Loose Ends and Threads of the Kingdom of God
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“Whenever you enter a town and they receive you, eat what is set before you. Heal the sick in it and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ But whenever you enter a town and they do not receive you, go into its streets and say, ‘Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet we wipe off against you.’ Nevertheless know this, that the kingdom of God has come near” (Luke 10:9-11).
“Whenever you enter a town and they receive you, eat what is set before you. Heal the sick in it and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ But whenever you enter a town and they do not receive you, go into its streets and say, ‘Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet we wipe off against you.’ Nevertheless know this, that the kingdom of God has come near” (Luke 10:9-11).
Grace and
peace to you from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ!
Like many
farm kids, my brother and I learned to be resourceful. String doesn’t grow on
trees, and we certainly weren’t going to ask Mom or Dad to go buy us some when
there was a perfectly good supply in the barn left over from the twine cut off the
hay bales. The hardest part was untangling it. There were always a bunch of
threads you had to follow to get each individual piece of twine free. Sometimes
you would get so frustrated with a particular knot that you’d end up cutting
the twine. Then you’d only end up with more loose ends.
Looking
back, I learned a lot from this experience: I learned practical skills in how
to tie a good knot and braid and even make a heavy rope. I learned the
disciplines of patience and persistence. I learned problem solving techniques and
spatial reasoning. And perhaps more than anything, I learned how to make do
with what you have on hand and be content with it. I never, for a moment,
thought it might help me someday in writing a sermon.
Tim
Saleska suggests that our text, rather than presenting us with a series of
clear commands, laws, and instructions, sounds as though the kingdom of God is
made of a lot of threads and loose ends.
“Words, themes, and events in this text
have connections, or threads, with the Old Testament and various other texts,”
he says. “We can follow the threads to see how this text ties in to a bigger
picture of God’s kingdom. The threads also invite us to read forward. That is,
they connect us, God’s people now, to God’s kingdom as well. Loose ends in the
text leave us hanging in various ways: tensions in God’s kingdom that still
need to be resolved, questions that need to be answered, events that have not
happened yet.”[i]
So, let’s
review our text, stopping from time to time to follow a couple of the threads
and pull on a few of the loose ends we find. As we do, let’s keep in mind that Jesus
is not giving us evangelism techniques or instructing us in how we must do
mission work. He is trying to get His disciples and us to see the world as He
does. That is not an easy task, for Jesus’ view is entirely different from other
viewpoints that vie for our attention. But I would suggest that this insight,
can do much to influence the way we live our lives and live out the faith.
As the days
draw near for Him to be taken up, and Jesus makes His way to Jerusalem, it
becomes increasingly obvious that a vast number of people are prospects for the
kingdom of God. However, workers to proclaim the Gospel message are few. Jesus
makes a comparison with the harvesting of ripe grain. No matter how plentiful
the harvest, the crop will be small if workers are scarce. The metaphor of the
harvest is usually used in Scripture for judgment (Jeremiah 51:33; Hosea 6:11),
but here it is positive (Isaiah 9:3; Psalm 126:5-6). The language suggests that
it deals with the end times—an urgent matter of life and death.
To be a
harvester for God’s kingdom is difficult work. Jesus has laid strict demands on
those who would follow (Luke 9:57-62). Proclaiming the kingdom of God calls for
dedication and commitment that, unfortunately, too few people have. Yet there
are some ready for this task of harvesting. Jesus appoints 72 men and sends
them out two by two into the towns through which He will be passing. These
appointees are in addition to the apostles. The work of harvesting is not
limited to just the Twelve. It is too big a job. In fact, the first assignment
Jesus gives these new recruits is to pray for the Lord of the harvest to
provide more workers.
The
Seventy-two are sent without provisions. They are ambassadors who have foregone
the things of this world and are dependent on the care and protection of the
locals. They have renounced home and family; their new family are those who
receive their message of peace. They are not to depend on themselves, but their
trust is in the provision and protection of the Lord of the harvest.
The
commission of the Seventy-two is Christological and sacrificial in nature.
