Progressive reflections on the lectionary #71

Monday 30th June 2025

Luke 10: 1-11, 16-20 - The radical act of receiving hospitality

Although Pentecost is generally attributed as ‘the birthday of the Church’, if Luke’s narrative is to be trusted here it’s clear that the Church was already pretty well developed prior to Jesus’ execution. Indeed it does seem that this is the case, given the network of supporters who enabled his journey Jerusalem

In our passage today Jesus sends out seventy, or seventy two (the numbers were used interchangeably apparently) disciples in pairs to visit the settlements ahead of him - they are given instructions to take no possessions (no purse, bag or sandals) and to ‘greet no one on the road’ (stay on task, don’t get side tracked). When they arrive at a house they use a password or code phrase: “peace to this house,” if they get the expected response they are to stay there, if not, they should vamoose and find some folk who are in the network.

One way of seeing this sending of the 72 is to recognise it, like the Pentecost story, as a reversal of the scattering at Babel (Genesis 11). While in Genesis humanity is divided by language and dispersed here Luke has send out his people to ‘every town and place’ that he planned to visit. The number 72 (70) corresponds to corresponds to the ‘table of nations’ in Genesis 10. This would symbolise a much more global mission of reconciliation and reunification.

While I think the symbolism is valid there, I prefer to focus on hte radical nature of what the disciples are being asked to do.

One of the key aspects of the story is the disciples’ poverty - in an opposite manner to Roman emissaries here the disciples are sent out poor and hungry, in need of welcome and generosity. They are, in other words, vulnerable. Jesus’ network of households and his alternative ‘kingdom’ relies on the idea of patronage and power, but of sharing, of mutuality, and of hospitality. Here the disciples model this very clearly.

Relying on hospitality and ‘reception’ also challenges dominant ideas of ‘mission.’ Here the disciples have to surrender any sense of control or status (which they apparently struggled with) and rely on ‘kindness’ and generosity. The transformation, as so often in such expeditions, takes place in the disciples, just as much as (or more than) it does in the places they visit.

A friend of mine tells a story about a preacher who challenged his congregation about how they see the church doors. Do they enter the church to get away from the world? Or do they exit the church to go into the world? Here the emphasis is on the latter - and every service in a local church thus becomes a re-enactment of the passage in question, the Church are constantly being ‘sent out’ into the world.

When the disciples return, at the end of this two part passage they are full of excitement and stories. Jesus rejoices - saying: “I watched Satan fall from heaven like a flash of lightning.

“Indeed, I have given you authority to tread on snakes and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing will hurt you…” (10: 18-19)

These lines seem like a gift for anyone keen to promote the ‘spiritual warfare’ approach, and to claim that Jesus as a cosmic entity watched demons fall from the sky. That seems completely out of context to me. Personally I don’t think it’s necessary to take anything like that sort of stance in order to appreciate what’s being said. Much more simply, here Luke has Jesus use the sort of poetic language used throughout the Hebrew scripture to describe how the power structures of empire and oppression are collapsing as the alternative ‘kingdom’ vision is realised in his time. Before his very eyes!

Mutuality, sharing, and non hierarchical support are supplanting the power structures of empire. It’s happening! The world is changing! I think we would have to say that if these really were the words of Jesus, they were perhaps a little over optimistic, there still remains - in my experience at least - a bit of work to do.

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