Tuesday 30 May 2023

Psalm 33

Background

Today Jesus is gathering and sending the disciples. Luke's Gospel reminds us that while we read about the times the disciples spent with Jesus there were probably also times when they dispersed, perhaps to their homes and their families. But for now, though, they are called together so that Jesus can equip them for their missionary journey. Theirs is to be a ministry of opposing evil, proclaiming the kingdom of God and curing diseases, thus both imitating the ministry of Jesus himself and setting a pattern of prophetic action, evangelism and healing which has characterised Christ's disciples since that day (verses 1-2).

Because they are equipped with all the authority and power from God in Christ needed for this calling (verse 1) they do not require even the basic preparations that any sensible traveller would take (verse 3). Rather they are to enjoy the hospitality of those who welcome them (verse 4). Not all those they are to encounter, however, will be convivial. The action of shaking off dust (verse 5) is later repeated by Paul and Barnabas as a protest against their persecution (Acts 13:51) and signifies a reciprocal rejection: those that do not need the disciples are not needed by them in return. So complete is to be the disciples' dependence on God that they are not to even take dust from those who are not hospitable.

Having gathered them in and equipped them, Jesus now sends the disciples out in his name, Their journey through the villages probably retraces, at least in part, Jesus' journey; their ministry of preaching and healing certainly replicates, in all its fullness, Jesus' ministry. In gathering, equipping and sending out his disciples, Jesus here begins a pattern repeated with the sending of 70 further people (Luke 10:1-12) and the Great Commission (Jesus' instruction to spread the gospel throughout the world) (Luke 24:45-49). This has been followed by his Church ever since.

To Ponder:

• In your Christian life, when have you been 'gathered and equipped' and when have you been 'sent out'?
• Should the process of 'gathering, equipping and sending out' be a regular pattern of the Church's missional life? Why/why not?

Previously published in 2017.