The kingdom of God has come near to you

 

Seventy Disciples, Greek illuminated manuscript miniature, 15th century

After these things the Lord appointed seventy others also, and sent them two by two before His face into every city and place where He Himself was about to go. Then He said to them, "The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few; therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest. Go your way; behold, I send you out as lambs among wolves. Carry neither money bag, knapsack, nor sandals; and greet no one along the road. But whatever house you enter, first say, 'Peace to this house.' And if a son of peace is there, your peace will rest on it; if not, it will return to you. And remain in the same house, eating and drinking such things as they give, for the laborer is worthy of his wages. Do not go from house to house. Whatever city you enter, and they receive you, eat such things as are set before you. And heal the sick there, and say to them, 'The kingdom of God has come near to you.' But whatever city you enter, and they do not receive you, go out into its streets and say, 'The very dust of your city which clings to us we wipe off against you. Nevertheless know this, that the kingdom of God has come near you.' But I say to you that it will be more tolerable in that Day for Sodom than for that city.

 

"Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. But it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the judgment than for you. And you, Capernaum, who are exalted to heaven, will be brought down to Hades. He who hears you hears Me, he who rejects you rejects Me, and he who rejects Me rejects Him who sent Me." Then the seventy returned with joy, saying, "Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name."

- Luke 10:1–17

 

Yesterday we read that when the time had come for Him to be received up, Jesus steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem, and sent messengers before His face.  And as they went, they entered a village of the Samaritans, to prepare for Him.  But they did not receive Him, because His face was set for the journey to Jerusalem.  And when His disciples James and John saw this, they said, "Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them, just as Elijah did?"  But He turned and rebuked them, and said, "You do not know what manner of spirit you are of.  For the Son of Man did not come to destroy men's lives but to save them."  And they went to another village.  Now it happened as they journeyed on the road, that someone said to Him, "Lord, I will follow You wherever You go."  And Jesus said to him, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head."  Then He said to another, "Follow Me."  But he said, "Lord, let me first go and bury my father."  Jesus said to him, "Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and preach the kingdom of God."  And another also said, "Lord, I will follow You, but let me first go and bid them farewell who are at my house."  But Jesus said to him, "No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God."

 

After these things the Lord appointed seventy others also, and sent them two by two before His face into every city and place where He Himself was about to go.  Once again, as in yesterday's reading (see above), there is an emphasis on a kind of imperial mission, an outreach of a type of authority and power of a kingdom, which proceeds before His face.  That is, a kind of heralding of a royal figure and the Kingdom He represents and embodies.  We read yesterday that He sent out messengers before Him, after He decided in an open formal sense that He was going toward Jerusalem.  Now there are these additional seventy men, sent out on a particular evangelistic mission for the kingdom of God.  These Seventy are apostles, those "sent out" on a mission.  These were true disciples who would take this apostolic mission throughout the Roman Empire and beyond.   In the Orthodox Church, they are commemorated as a group on January 4th, although many also have their own saints' days.  In the tradition of the Church, there are records of all of their work.  Prominent among them were Barnabas (Acts 4:36), who sought out Paul when everyone else was afraid of him, and brought him to the apostles.  He was the cousin of Mark.  Also among them were Titus, whom Paul called his brother (2 Corinthians 12:18) and his son (Titus 1:4).  Titus was educated in Greek philosophy, but after reading the prophet Isaiah he began to doubt the value of what he had been taught.  He traveled from Greece to Jerusalem and sought to hear Jesus.  He was later baptized by St. Paul, and became an apostle to the Gentiles, eventually becoming a bishop in Crete.  Many others of the Seventy are mentioned in the books of the New Testament and the letters of St. Paul, such as Aristarchus, Sosthenes, and Tychicus who became bishops in Syria and Caesarea.  Simeon, son of Cleopas the brother of St. Joseph the guardian of Jesus, succeeded James as bishop of Jerusalem.  Aristobulus (Romans 16:10), the brother of Barnabas, preached the gospel and died peacefully in Britain.  

