Two By Two
Luke 10:1-20
July 4, 2010
When Jesus sent out 70 or 72 disciples, now promoted to apostles, there was a certain tongue in the evangelist’s cheek when he noted that these apostles departed ‘two by two.’ Not that they didn’t go do their stuff in pairs, like many denominations today, but these Biblical authors saw allusions and puns in everything.
There are lots of pairs in the Bible, but very rarely is anything done this way. Who else departed two by two? The animals into Noah’s Ark, of course! Ignore the verse where there were seven pairs of each kind of animal. I do believe the evangelist Luke was thinking Noah’s Ark, and since the sending out of the apostles into the surrounding region to minister to those in need is meant to be a model of behaviour for us, then what kind of animal do you think you and I are meant to be?
The animals I hear mentioned most are elephants, zebras, and giraffes - all essentially African animals. We all want to be elephants - big, gentle, yet no one gets in your way - plus you can eat all you want. It’s always been a question how giraffes fit into the Ark, their heads are usually poking out one of the windows in the upper stories. But at least you get to see everything that goes on. Zebras are for those people who like to be exotic and different, yet after all are just a bunch of wild horses. Poor guys didn’t realize everybody today would think they are the incompetent referees who misinterpret the plays on the field and cost the Riders a game.
While such a question is intended to be light for a hot day, it is not meant to be silly. Often when a New Testament writer is making a word play on an older incident, the author wants to show that there has been a shift in the way the pilgrimage of God’s people is heading. The old way, often a way of defeat and error and sin, has been turned on its head and now a new way has been initiated full of grace and possibility and even resurrection.
When the animals were entering two by two into the Ark, they went as the last creatures of their kind living into forty days and nights of chaos and deluge, something our sisters and brothers in Maple Creek, Saskatoon and Yorkton have now experienced. They emerged dry enough to resurrect new life in the world. The apostles were sent out two by two into a sinful world, not to drown it, but to heal it. The apostles were in fact a new creation, the new Person in Christ, although they really did not understand what that meant yet. This venture into the countryside would reveal to them just what kind of new creation it is and how they were to participate in it. The animals of the Ark were sinless creatures that brought life to a sinful world that was dying, while the apostles were sinful folk who brought life to a sinful world that continues. While we are not animals the Church is our Ark and we are still the apostles. Terms and conditions apply.
Jesus appointed seventy “others” - not the in group or the leadership faction, but the others somehow involved in the Jesus company. He sent them out to the places where he himself was about to come. That means, these seventy others were not going where everyone knew the name of Jesus, and in a very real way as they were teaching and healing the sick in these towns each one of them was Jesus. Nobody knew what to expect from them and as we will hear they did not know exactly what to expect from the villagers. What Jesus expected of them was pretty high - they were to be labourers. There was plenty to harvest and still is, but there aren’t many willing to go out and labour and bring in the harvest.
No piece of cake, however, for Jesus recognized that they were lambs among wolves, as they were pretty sheltered and idealistic, believing that their good intentions were all that are needed to conquer evil. In some villages, in some houses, their goodness would be rewarded and they would be shown warm simple hospitality; other places they would be lucky to merely receive dirty looks. Absolute simplicity had to be their way of living - no purse, no bag, no sandals, no sponsors, no endowment or bank account in the black, no Blackberries to call for advice or for the cavalry. We don’t understand the necessity and power of such simplicity anymore, and instead we snicker. When you have nothing, you have nothing but the grace of God to accomplish things, and there is nothing that can be taken away from you or from your healing.
Some people are impatient with simplicity, more interested in protecting their own fragile territory. Too much attention has been paid, however, to dust - that dust you wipe off your sandals when the town folk reject you and your ministry. They were supposed to be non-violent, but sure enough lots of heat and rage have been generated throughout the generations. Self-righteous rage still afflicts us, and I imagine those towns angrily mentioned and assigned to Hades - Chorazin, Bethsaida, Capernaum - were the beginning of a long list, Wullerton, Saskatchewan, one of the last, and are they dusty! So many churches and denominations have never let go of their perceived injustices, but Jesus was just saying, let it go and let it be gone out of your mind. The ecumenical movement would be really effective if we weren’t so dusty.
We don’t hear the end of the story enough. The seventy others returned with joy, they were no longer “others.” “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name!” Jesus nodded, affirming what had happened to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.” One of the most remarkable of Jesus’ sayings seldom cited. What you do in the name of Jesus Christ is not hidden under a bushel, it reverberates in the atmosphere of our souls and of the world. When Satan and evil and injustice is halted in its tracks, when illness is healed, when peace breaks out in the midst of war and violence, those who have ears to hear and eyes to see know there is a difference - that’s when we see Satan fall like lightning from heaven.
These seventy others, the apostles we identify with the most, are thrilled at what they found themselves doing in the name of Jesus, but their joy has always had problems sustaining itself properly. Far too many who do good, think it’s because they are good and are themselves the agents of good. Heaven help us for the do-gooders of this world and Jesus again brings this home in a saying few people remember. “All the same, the great triumph is not in your authority over evil, but in God’s authority over you and presence with you. Not what you do for God but what God does for you - that’s the agenda for rejoicing” (The Message).
We always conclude worship with a commissioning and a benediction. No one lives in the church, no one stays here all week; we are sent out of here - the Greek word for apostle literally means “sent out” - with something to do. Seldom do we have a choice which “cause” we are going to champion, but God has an idea and is sending us two by two.
Preached by Robert Kitchen
Knox-Metropolitan United Church
Regina, Saskatchewan