Day 1298 - Lambs among Wolves

A Bible study given at Second Presbyterian Church, Chattanooga, TN June 29, 2016

Jesus has set his face on Jerusalem and ensure his followers are prepared for the demands that come when they choose to follow his way. Jesus continues to use his travel towards Jerusalem as his way of teaching his followers, sending a few of his disciples ahead of him to find arrangements to may stay and visit (Luke 9:51-62).

Today, we hear more of the teaching as Jesus prepares his followers for the work of proclamation that must follow after Jerusalem. And not as a surprise, that work often involves the life of the sojourner, both literally and figuratively. Let’s read Luke 10:1-11, (12-16),16-20 with the thought of the sojourner and the circumstance of being, “lambs in the midst of wolves.”

In last week’s passage, Jesus tells the first person who volunteers to follow him that they are joining him on the way of a sojourner. A sojourner is a day-traveler, or alien, far away from home in a foreign land depending upon willing people who share the grace of the Lord to host them for sustenance and shelter. The command or expectation of compassion towards the outsider and alien is deeply woven into the life of Israel, from Abraham, Genesis 12:1-3 to 23:4; Leviticus 19: 9-10, 33-34 and into the prophets. (These are quirt pertinent passages today to the language and judgments tossed about in the run up to the Presidential election. Furthermore, ask yourself, "Where is “home” for Jesus? "Jesus by his very humanity is the epitome of sojourner on earth.)

Here in our reading Jesus continues that theme. He tells them not only to travel as a sojourner, but warns them the journey will not be always one of ease. In this passage however, he amplifies what he said in Luke 9:51-62 that we read last week.

This passage, vv 11-16 is often misread as Jesus telling the disciples to condemn or judge those who do not welcome the good news. However, if you read this passage carefully you realize Jesus is telling his disciples the fate that awaits those who turn away at the moment when the Kingdom of God is near. Take a minute to read it. Jesus is explaining the judgment that he will make in due time (“…will you be exalted in Heaven? No you will be brought down…”). The disciples are simply to leave these people and move on seeking more receptive people as workers to bring in the harvest. 

Verse 16 merits repetition here:

¹⁶“Whoever listens to you listens to me, and whoever rejects you rejects me, and whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me.”

As is often the case, Jesus is making strong allusion to the history of the Hebrews to drive home his point. Jesus demands we recall (or reread) the consolation that the Lord gave Samuel when the people ask for a king (1 Samuel 8:6-9). Recall the Lord told Samuel “do as the people ask because they are bringing a fate on them that they do not know and will regret.” The Lord did not tell Samuel to rain down fire and brimstone, or to judge Israel, the fate that awaited those who asked for a king rather than the Lord was judgment enough.)

Luke continues with the report of the disciples upon their return. The disciples are excited about their apparent newfound powers to force even demons to submit. It harkens to last week’s reading when the disciples wanted to rain fire upon the city that rejected Jesus.  We also recall that Luke in his gospel and in the Acts of the Apostles emphasizes repeatedly the power of the Holy Spirit is behind the acts of disciples and they do nothing of their own power:

I (Jesus) have given you authority and power over the enemy…do not rejoice that spirits submit to you, rejoice that your name is in heaven.”

Reflection:

The passage (vv 11-16) omitted by the committee who developed the common lectionary shows clearly that Jesus is the one who shall judge, not the disciples. (I find it very hard to read into this, or any of the teaching of Jesus an authorization for us to cast judgment upon another human being.) I suspect the committee omitted these verses because they wanted to point us to the reality that those who embark to proclaim the gospel often do it in a judgmental world that is not very receptive. We will observe resistance, hostility and rejection and may receive it our self.

The passage clearly tells the one who proclaims the good news to enter that world unarmed, and vulnerable – no food, no extra clothing, no place to sleep fundamentally a sojourner who depends upon the grace of people for hospitality.

The disciples come back amazed at the power they seem to have  acquired (are they ready to rain fire from heaven again?). They forget the very first thing Jesus told them, they are lambs among wolves (as they shall soon discover in Jerusalem).

Jesus reminds them (and us) that some people even when the Kingdom of God is brought near will seek to follow human reason and judgment, and reflexively deny any truth that contradicts their perceptions of comfort, value and sin in the physical world. They will seek to quiet any voice that challenges their sense of comfort and righteousness. They will work to undermine you, to denigrate you, to shut your voice. You will be a lamb among wolves.

So to what does the righteous person turn in such times when the world besets you as a wolf towards a lamb? Perhaps we wonder, “What protection is offered to the one who proclaims good news and grace of God?”

Jesus refocuses us on the answer in that last verses 19-20. Jesus pointedly reminds the disciples that people of faith do nothing of their own power. (Isn’t the ultimate heresy to claim to be a “self-made” man?) We are empowered by the Holy Spirit that assures us that the Kingdom of God is at hand.

That assurance comes in our realization that we are all sojourners dependent upon the grace of God. 

The Lord assures us that there is a home for the sojourner that cannot be denied to them by any human force. It is offered and defended by the greatest power this world has seen, it’s Lord, Master and Redeemer. 

It is also a home to which we cannot drag or intimidate anyone to embrace.

We may call our self  “American” or “Tennessean” or “Christian.” We may live in a very nice house but we are all God’s children, sojourners,  who have a divine promise there is a way home. The faithful have the charter to proclaim that good news of divine grace to the world, to all ears, whether those worlds fall on open and deaf ears. The challenge we face is not to judge or seek to unstop deaf ears, only God can do that. Our unceasing charge and obligation is to proclaim the good news and offer grace to the sojourner so that those who hear the call know they are welcomed by us to come with us. Don’t waste your time damning deaf ears and never fear the wolf.

Why? Because your name is written in Heaven.