Luke’s account of the missioners’ return in 10:17-20, is unique to him.
Specific
Lord: Luke has introduced the title, Lord (kyrios), in 7:19. It is “a distinctive feature” of Luke’s Gospel (see Luke Timothy Johnson, op cit, 118).
harvest is rich: We find this same expression in Matthew 9:37-38 and in the same context. John 4:35 also has that expression. No doubt it was an immediately recognizable and effective metaphor for Jesus’ listeners.
I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves: Matthew has a similar comparison – see Matthew 10:16. Both Luke and Matthew use the Greek verb apostellō which means “to send with a commission: they represent the prophet” (Luke Timothy Johnson, op cit, 167). The Greek verb used just before this – “ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers” – is ekballō and it literally means “throw out”. When Jesus is sending the disciples out, the new verb gives a very different sense to what is happening. First of all, the disciples are not being “thrown out” – as if they are being abandoned. Rather they are being called to identify with Jesus Himself. Thus, secondly, their being sent shares the very mission – the being sent – of Jesus. And thirdly, like Jesus, they are vulnerable. They do not go as warlords or political strategists or ideologues – definitely not ideologues! – or would-be messiahs. On the contrary they are – like Jesus – vulnerable to the various military and political and ideological henchmen of this world. The power by which their mission will be accomplished does not come from them but from the Spirit. Through their very vulnerability they will triumph.
greet no one on the road: An obvious explanation for this seemingly inhospitable instruction is that the disciples are not to be sidetracked. They must maintain a clear focus. Luke Timothy Johnson adds: “There is a good narrative reason for this new element which is unique to Luke. In contrast to the mission of the Twelve in a Galilee receptive to Jesus, the present mission is in dangerous Samaria, which has already been shown in the narrative (9:53) to be hostile” (Ibid).
Evangelization
In today’s Gospel – Luke 10:1-12 & 17-20 – we have the mission of the seventy disciples. Earlier – see 9:1-6 – Luke has told us of the mission of the twelve disciples. We could compare and contrast these two accounts of mission. Whatever that might yield, one thing is certain: Both are events in which Jesus sends out the disciples to bear witness to his being in the world. The Greek verb is apostellō, the Latin verb is mittere, the English verb is “send.” Discipleship necessarily includes being sent out.
Tradition identifies this sending out with the sacrament of baptism. Pope Benedict XVI represents the Tradition well when he spoke to the bishops of South America and the Caribbean gathered in Brazil at the shrine of Aparecida in May of 2007: “The Church has the great task of guarding and nourishing the faith of the People of God, and reminding the faithful … that, by virtue of their Baptism, they are called to be disciples and missionaries of Jesus Christ.”
What can this mean in practice? St Augustine offers a good place to begin a reflection on this question: “Men go to gape at mountain peaks, at the boundless tides of the sea, the broad sweep of rivers, the encircling ocean and the motion of the stars: and yet they leave themselves unnoticed; they do not marvel at themselves” (Confessions, X, viii, 15). This is not an invitation to egotism! It is rather an invitation to awareness of who and what I am. Who/what am I? I am one made in the image and likeness of God, loved and redeemed in Jesus Christ who is the light of the world. It is my privilege to share his work of healing a wounded creation. That is something to marvel at.
Our baptism places us at the heart of the human race and at the heart of the Incarnation and the work of redemption. Our being baptized – which includes our being sent – defines our very identity. We have become part of the dynamism of Jesus Christ for the healing of our world.
Evangelization is first and foremost about being – being who and what we are. Let God be God in us and through us. Our very presence is potentially also the Presence of God. Can we trust that? Sometimes silence is better than speech, stillness better than action. “Indeed, it is better to keep quiet and be, than to make fluent professions and not be. No doubt it is a fine thing to instruct others, but only if the speaker practices what they preach. … A person who has truly mastered the utterances of Jesus will also be able to apprehend His silence, and thus reach full spiritual maturity so that their own words have the force of actions and their silences the significance of speech” (St Ignatius of Antioch, “The Epistle to the Ephesians” in Maxwell Staniforth, translator, Early Christian Writings, Penguin Books, 1968, 80).