 

 Then He said to them, "The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few; therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest."  Jesus instructs the Seventy, and by extension all of us who would be His disciples, to pray not only for the harvest of converts to Christ and loyalty to this Kingdom, but also for the laborers who will reach them.   

 

"Go your way; behold, I send you out as lambs among wolves.  Carry neither money bag, knapsack, nor sandals; and greet no one along the road.  But whatever house you enter, first say, 'Peace to this house.'  And if a son of peace is there, your peace will rest on it; if not, it will return to you."    My study bible points out that lambs speak of the sacrificial life of the apostles, and of all followers of Christ.  The wolves are those who seek to frighten and devour those who follow the Lord (John 15:18).  This Kingdom they bear and present is not like a worldly kingdom.  Their conduct is to be one of humility:  no great caravan of possessions, and no ostentatious greetings.  Let us note the emphasis on peace as hallmark of those who desire to be a part of this Kingdom.  This is the peace of the Lord (John 14:27), a deep desire for the things of God.

"And remain in the same house, eating and drinking such things as they give, for the laborer is worthy of his wages.  Do not go from house to house.  Whatever city you enter, and they receive you, eat such things as are set before you."  My study bible notes that Christ twice commands the apostles to eat whatever is offered to them.  It says that this has a twofold significance.  First, the apostles must be content with whatever is offered, even if the food is little and simple.  Second, the gracious reception of others' hospitality takes precedence over personal fasting or dietary disciples.  My study bible also notes that St. Cassian the Desert Father said that when he visited a monastery, the fast was always relaxed in order to honor him as a guest.  When he asked why, the elder said, "Fasting is always with me, but you I cannot always have with me."  [Note the resemblance to Christ's explanation of His disciples' non-observance of the fast when He was with them in Luke 5:34-35.]  "Fasting is useful and necessary, but it depends on our choice, while the law of God demands charity.  Thus receiving Christ in you, I serve you with all diligence, and when I have taken leave of you, I resume the rule of fasting again."  In this way the ascetics would obey Christ's command here and His command that we not "appear to men to be fasting" (Matthew 6:18; see also Romans 14:2-6, 1 Corinthians 10:27, Hebrews 13:2).   Once again, we also note that the emphasis is on humility; this is not a worldly Kingdom they bear into the world as messengers before their Lord's face.

"And heal the sick there, and say to them, 'The kingdom of God has come near to you.' "  My study bible asks us to note that the gospel message is not simply that there is a Kingdom in the future, but rather that this kingdom of God has come near.  Moreover, let us note -- at least in this verse -- how it is once again connected to healing.  As Jesus stated in yesterday's reading, their mission is to save lives, not to destroy them (Luke 9:56).  Again, this is not a kingdom of conventional worldly might, but the kingdom of God and of God's peace.

"But whatever city you enter, and they do not receive you, go out into its streets and say, 'The very dust of your city which clings to us we wipe off against you.  Nevertheless know this, that the kingdom of God has come near you.'  But I say to you that it will be more tolerable in that Day for Sodom than for that city."   There is a price to be paid for refusal of this Kingdom, but it is not at the hands of its emissaries, ambassadors, and messengers, save to testify by wiping off the dust of that city.  There is a Judgment to come, to which Jesus refers by the phrase in that Day.  Of "that Day" Jesus has said, "But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only" (Matthew 24:36).

"Woe to you, Chorazin!  Woe to you, Bethsaida!  For if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes.  But it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the judgment than for you.  And you, Capernaum, who are exalted to heaven, will be brought down to Hades.  He who hears you hears Me, he who rejects you rejects Me, and he who rejects Me rejects Him who sent Me."  My study bible comments that judgment is severe for those who reject Christ after experiencing His grace.  In contrast, those who have never known Christ due to genuine ignorance are without sin in that regard (John 15:22-24), and are instead judged by their God-given conscience (Romans 2:12-16). 

Then the seventy returned with joy, saying, "Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name."   In the "unseen world" of the heavenly Kingdom, Christ has clear power.   That is, the name of Christ.  Again, this is something synonymous with the authority of a kingdom:  a name of a monarch or ruler carries the authority of their person, their power, and their authority.  The effects of the name of Christ -- just as the power and authority of the name of Caesar -- carry far and wide, and in surprising ways. These effects might not all be seen in a worldly sense, or apparent to all, yet nevertheless they are understood and known.  Christ's authority given to these apostles is an authority that is effective even to the extent that the demons are subject to them.

