The 70 and Understanding Our Role

'The Lord appointed seventy others and sent them on ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself intended to go. He said to them, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. Go on your way. See, I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves. Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals; and greet no one on the road. Whatever house you enter, first say, `Peace to this house!' And if anyone is there who shares in peace, your peace will rest on that person; but if not, it will return to you. Remain in the same house, eating and drinking whatever they provide, for the laborer deserves to be paid. Do not move about from house to house. Whenever you enter a town and its people welcome you, eat what is set before you; cure the sick who are there, and say to them, `The kingdom of God has come near to you.' But whenever you enter a town and they do not welcome you, go out into its streets and say, `Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet, we wipe off in protest against you. Yet know this: the kingdom of God has come near.'

"Whoever listens to you listens to me, and whoever rejects you rejects me, and whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me."'

--Luke 10: 1-11

This summer my wife Kristen and I are watching a series I first discovered in seminar, Battlestar Galactica.  I’m not talking about the original 1978 version but the newer series that aired on the Sci-Fi Channel from 2005-2009.  Without giving anything away, the show focuses on the last of humanity struggling for survival after coming under attack by a race of machine lifeforms called the Cylons.  That, however, is just the surface level stuff; underneath it is show about what it means to be human, the struggle with the Other, and where we all fit into God’s plan for the universe.  A line of dialogue that is repeated throughout the series is “all of this has happened before, and all of this will happen again,” implying that all of existence is a drama retold over and over again and in which we all play a role. I could talk about this show for days, but I’ll stop there.  Just watch it.  

The main cast of Battlestar Galactica.

If the whole of existence is a drama that is playing out, moving ever closer to the Kingdom of God, a kingdom that Jesus tells us has both already come and has not quite been fully realized, what then is our role?  I would offer that our role, the role of every person baptized into Jesus Christ, is the role of the 70. 

Taking place only in the Gospel of Luke (possibly because of that text's emphasis on the inclusion of the Gentiles), we hear the story this week of Jesus setting aside 70 folks—or 72 depending on your translation.  These, like the 12 that Jesus called one chapter earlier, are to be apostles; that is, they are ones who are sent.  The details of that sending are significant.  First, and perhaps most importantly, they are sent in pairs, never to go out alone. They are to go into towns and villages where Jesus himself plans to go and are to prepare the way for him, their own ministry reflecting the ministry of Jesus in table fellowship, the care of physical needs, and the proclamation of the Good News of the Kingdom of God.  They are to offer the peace of God to all they meet in those places, but if that peace is not returned to them, they are to shake the dust from their feet and walk away, leaving Jesus to care for them when he later rolls into town. They are to have to clear hearts and minds, focused on what is really important, not to be weighed down by material objects or distracted by issues of little consequence.  They will proclaim the victory of God over the forces of evil, and so long as they remain faithful to that task, they will be able to face the fearsomeness of any who oppress and oppose them.

If any of this sounds familiar, it’s because this language reflects that of our own baptismal covenant.  This, then, is the role to which we have been called.  All this has happened before and will happen again.  Like the 70, we are apostles.  Yes, that means you!  All of us by virtue of our baptism are sent into the world, into every highway and byway, into every town and city and backwoods holler to be ministers of the Gospel, the Good News. How do we do this?  We look to the example of the 70.

An Eastern icon of Jesus and the 70.

Like them, we do not engage in our ministry alone.  What a relief that is! The work is too big for any single one of us, and quite frankly, when we think that we can do it all alone—especially clergy—we fall prey to our own pride, our own sense of self-value, and we are often destroyed by our own hubris.  No, brothers and sisters, we do this ministry together, in twos and threes, and whole communities, with partners, friends, family, and church siblings.  And the ministry that we do, like that of the 70, is itself a reflection of the very ministry of Jesus: we engage in table fellowship each Sunday and are sent out to share a meal with those who are lost, broken, and unloved, the very folks to whom Jesus shared table fellowship; we care for the physical needs of those who are suffering, whether it be offering a cup of cold water to a thirsty sojourner or visiting someone incarcerated or sick; we proclaim the Good News, the Gospel, that the kingdom of God has come near and will one day be fully realized. And like the 70, we do these acts of ministry everywhere we go, offering up the peace of God to all we meet, without exception.  No, we will not always be met with love and appreciation; after all, the declaration of the nearness of God’s reign is simply not a popular theme everywhere, especially not among those in power, who would find its coming to be a threat to their own stability.  Likewise, there will be times when we find ourselves engaging with one who simply cannot hear what we have to say, one who would abuse us verbally, emotionally, or physically, in which case we too must shake the dust from our feet and walk away, leaving them to Jesus. 

That, I suspect, is the most important and hardest thing for us to remember, that there are times when we have to leave it in Jesus’ hands.  Our role is not Jesus’ role!  Our role is not to save souls, or to fix people.  We must not lose sight of the fact that we are not Jesus.  Only Jesus is Jesus.  Our role is to go to the people and proclaim his love in word and action and to remember the seriousness of what we do. At times things may not go the way we want—notice that Jesus does not say that there will be a shepherd that will go with the lambs when they are sent out into the midst of the wolves.  Sometimes we will go alone, and we will be fearful, but in the end the kingdom will come because the shepherd is moving in right behind us, and it is his role to be the one to reconcile all of the hurts of this world. We are simply to be faithful, to listen and go where he sends us, to be his hands and feet when called to do so, and then, when necessary, to get out of the way.

Underneath it all is the subtle but critical call for prayer, which Jesus himself points out to the 70 in the second verse of our Gospel.  Just as they are to pray to God, the Lord of the harvest, to send them out as laborers, we must always let prayer be our foundation.  Prayer may not itself change things, but prayer does change people, and people change things!  All that we do is grounded in prayer.  It is the foundation under our feet, wherever Jesus calls us to go and whatever he calls us to do. So each day pray for God’s grace, strength, and guidance as we are sent, as we continue this ministry from our 70 ancestors, and as we pass it on to those who will come after us.  All this has happened before, and it will happen again.  Because that, brothers and sisters, is the role we play.