Jesus subtly implies this when He describes them “as lambs in the midst of
wolves” (Luke 10:3). The Greek word for “lamb,” arnon, is used only here in
the New Testament. But in the Greek translation of the Old Testament, it is
used as the technical term for the sacrificial lamb of the Passover (Exodus
12:5) or the burnt offering (Leviticus 1:10) or the sacrifice of peace
(Leviticus 3:7).
By
describing them as lambs, Jesus suggests that they will be rejected and suffer
the consequences of announcing the presence of the kingdom of God. Like their
Lord they will become sacrificial victims of the Gospel that calls for a
reversal of the world’s values. After the calling of the Twelve and the description
of His passion, Jesus had told them about their own cross-bearing as His
followers (Luke 9:23). The Seventy-two should expect the same. To save their life
they must lose it. They are sacrificial lambs, who go forth in full knowledge
of the world’s enmity. But in their proclamation they will show that they are
not ashamed of Jesus and His words. They are a part of a privileged group to
whom the Father, through Jesus, has revealed the secrets of the kingdom of God
(Luke 10:21; 8:9-10).
Moreover,
the Seventy-two carry in themselves, in their own bodies, Jesus’ redemption and
His peace. The peace that has come down from above in Jesus they can now
give—and receive back when it is not received. As His ambassadors, they now
represent Jesus and stand in His place. They bear in themselves the person of
Christ (2 Corinthians 4:10). In bearing the cross daily, they also bear the
image of the Passover lamb who must be sacrificed for the people.
Perhaps
Jesus’ instruction to “greet no one on the road” seems a little bit cold even
in our get-right-down-to-business day. Any sales course will tell you that you
have to establish rapport with your prospect before you get down to business.
In the ancient Middle East, exchanging greetings could be quite time consuming,
typically including inquiries about family, followed by reports on how everyone
was doing. But such chitchat takes away from the proclamation of the kingdom,
and so Jesus tells the Seventy-two that it is to be avoided. This is yet
another way that Jesus emphasizes the urgency of His kingdom and its call.
Rather
than a lengthy greeting on the road, the Seventy-two are to go directly to the
house and announce, “Peace be to this house!” The message of the kingdom of God
contains both calls for repentance and good news, both judgment against sin and
forgiveness. The first word that Jesus’ messengers announce is one of grace and
good will. So it remains today. The Good News of God’s grace in Christ is the Church’s
predominant message. Only those who receive with faith the blessings
apportioned by the Gospel actually benefit from it.
To keep
the mission simple, the disciples are to stay at one house. This will help
restrain the temptation to strive for gain by soliciting donations from many
houses. They deserve to be given appropriate provisions for their mission, but
their purpose should not be to maximize their profit from their efforts. The
duration of their stay in a single house would also tend to establish a strong
base from which all other emissaries might go out in the future.
Jesus then
shifts His emphasis from the house to the town. “Whenever you enter a town and
they receive you, eat what is set before you. Heal the sick in it and say to
them, ‘The kingdom of God has some near to you.’ But whenever you enter a town
and they do not receive you, go into its streets and say, ‘Even the dust of
your town that clings to our feet we wipe off against you. Nevertheless, know
that the kingdom of God has come near’” (Luke 10:9-11).
The
Seventy-two announce to the towns the arrival of the kingdom of God because of
the presence of Jesus. In some towns, they will find a ready welcome. However,
other towns will not have the welcome mat out. The act of wiping off the dust
that sticks to one’s feet is a symbol of God’s coming judgment against those
who refuse the message of grace. Yet whether welcome or not, the workers are to
announce that the kingdom of God is near in the person of Jesus.
The
thought that some towns will reject the message of God’s kingdom provokes Jesus
to speak out against such ingratitude and lack of repentance. Sodom was
destroyed by burning sulfur because of its wickedness (Genesis 19:24). Yet even
Sodom will be judged less severely than those cities that close their hearts to
Jesus and His messengers. He condemns some of the Jewish cities near the Sea of
Galilee for their failure to repent.
