Fourteenth Sunday In Ordinary Time
LUKE 10:1-12. 17-20
Mark, Matthew, and Luke all describe a mission of the Twelve to heal and to proclaim the kingdom of God. For all three gospels the mission of the Twelve is the context for including in the gospel instructions for missionaries at the time when the gospels were written - the last third of the first Christian century. Luke alone adds a second mission, not for the Twelve, but for seventy (or seventy-two) disciples. The number depends on which ancient version one uses. The choice of seventy as the original number Luke used (rather than seventy-two) is based on the use of the number seventy in the Old Testament in two important events. These two events serve as background to the choice and mission of the seventy.
The first event has a double source. Moses' father-in-law Jethro and Co. came to visit him. Jethro noticed how Moses was working all day making decisions in cases the people brought for solutions. He said to Moses, "What you are doing is not good.... The thing is too heavy for you. You are not able to perform it alone.... Choose able men from all the people.... Let them judge the people at all times, but every) great matter they shall bring to you, etc." In Numbers 11, Moses complains to the Lord that he can no longer bear "to carry this nation by myself alone. The weight is too much for me." The Lord commands Moses, "Gather for me seventy of the elders of Israel.... Bring them to the Tent of Meeting. .., and I will take some of the spirit which is upon you and put it upon them, and they shall bear the burden of the people with you.../'
The second event is the Exodus itself. In Exodus 1:5 and Deuteronomy 10:22, we learn that the Israelites who migrated to Egypt were seventy in number. In Luke's theology, the Christian Church is the continuation of Israel. Paul also sees the Christian Church as the continuation of Israel, as he writes in Galatians 6:16, "Peace and mercy... upon the Israel of God." Exodus 1:7, 'The descendants of Israel, (the seventy of Exodus 1:5) were fruitful and increased greatly.... so that the land was filled with them." This can be the vision Luke has for the Christian Church. The sending out of seventy begins the process of growth. In view of a major theme of Luke's gospel that the Church is universal, to the above references to the number seventy should be added, that according to Table of Nations in the Hebrew text of Genesis 10 there are seventy nations of the earth.
The mission instructions to the seventy disciples are similar to those given to the Twelve in three gospel versions of the mission of the Twelve. A peculiar statement, "Greet no one along the way," does not seem a suitable attitude for attracting people. It may merely indicate the determination and concentration demanded in the Christian mission. Missionaries were expected "to live off the land/9 to receive food and lodging from those to whom they were sent to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal the sick, "for the laborer deserves his wages." When a town does not receive them, "Go into the streets and say, 'Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet, we wipe off against you...."' In this we may see the humanity of a Church that was still learning Jesus' lesson of non-retaliation in Luke 6:27-28, and the Golden Rule of love of neighbor in Luke 6:31.
Luke depicts a successful mission. "The seventy returned with joy saying, 'Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name.''" Thus the success of the Christian mission is, in Luke's mind, the defeat of Satan, as Jesus replies, "I saw Satan fall like lightning from the sky (heaven)." The Lucan Jesus adds an ultimate reason for rejoicing over the success of the Christian mission, "Do not rejoice that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven." The blessing of the Lord on Christian missionaries reaches beyond the missionaries to those who aid them. According to Mark 9:41, "Amen I say to you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you bear the name of Christ, will by no means lose his reward."
ISAIAH 66:10-14c
The time is about 530 B.C. This unknown prophet was incorporated into the oracles of Isaiah of Jerusalem, who lived two centuries earlier. He is sent by the Lord as a cheerleader to the depressed inhabitants of the city. Jerusalem will become the mother of nations, even as the Christian Church became the mother of nations. The universal character of Jerusalem determined the choice of this reading to accompany the universal mission of Christianity depicted in today's gospel. Along with several maternal metaphors, even God is described in maternal language, "As one whom his mother comforts, so will I comfort you."
GALATIANS 6:14-18
Paul struggles with opponents who, contrary to his teaching, demand that male Gentile converts become Jews (through circumcision) in order to become Christians. Paul points out that neither circumcision nor the lack of it is of any importance. Jesus' death on the cross abolished such distinctions among people. Thus one of Paul's most remarkable sayings, "Far be it from me to glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ."
