Side by Side - Luke 10:1-12

     To see the full message, scroll to the bottom. 

This was huge. This was massive.

Do not underestimate the importance of this moment for Jesus’ disciples.  

For nearly three years, these men and women had been following Him. They had been watching Him and learning to imitate Him... because that was the job of a disciple. To learn your rabbi. A disciple dedicated their to becoming as much like Him as possible. Eating, sleeping, reading, dressing, studying, and ultimately teaching as much like your rabbi as you possibly could, and then to raise up a new generation of disciples to follow you. 

Some of these people had spent 2 1/2 or three years, from the beginning, doing exactly that: spending time with Jesus.  

As He taught in synagogues, and in the streets, turning the world on its head by saying things like, “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.” 

They watched (and probably cringed a little) as He touched a man with leprosy. As He forgave a man his sins. As He was confronted by and confronted the religious leaders and the people who enforced the rules. As He resurrected a widow's dead young son as they were carrying him to the graveyard. As He set another boy free from the torment of an evil spirit. As He stood in a rocking boat and stopped a storm. As He accepted women as disciples. As He just ignored King Herod, who wanted to meet Jesus. They were there when Jesus fed the 5000 with five loaves and two fish. They were there to see Jesus rejected by the insiders--the Jewish believers—and rejected by outsiders—the despised Samaritans. They were there to hear people of all stripes make endless and creative excuses for not becoming a disciple of Jesus. They had spent 2 1/2 or three years seeing Jesus do all of that... and now it was their turn.  

He was sending them all out to imitate Him, out there in the world when He wouldn’t even be in the room. 

Jesus instructs them, in effect, “Go where I tell you, and when you get there, this is what you're going to do. You're going to connect with somebody who lives there. Then spend the time you're there looking for the need and meeting it.

"Look for the hurt and heal it. Look for the bondage and break it. Look for the hunger and feed it. Look for the despair and speak peace into it. Find the people who have not heard of Me, and offer to introduce them to your rabbi.

"Go to Bethany, to Capernaum, to Galilee, to Samaria, to Jerusalem. Arrive. Find out what's happening there. Ask yourself, what would Jesus do? Then do it.” 

______ 

Usually, if I'm teaching about a story in the Bible, I will say, “This story is not about us. I am not 'David.' Goliath is not 'my problems.' That story is not about me, it's about how God prepared David for that moment.” 

But the story of "the 72"... is an exception. This story is actually about us. Their world is my world. Their Lord is my Lord. Their job is my job. The things that we have in common are so much greater than the things that are different.  

I don't know who you relate to best in Jesus group of disciples.  

  • Thomas, who had a reputation for seeing the downside? 
  • Peter, whose heart was in the right place, but often spoke too soon? 
  • Mary, who had lived experience of traumas that the others couldn't understand? 
  • Nathaniel, who was just an honest, decent man doing his best to be faithful? 
  • Joanna, who was living the best she could between an unbelieving world and her life of faith? 
  • Matthew, who could have wallowed in his shame, but instead moved forward? 
  • Simon the Zealot, who laid down his weapons in exchange for a life of peace? 
  • Andrew, another good man, but who probably spent a lot of time in his big brother's shadow? 

Whoever you relate to the most in that group, Jesus rounded them all up. He taught them what they needed to know, just as He teaches us today. He gave them the tools and the power to do what they needed to do the same as He does with us today. He sent them out just like He sends us today.  

He sends us, as he sent them, to places where we would have gone anyway.  

Jesus told them to go and do, so they went and did. Jesus tells us to go and to do... 

Truly, truly, I tell you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I am doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the father. John 14:12 

So what did He do? What had the disciples seen Jesus do up to that point? What have we seen Him do through our reading of scripture and in our own lives?  

Jesus worked miracles. He saved lives. He touched the untouchable. He stood downwind of the unwashed. He preached truth. He stood toe to toe with the powers. He washed His disciples feet. He had His heart broken.  

He told us to go and do the same. 

______ 

I am not asking on behalf of them alone, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, as you, father, are in me, and I am in you. May they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you sent me. John 17:20-21 

The church doesn’t exist to just be us, or to serve ourselves. We don't exist to keep the doors open and the lights on. To preserve historic buildings. To sing the songs we like. That's not why we're here. 

The church exists primarily for the sake of those who are still outside it.  Archbishop William Temple (1881-1944); Theology (1956), vol. 59  

We are here for the people who are not here. Yes, we get together regularly to encourage each other, to learn, to strengthen each other, to reconnect at the communion table. So that we can go. 

So that we can be the church out there. That is our job. Worshipping together helps equip us to do our job. Our job is is out there. 

We need the table. We need the time together. We need that time encouraging each other and reconnecting with first principles and with Jesus... So that we can go.  

When we read Luke’s account of Jesus’ conversation with His disciples at their final meal before His death, He tells them that He's leaving. He's told them already several times that He’ll be taken from them and it is going to be really, really painful. He tells them again: don't give up, stay together.  

And He asks them: 

“When I sent you out without purse or bag or sandals, did you lack anything?” 

“Nothing,” they answered. Luke 22:35 

Jesus does not send us in our own strength. He sends us to where He is already going. He will meet us there, because He’s already there. 

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