Jesus
makes it clear that His messengers speak with His authority and should be
treated accordingly. Receiving the Word of the kingdom from one of these 72 is
as good as receiving the Word from Jesus Himself. At the same time, those
rejecting God’s representatives are actually rejecting Him. The Reformers saw
this dynamic very clearly, equating the Church’s authority with its call to
proclaim the Gospel:
“They have been given the ministry of
the Word and Sacraments. They have no other authority according to the Gospel
than the authority to forgive sins, to judge doctrine, to reject doctrines
contrary to the Gospel, and to exclude from the communion of the Church wicked
people, whose wickedness is known. They cannot exclude people with human force,
but simply by the Word.”[ii]
The Seventy-two
return to Jesus, giddy with excitement: “Lord, even the demons are subject to
us in Your name!” Jesus shares in their rejoicing and tells of a vision He had
of Satan falling like lightning from heaven. In their preaching and in their
healing, they are achieving victory over Satan and his minions, a victory that
will be ultimately demonstrated in the judgment on the Last Day.
Nevertheless,
Jesus directs the attention of the disciples away from thoughts about
sensational success to contemplation upon their heavenly status. Pride and a
theology of success could take their focus off of what is truly important—the heavenly
gift of God’s grace. Their names are written in heaven, beside the names of
Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all the chosen people of old. They are merely part
of a pattern that stretches back to the Old Testament prophets and is centered
in Jesus, the greatest Prophet, who testifies to God’s presence and salvation
through teaching and miracles. The Seventy-two speak His words and represent
His person.
Let’s be
honest: there’s a lot going on here in this text. It gives us a complex picture
of the nature of God’s kingdom. But that shouldn’t be so surprising, should it?
We have a very complex King. One whose thoughts and ways are much higher than ours.
The now-not yet, hidden-visible, Law-Gospel, and power displayed in weakness,
tensions are not solved in this text. Even Jesus’ closest followers fail to
grasp much of this until after His death and resurrection. In the present age,
we cannot escape our own questions or resolve all the seeming contradictions.
We live within them and our experience of them marks our Christian life.
Certainly,
thinking of the kingdom of God as a bunch of threads and loose ends will not resolve
all of our questions or present us with a concrete program for action. Instead,
it helps us expand our vision of what the Church is all about and what Jesus
has done and will do for His Bride, the Church, throughout time. In many ways,
the text keeps us wondering and waiting. That is a good posture for God’s
people to take. Through this mystery, Jesus reminds us that we are part of
something much bigger and farther reaching than ourselves. In fact, it is
probably true that threads and loose ends have always characterized God’s
kingdom from the first mysterious promise of a Savior, the Seed of the woman,
who will crush the serpent’s head. That is what we are part of, and we must
wait and watch for everything to be tied up on that Last Day of which Jesus
speaks.
In the
meantime, we trust Jesus’ Word: The kingdom of God has come near to you. Where
will you find it? Right where He has promised, in His means of grace. Here in
little Trosky, Minnesota and everywhere God’s people gather that the Gospel is
purely taught and the Sacraments are correctly administered. Here, in Christ’s means
of grace, you have the assurance that this is true for you as well.
“The
kingdom of God has come near to you.” That’s what the Seventy-two announced to
those whom they healed by the power of Jesus, and I announce the same to you
today: for while you may not be healed of injury or sickness until the Day of
Resurrection, Jesus has already raised you from death to life by the
forgiveness of your sins. Therefore, you can be sure that He will heal you of
every bodily affliction on the Last Day, if not before. This is true for you
because the kingdom of God has come near to you; your name has been written in
heaven.
In
Baptism, God has adopted you as His own dear child. He has placed His triune
name upon you, baptized you into Christ’s death and resurrection. The blood of
the Lamb of God, has cleansed you from all your sins. You have been clothed in
the robe of Christ’s righteousness. In His Supper, Jesus greets you with peace.
He invites you to His Table to receive His very body and blood for the
forgiveness of your sins and to strengthen and preserve you—body and soul—unto eternal
life.
Rejoice!
For the kingdom of God has come near to you. And because the King has come near
with the peace He won for you on the cross with His holy, precious blood and
His innocent suffering and death, you are forgiven for all of your sins. In the
name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Unless
otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from the Holy Bible, English
Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of
Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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