'A Plentiful Harvest among wolves'

 Luke 10:1–24 

The Lord appointed seventy followers to send them out, two by two, into the towns ahead of him. The seventy is reminiscent of the 70 of Jacob’s family that had gone down to Egypt and Moses’ 70 elders (Ex.1:5, Num.11:24-25). Jesus told them that the harvest was plentiful but the harvesters were few. They were to pray to the Lord of the harvest to ‘raise up’ workers for his harvest field.  Jesus was sending them out like ‘lambs among wolves’ and they weren’t to bring a ‘purse, or a bag or additional sandals’. Here there’s a greater sense of urgency then when Jesus had previously sent out his twelve disciples (Luke 9:1-6). Jesus is heading to Jerusalem and the cross and so the opportunity to respond to Jesus and his kingdom message is now. The urgency is also seen in that the seventy weren’t even to stop and greet people on the road.

Jesus tells them to enter a house and say ‘peace to this house’. If the head of that house was a man of peace then their peace would rest on that house, but it not their peace would return to them. But once they found a house to stay they were eat and drink what they were offered and not move around from house to house. When a town welcomed them they were to heal the sick and proclaim the “Kingdom of God”.  If a town wouldn’t welcome them, they were to wipe the dust of that town from our feet as a warning against that town and they were to tell them that the ‘kingdom of God had come near’. (10:5-10)

Jesus said it would be more bearable on ‘that day’ for Sodom than for the towns rejecting Jesus.  Jesus pronounced a ‘Woe’ on Chorazin and Bethsaida saying that if Tyre and Sidon had seen the miracles they’ve seen than Tyre and Sidon would have repented and therefore it will go better for them at the judgement then these towns that have seen the miracles but have failed to respond to Jesus. Towns like Capernaum, would not be ‘lifted up’ but brought down on the ‘day of judgment’. So there is an ‘urgency to respond’ to King Jesus and there is this ‘pending judgment’ for rejecting Jesus. (10:12-15)

Earlier in Luke we have Jesus telling the twelve that to welcome a little child in Jesus’ name is to welcomes Jesus; and to welcome Jesus is to welcome the one who sent Jesus. In fact the least disciple would be the greatest (Luke 9:48). Here Jesus tells them that to listen to the seventy was to listen to Jesus, but to reject the seventy was to reject Jesus. Moreover, to reject Jesus was to reject the Father who had sent Jesus (Luke 10:16). Again we get this sense that to receive or reject the representative is to receive or reject both Jesus and the Father who sent Jesus.  

Then ‘the seventy’ returned rejoicing that the demons had submitted them in Jesus’ name.  Jesus said he had seen Satan fall like lightning and that he had given them ‘authority to overcome the power of the enemy’. However, Jesus told them that they should actually be rejoicing that their names were written in heaven. In this story the healing of the sick and the liberation from the demonic is integrated into Jesus’ kingdom proclamation. Yet, at the same time there is this greater enduring sense of joy in becoming a ‘citizen of heaven’ through identification with King Jesus.

Then we have Jesus, full of joy through the Holy Spirit, praising his Father, the Lord of heaven and earth. Jesus says that the Father was pleased to hide these things from the ‘wise and learned’ and reveal it to little children. Then Jesus talks about no one knowing the Son except the Father, and no one knowing the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal the Father.’ In other words, the Father has this ‘unique and intimate knowledge’ of Jesus, but Jesus ironically has the ‘equivalent unique and intimate knowledge’ of the Father. Jesus also says that no one knows the Father unless Jesus reveals him (10:17-22). These are extraordinary claims about the ‘equality and exclusivity’ so that we can deduce that Jesus is both equal with the Father, and exclusive revealer of the Father!

Then Jesus tells his disciples in private that their ‘eyes and ears were blessed’. They were seeing and hearing what many prophets and kings had wanted to see and hear but were unable to see and hear. What did they see? They saw King Jesus (10:23-24); the long anticipated Messiah, but the story tells us he was much more. First response to Jesus is urgent and central to the coming judgment. Two, receiving Jesus’ representatives and their message is identification with King Jesus. Thirdly, King Jesus represents and reveals the Father because Jesus has this equality with the Father. Jesus claims that ‘his knowledge of Father was equivalent to the Father’s knowledge of him (10:22). In other words, Jesus had the exclusive prerogative to reveal the Father because this story reveals that Jesus is not only the Messiah, but the ‘Divine Messiah’!