Gospel Reflection
The first thing that is striking about this gospel passage is the fact that there are 72 disciples whom Jesus sends out on mission. We can often have an image of Jesus strolling around Galilee with just a small group of followers, but this passage makes it clear that a significant number of people were engaged in his ministry. The gospel writer has not just made an error in naming 72 rather than the Twelve because just one chapter earlier the Twelve were sent out.
This sending out to mission is a significant element of the gospel of Luke. The first sending of the Twelve represents the mission to the Jews – the twelve tribes of Israel are frequently used symbolically to represent all of the Jewish people. The sending of the 72 then represents the mission beyond the Jewish people to all nations and all people. He sends them in pairs. In the Law of Moses two witnesses were needed for a testimony to be credible. It was probably also a safer way to travel.
Another theme that is significant in the gospel of Luke is the message of hospitality. Jesus teaches on it frequently and tries to convey a message that the hospitality of God is available to all. In the sending of both the Twelve and the 72, Jesus tells them to take nothing with them for the journey. He is telling them to rely on the hospitality of strangers. If they are welcomed and shown hospitality then they are to bless the household and carry out their ministry. The ability to show hospitality to the messengers of God is a sign that the household will welcome the message of God. However, wherever they do not receive hospitality they are to leave the town, shaking the dust from their feet, as their ministry will not be welcomed by people who are not ready to hear it. It is an excellent message about not wasting your efforts in unproductive ways – not hitting your head against a brick wall!
This Sunday’s gospel passage immediately follows the passage used last week that spelt out the difficulties of discipleship. Having explained how hard it is to be a disciple, Jesus sends his followers out to ‘have a go’ at being a disciple. When they come back successful he tells them not to be boastful or proud at their achievements but rather to be happy that their ‘names are written in heaven’. In other words, anything they accomplished was because they were ‘known’ by God and that God was working through them. Disciples make themselves ‘known’ to God and God works through them to accomplish great things!
This gospel reading is often used to make a point about the need for vocations to priestly and religious life. Jesus makes the comment that ‘the harvest is rich but the labourers are few’. This image of labourers in the harvest is often applied to the work of priests and other religious vocations. It is certainly true that the days of most Catholic families having a family member who is a priest, brother or nun are long past. However apt the image may be, when we read it in the context of the whole passage we can see that this sending out of the 72 was a general challenge to live out the call to discipleship – to go out into the world and bring about the kingdom.
Through baptism we have all been commissioned to go out to live and proclaim the Good News of Christ, to keep journeying on to all our sisters and brothers and prepare the way for Christ to come into their lives. The number of labourers for this harvest has never been greater. We have never had more Christians in the world than we have right now. If all of us who have been baptised in Christ were living out the Gospel and bringing it to bear in our personal, family, social and national life, then the world would be transformed.
Jesus reminds us that to live out this commission we need to depend on each other for support, hospitality and kindness. He challenges us to travel light and stick together, because as our theme for 2025 says, “Together we Rise”.
Prayer (inspired by Luke 10: 1-11, 16-20)
Loving God, we come to you as a people who know your love.
For that we give thanks and praise.
But Lord, we know there are many men and women in our world who don’t know you.
We bring before you those who are lost,
who feel alone, abandoned, and hopeless.
Some live in our own neighbourhoods, our own city.
We pray that we may be able to reach them with the message
that through your grace they might know a different life,
in which restored and renewed, loved and fulfilled,
they might in turn go on to reach others.
Amen.
~ written by the Rev Dr Philippa Horrex of Wanganui, and posted on the Presbyterian Church Aotearoa New Zealand website.
