Luke 9:57-10:12
Dear RTB’ers,
We return to the New Testament, back to Luke’s gospel. When we left Luke almost three weeks ago, we saw that Jesus was leaving Galilee and headed toward Judea: When the days drew near for Him to be taken up, He set His face to go to Jerusalem. (Luke 9:51) Today we see Him sending 70 (72?) disciples out to cities in Samaria and Judea where He planned to go. Their task was simple, to heal the sick and to preach His message, “The kingdom of God has come near to you.” (Luke 10:9) You may recall earlier in Galilee that Jesus had sent the twelve: Now He called the twelve together and gave them power and authority over all the demons, and the power to heal diseases. And He sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to perform healing. (Luke 9:1-2) So the charge and the message are the same. Although it is not mentioned in chapter 12, we presume that Jesus sent these 70 out with the same tools that He had given the twelve, power and authority over all the demons, since He had charged them specifically to heal the sick.
As Jesus sends out these 70 He tells them to travel lightly, “Carry no money belt, no bag, no sandals, and greet no one along the way.” (Luke 10:4), even as He had earlier charged the twelve (Luke 9:3) I think it’s common for us to see these words as applied to missionaries that we send out, with the reality that their financial support will come from people to whom they have reached out – their friends, their home churches, and other connections that they have made. But others ask if this message is for all of us, to be missionaries in our own lives and to live simply. I think there’s some truth in that supposition. Fundamentally, I like John Wesley’s words on this matter, offered here together with commentary from a writer from the United Methodists of New Jersey:
Earn all you can, save all you can, and give all you can are the three basic points of John Wesley’s famous sermon entitled, “The Use of Money.” Wesley made note in 1789 that the Methodists of his day were ignoring the third part of his sermon. In fact, Wesley argued that the primary reason for the ineffectiveness of the Methodist movement was due to their failure to give all they could. Wesley came to the profound conclusion that “If Methodists would give all they can, then all would have enough.” Wesley’s admonition for Methodists to give all they can was no pious rhetoric designed to increase contributions to the church budget. It was a plea for generosity and a plea for compassion for the poor and needy.
https://www.gnjumc.org/earn-all-you-can-save-all-you-can-and-give-all-you-can/
Imagine the change in our world if we all followed Wesley’s advice.
Blessings!
Sue and I have been watching the third year of The Chosen. In this episode, Jesus pairs up the 12 2×2 and they are ready to be sent out. Although, not ready, because some are doubting their ability to be able to heal and otherwise evangelize. Really an interesting episode.