As the Seventy are sent out to proclaim, "The kingdom of God has come near to you," we see the effects of the power and authority of Christ, the head of that Kingdom.  He is not merely a ruler like other rulers.  Instead, what we are to understand is that the power and authority of the Kingdom are always present to Him and with Him, and with His name, even if we don't always discern or see this.  Even the demons, the Seventy proclaim, are subject to them in His name.  Where Christ is, there His Kingdom is, there is the presence of the communion of saints, of the Church, of the Holy Trinity, of healing and exorcism.  If we act in His name, similarly to a government making a decree in the name of the entire country, then there is power and authority and effects that go with the presence of His name.  These are things we are to understand from today's reading.  But we would be making a mistake if we assumed this means that Christ's power and authority is going to be something we can understand simply from knowing worldly power, empires, rulers, governments, and the might and power that go with them.  For Christ's kingdom is something that works entirely differently.  His emissaries do not go out into the world with formal credentials that everybody recognizes and to which all must submit as they would to a worldly authority with a military or other forms of material power to back them up.  In contrast to worldly ambassadors, Jesus sends out the Seventy on a mission of peace.  That is, the peace that only He can offer.  This is not an ephemeral or intellectual concept, but a true spiritual reality that is part of the kingdom of God, which others can receive and reject.  He sends them out, He says, as lambs among wolves.  Their entire conduct is emblematic of humility, and bear the hallmarks of what we have come to understand as truly gracious behavior, for it is grace they bear into the world.  That does not, however, mean that a rejection of the gospel has no effects, for we are all responsible for what we are offered and what we reject -- and that is also part of the spiritual reality of the kingdom of God.  Jesus alluded to the same when He began to preach in parables.   When He first teaches the parable of the Sower, He adds, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear!" (Matthew 13:1–23, Mark 4:1–20, Luke 8:4–15).  This responsibility for how we hear extends to our capacity for salvation and healing in Christ.  He explains in Matthew's Gospel with a quotation from Isaiah:  "Hearing you will hear and shall not understand, and seeing you will see and not perceive; for the hearts of this people have grown dull.  Their ears are hard of hearing, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, so that I should heal them" (Isaiah 6:9-10, Matthew 13:14-15).  "But," He adds to His disciples, "blessed are your eyes for they see, and your ears for they hear; for assuredly, I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it" (Matthew 13:16-17).  The Gospels are consistent in the indication that to have "ears to hear and eyes to see" this Kingdom is to receive a great blessing.  To fail to receive also results in a true spiritual loss that impacts our lives, even for those who may not recognize such or who do not care.  And there is where we start with this Kingdom that works in a kind of palpable peace we may bear with us and as a gift of grace.  Jesus tells the Seventy, "He who hears you hears Me, he who rejects you rejects Me, and he who rejects Me rejects Him who sent Me."  The power of the name of Christ is not one that befits a kingdom of this world (see John 18:36).  But it is one nevertheless that has profound effects, both in the lives of individual believers of each generation of the past, present, and future, and also in the world and throughout history, in more ways than we can count.  But true to Jesus' word, that Kingdom still needs laborers for the harvest.  We who seek to bear the Kingdom into the world as its emissaries and ambassadors may still be as lambs among wolves.  We may still carry Christ's peace with us and within us, and offer it to others who will reject it.  And we are still called to humility and gracious behavior.  We are still called to testimony, to His truth, regardless of whether or not it is accepted or rejected.  Christ's word remains true, and we walk in the footsteps of so many who have gone before, and the many to come ("I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored; others have labored, and you have entered into their labors" - John 4:38).  Let us remember the power of Christ's peace, the power of His word and His name, the presence of His kingdom.  For we are all called to testify, called to faith, and called to His healing power.  And the kingdom of God remains near in those who will bear it, and His name, into the world.