Fourth Sunday after Pentecost

Fourth Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 9C)

July 7, 2019

Text: Luke 10:1-20

            Jesus sends preachers.  Jesus sends you a pastor.  That is what this Gospel text is about.  Now, the preacher has a very specific mission for which he is sent.  He is an emissary of the King come to announce Peace.  That is to say, he is sent to the house, to the congregation, to announce the Peace of Jesus Christ, Peace with God in the forgiveness of sins.  That is the Gospel.  He is sent to preach the Gospel. 

            This Peace is the Hebrew concept of Shalom: That is not just peace in your heart or some inner sense of well-being.  It is not simply a lack of conflict in your life.  It is Peace that permeates the whole being, bringing about healing and wholeness, freedom and joy.  It is the casting out of all that is wicked and destructive, all that is not of God, and the bestowing of all that is righteous and perfect, all that is of God.  Jesus brings about this Peace by His coming into our human flesh to claim His Kingdom, by His coronation with thorns and His ascending the throne of the cross to do battle with the usurper, Satan, and win for Himself a people, you.  Now victorious, risen from the dead, the tomb deprived of His holy body, Jesus reigns!  And that means Peace.  The preacher is sent to impart this Peace, Shalom, by preaching.  Therefore Jesus bids His people, preachers and hearers, to pray for more preachers, more harvest workers, for the fields are ripe for harvest.  There are so many who need to hear this preaching and receive our Lord’s gift of Peace in the forgiveness of their sins.

            Now, in our text, we learn the responsibilities of preachers and hearers.  The preacher is not to worry about provisions.  And there is a very important distinction here, of which we must take note.  Here, in preparation for His death and resurrection, Jesus sends out the 72 with the command to take no moneybags or knapsacks or sandals.  Later, on the cusp of His betrayal and suffering, He will remind them that they lacked nothing; nevertheless, from now on they are to take moneybags, knapsacks, and even swords (Cf. Luke 22:35-36).  The point is, the Lord continues to provide for the needs of His preachers (and all His people), but there is no vow of poverty here.  The preacher can and should be paid and have savings and own property.  But the principle is at work in either case.  He is not to rely on money or stuff to provide for him and his family.  He is to rely on the Lord.  And the Lord provides through the generosity of His people, the hearers, you.  The preacher is to eat and drink whatever the hearers provide.  It is as St. Paul writes in our Epistle: “One who is taught the word must share all good things with the one who teaches.  Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap” (Gal. 6:6-7; ESV), and as he says elsewhere, “Let the elders,” pastors, “who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching.  For the Scripture says, ‘You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain,’ and, ‘The laborer deserves his wages’” (1 Tim. 5:17-18).  So you give your offering.  You sow in generosity, and God rewards that.  And the preacher lives by your charity.  Don’t think, by the way, that goes unnoticed or unappreciated.  It is the Promise of the Lord in action, the Spirit working generosity through you by His Word, by which my family is fed.  And in this day and age, in this cultural moment, that’s nothing short of a miracle. 

            The preacher is to come into the house, the congregation, and announce Peace in the reign of Jesus, the forgiveness of sins.  And when the people of the congregation receive the preaching, when they believe it, the preacher’s peace is to rest upon them, which is to say, he is to continue among them, preaching, teaching, disbursing Peace (Christ, forgiveness), until he is sent somewhere else.  The 72 sent in our text were given to heal the sick.  This is a sign of what happens in the preaching of Jesus.  You are healed now from your sins, and marked for perfect and complete healing of body and soul in the resurrection of the dead on the Last Day.  After all, this Peace, remember, is Shalom: healing, wholeness, righteousness, that only comes from God, in Christ, who has made you God’s own and given you His Kingdom.  So the preacher preaches Peace in Christ, and you receive it by faith, and in so receiving, you are forgiven and healed and made whole. 

            Now, it is true that not everywhere the preacher goes will he be received.  The preaching will not be believed by all who hear.  And this is tragic, for in such a case, the hearers forfeit their claim to the gift of Peace.  But be warned.  Rejection of the preacher and his preaching does not free one from the rule of Christ.  This is what the world, in its wholesale rejection of Christ and Christianity, doesn’t understand.  Christ is King, whether you acknowledge that fact, or not.  He does rule over you.  And that will be revealed to all, soon enough.  You will know it, but then it will be too late.  You will stand before the divine Judgment throne, and then you will have to acknowledge it.  You will kneel, along with everyone in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and your tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Phil. 2:10-11).  And that will be hell for you if you are an unbeliever.  But it will be heaven for you who believe.  Understand this in no uncertain terms: Now is the time to acknowledge Jesus’ reign.  Now is the time to hear and receive the preaching.  Now is the time to grasp this Peace of Jesus Christ and cling to it, to Him, by faith. 

            The one who hears the preacher, hears Jesus.  The one who receives the preaching, which is to say, believes it, receives Jesus.  The one who rejects the preacher and his preaching, rejects Jesus.  And the one who rejects Jesus, rejects the Father who sent Him… rejects God!  You have no God apart from Jesus.  There is no Father in heaven who does not have Jesus as His Son.  There is no Holy Spirit who does not proceed from the Father and the Son.  The Spirit speaks in the Word, the preaching, which imparts Jesus, who is our Peace with God, His heavenly Father, and brings us into His Kingdom, under His gracious and merciful reign.  The preacher preaches this good news.  You hear and believe.  And the very Kingdom of God is yours through Jesus Christ, who dwells with you and in you, with all His gifts. 

            When the 72 returned to Jesus, they were filled with joy that even the demons were subject to them in Jesus’ Name.  It is so true.  Jesus accomplished great signs in the preaching of the 72.  Demons were cast out.  They were given to tread on serpents and scorpions.  They were given to perform miraculous healings.  These signs, of course, are types of the greater reality brought about in preaching.  When the preacher preaches the Word of Jesus, demons are cast out.  Satan is thrown down.  The serpent’s head is crushed.  The scorpion is trampled.  Sinners are forgiven and healed.  But the preacher is not to rejoice in this power as though it were his own.  It is, after all, Jesus’ power working through the preaching that accomplishes these things.  The preacher is nothing.  Jesus is everything.  This is so important for both preacher and hearer to understand.  Otherwise, this quickly devolves into a personality cult, as we so often see on a large scale in megachurches, and as can and does happen in congregations of every size.  Understand, the preacher heals no one, saves no one, converts no one, in and of himself.  This is why, in this sense, it doesn’t matter who the man is under the robes.  I understand that each man brings his own talents and weaknesses to the preaching office, and you may prefer one man to another as a result, but finally, what matters is not the man, but the office with which the man is clothed.  The preaching office is that through which Jesus does His work of preaching.  Christ does the healing, the saving, the converting.  By the preaching.  The preacher is simply to rejoice in all that Christ accomplishes, and to glorify Him alone.  And the preacher is to rejoice that such is also done for him.  The preacher, too, has Peace and forgiveness in Jesus.  Satan has no power over the preacher.  The preacher, too, has been healed.  He’s been freed.  His name has been written in heaven.  He is baptized into Christ. 

            And that is why you rejoice, as well.  Satan has fallen like lightening from heaven.  The demons are cast out.  You are healed and made whole, in Jesus.  That is to say, Shalom.  You have Peace.  You have Jesus.  Your name has been written in heaven.  Jesus sent me to tell you that.  Hear it.  Believe it.  Receive it.  Rejoice in it.  And yes, please give an offering, so that my family and I can eat.  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son (+), and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.