The Gospel Proclamation Please read Luke 10/1-9 meditatively.
Gaze on Jesus Jesus had begun the third stage of His ministry by sending out the twelve apostles who were to confine themselves to the lost sheep of Israel (Matthew 10:6). Now He sends seventy disciples ahead of Him to every town and place to which He Himself was to go. These numbers symbolised the multitude of pagan nations. This mission then, is the figure of the task which is the responsibility of the Church until the end of the world: to evangelise all nations (Matthew 28:19). The mission helps in the forming of missionaries and also awakens those they visit. He sends them two by two so that the message will not be from one person only, but the expression of a group united in one mission. They are asked not to depend upon their own resources and not to put up in the homes of those known to them. A missionary must rely only on the Father’s providence: God will know how to touch the heart of someone listening to the Good News, so that the missionary will be welcome. They will certainly lose their missionary zeal if they lived with people who did not understand the Kingdom. Jesus wants the disciples to heal the sick and tell the people that the Kingdom of God has drawn near to them. Healings bring more than just well-being, they are also the sign of spiritual healing, the reconciliation of people with God.
Prayerful Awareness The disciples are always with Jesus. From this crowd HE DID CHOOSE a small NUMBER to be His special messengers, His ‘apostles’. He teaches them how to appear before God in prayer. He shows them what is essential in His Father’s eyes. At their request He teaches them the ‘Our Father’. Jesus gives His parting disciples instructions valid for all time. Everything depends upon the authority behind them: “He who receives you, receives me, and he who receives me receives him who sent me.” (Matthew 10:40) As for the strength and wisdom that He lends them: “For it is not you who are speaking, but the Spirit of your Father who speaks through you.” (Matthew 10:20) When the terrible events of Good Friday run contrary to their expectations, the ground beneath their feet begins to rock. Through Golgotha, the world’s response to the sacred message, best proves that it is a heavenly message and must first revolutionize earthly standards, the disciples are utterly confounded. They desert the cross and flee except the one whom the Lord ‘loved’. (John 19:26). At Pentecost the Holy Spirit must open their eyes and unseal their hearts before the truth is really theirs. They seem to have seen and heard before the truth is really theirs. They seem to have seen and heard physically registering the impressions and storing them away in their minds. But when the Spirit descends, the dormant seed suddenly swells and unfolds and at last the men who were to be his faithful witnesses spring up, who in turn spread the Master’s word abroad.
Prayer Starter Lord Jesus, we believe that we are called to bear witness to You at all times and under all circumstances. What we see around us even in our places of worship is not at all in keeping with the values of the Kingdom. May we be guided by the Holy Spirit from moment to moment and live according to Your expectations.
