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(Audio)
Jesus appointed seventy-two other disciples
whom he sent ahead of him in pairs
to every town and place he intended to visit.
When Jesus sends us out on mission the purpose of our work is to prepare the way for him to visit himself. It is not as though we look to ourselves to bring about the conversion and transformation of anyone. Rather we are sent out so that we can be used as agents of grace in the lives of people who might one day believe. This should lessen the pressure we face somewhat, but not entirely. The stakes are still high, and the possibility of ultimate refusal and rejection still exists. So what we hope to find in others is definitely not rejection, but not necessarily immediate success either. We hope to find open hearts that we can encourage to remain open.
Once we receive the call of the master of the harvest we might assume that our path would go from one success to another, and from strength to strength. But this is to ignore the warnings Jesus gave about the wolves that surround all efforts at spreading the Gospel message of light and life. It also ignores the fact that we are basically guaranteed that some towns will not receive us, that some amount of rejection is inevitable. In order to carry out our mission in a world that is hostile to our message our strategy should not be reliance on worldly resources or excessive preparation. One might think that if wolves are going to pursue us that is all the more reason we need to bring, not only money bag, sack, and sandals, but swords and shields as well. But rather than a strategy of self-reliance we are meant to learn to depend on providence, on the master of the harvest who has ordered our steps and arranged our paths. We look, not to our own stores of resources that we leave behind at home, but ahead, to the good works prepared and arranged for us in advance, that we find as we proceed in faith and obedience.
‘Peace to this household.’
If a peaceful person lives there,
your peace will rest on him;
but if not, it will return to you.
As Christians we should not regard the gift of faith we have been given as trivial. The peace of Christ that surpasses all understanding is meant to guard our own hearts and minds (see Philippians 4:6-7). But it need not remain with us alone. It can transform that situations and circumstances into which we enter as disciples. Have we ever had the experience where we enter into a situation fraught with tension, but manage to remain peaceful and discover that, eventually, the atmosphere changes? This is the sort of thing people notice. This is what makes others ask what about us is different. It prepares the way for the one who is himself the giver of our peace, our Lord Jesus Christ. So let us remain in peace, not just for ourselves, but for the world, which is already thoroughly saturated with anxiety, anger, and outrage. Those are modern wolves that are indeed hostile to our message. But they only have power over our peace if we let them. So let us treasure and protect this gift of peace, rooted in the reality described by Job, the message we want of which we want to convince the world:
But as for me, I know that my Vindicator lives,
and that he will at last stand forth upon the dust;
Whom I myself shall see:
my own eyes, not another’s, shall behold him
whom he sent ahead of him in pairs
to every town and place he intended to visit.
When Jesus sends us out on mission the purpose of our work is to prepare the way for him to visit himself. It is not as though we look to ourselves to bring about the conversion and transformation of anyone. Rather we are sent out so that we can be used as agents of grace in the lives of people who might one day believe. This should lessen the pressure we face somewhat, but not entirely. The stakes are still high, and the possibility of ultimate refusal and rejection still exists. So what we hope to find in others is definitely not rejection, but not necessarily immediate success either. We hope to find open hearts that we can encourage to remain open.
Once we receive the call of the master of the harvest we might assume that our path would go from one success to another, and from strength to strength. But this is to ignore the warnings Jesus gave about the wolves that surround all efforts at spreading the Gospel message of light and life. It also ignores the fact that we are basically guaranteed that some towns will not receive us, that some amount of rejection is inevitable. In order to carry out our mission in a world that is hostile to our message our strategy should not be reliance on worldly resources or excessive preparation. One might think that if wolves are going to pursue us that is all the more reason we need to bring, not only money bag, sack, and sandals, but swords and shields as well. But rather than a strategy of self-reliance we are meant to learn to depend on providence, on the master of the harvest who has ordered our steps and arranged our paths. We look, not to our own stores of resources that we leave behind at home, but ahead, to the good works prepared and arranged for us in advance, that we find as we proceed in faith and obedience.
‘Peace to this household.’
If a peaceful person lives there,
your peace will rest on him;
but if not, it will return to you.
As Christians we should not regard the gift of faith we have been given as trivial. The peace of Christ that surpasses all understanding is meant to guard our own hearts and minds (see Philippians 4:6-7). But it need not remain with us alone. It can transform that situations and circumstances into which we enter as disciples. Have we ever had the experience where we enter into a situation fraught with tension, but manage to remain peaceful and discover that, eventually, the atmosphere changes? This is the sort of thing people notice. This is what makes others ask what about us is different. It prepares the way for the one who is himself the giver of our peace, our Lord Jesus Christ. So let us remain in peace, not just for ourselves, but for the world, which is already thoroughly saturated with anxiety, anger, and outrage. Those are modern wolves that are indeed hostile to our message. But they only have power over our peace if we let them. So let us treasure and protect this gift of peace, rooted in the reality described by Job, the message we want of which we want to convince the world:
But as for me, I know that my Vindicator lives,
and that he will at last stand forth upon the dust;
Whom I myself shall see:
my own eyes, not another’s, shall behold him
Little flower, pray for us!
