Season of Apostles
APOSTLES THIRD SUNDAY
LUKE 9:1-6 SENDING THE APOSTLES
INTRODUCTION
Jesus spent only three years and a few months for
his public ministry and to offer his life for the salvation of humanity.
In order to continue his mission in the world until his second coming,
Jesus established the church through the intervention of the Holy Spirit
on the day of Pentecost. Jesus selected and prepared 12 apostles and
trained them, besides his other 72 disciples. These 12 represented the
12 tribes of Israel that he reconstituted as the church. Jesus gave the
apostles authority and power to preach, to heal the sick, and to cast
out demons. They had relied on the villagers for their lodging and food.
This practical training gave the apostles self-confidence to become
missionaries all over the world after the Pentecost. Like the Christian
believers who worked with the apostles, all of us are called to work
with the bishops and priests for strengthening and expanding the church.
BIBLE TEXT (LUKE 9:1-6)
(Lk 9:1) Then
Jesus called the Twelve and gave them power and authority to drive out
all evil spirits and to heal diseases. (2) And he sent them to proclaim
the kingdom of God and to heal the sick. (3) He instructed them, “Do not
take anything for the journey, neither staff, nor bag, nor bread, nor
money; and do not even take a spare tunic. (4) Whatever house you enter,
remain there until you leave that place. (5) And wherever they do not
welcome you, leave the town and shake the dust off your feet: it will be
as a testimony against them.” (6) So they set out and went through the
villages, proclaiming the good news and healing people everywhere.
INTERPRETATION
After spending a night in prayer on a mountain,
Jesus selected twelve apostles out of his disciples (Lk 6:12-16). They
were his full-time followers, learning from his teachings (Lk 6:20-49)
and actions like healing the sick, and casting out demons (Lk 6:17-18).
They witnessed Jesus healing a centurion’s slave from a distance (Lk
7:1-10) and raising a widow’s deceased son during his funeral procession
(Lk 7:11-17). Along with the disciples of John the Baptist, the apostles
also saw and heard, “the blind regain their sight, the lame walk, lepers
are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have the good
news proclaimed to them” (Lk 7: 22). The twelve witnessed Jesus
revealing his divinity by forgiving a sinful woman at Simon the
Pharisee’s house (Lk 7:36-50). They, along with some devoted women,
accompanied Jesus when he journeyed to towns and villages, preaching and
proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God (Lk 8:1-3).
Though Jesus told the parable of the Sower to the
crowd (Lk 8:4-8), he explained that only to his disciples (Lk 8:9-15).
They saw Jesus doing further miracles like calming the storm at sea (Lk
8:22-25), healing a demoniac at Gerasene (Lk 8:26-39), curing a woman
with hemorrhage for 12 years (Lk 8:43-48), and raising Jairus’s Daughter
(Lk 8:41-56). After such training, Jesus sent his apostles for field
visit and hands-on experience.
Besides the regular crowd who gathered in
different regions to listen to Jesus, some groups of people accompanied
Jesus like the twelve apostles, 72 disciples, and the women followers.
Luke reports, “Accompanying him were the Twelve and some women who had
been cured of evil spirits and infirmities, Mary, called Magdalene, from
whom seven demons had gone out, Joanna, the wife of Herod’s steward
Chuza, Susanna, and many others who provided for them out of their
resources” (Lk 8:1-3). Apostles were his full-time companions and future
pillars of the church he intended to establish. He separated them from
the others to assign them for field work with special authority and
power.
The people welcomed Jesus as a prophet and crowded
to listen to him because of his power to cast out demons and his good
will to heal the sick. He taught the people with authority, unlike the
Scribes (Mt 7:29), and his was a message of hope. Quoting Isaiah, Jesus
declared, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me
to bring glad tidings to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to
captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go
free” (Lk 4:18). So, most of his listeners were enthusiastic to hear his
preaching different from the Rabbis of the time.
Jesus wanted the same experience for his apostles when they visit the towns and villages representing him. Without sharing his power and authority, their efforts would be futile. So, he shared his power and authority with them so they could perform the miracles as he did and teach what he taught. When they did such unusual service, people realized the divine power they had, welcomed them to their villages, and listened to the word of God.
Evil spirits have been influencing humans since the
time of the first parents. Such influence can be in various ways and
through different means. In demon-controlled cases, the possessed cannot
act freely because an outside force controls the person’s behavior like
acting under the influence. That makes the person behave strange,
hurting himself or others. By liberating from that external influence,
the person is freed in body and soul.
The demons in the possessed persons could identify
the divinity of Jesus. “Whenever unclean spirits saw him they would fall
down before him and shout, ‘You are the Son of God.’ He warned them
sternly not to make him known” (Mk 3:11-12). Luke reports, “Demons also
came out from many, shouting, ‘You are the Son of God.’ But he rebuked
them and did not allow them to speak because they knew that he was the
Messiah” (Lk 4:41).
Jesus, who liberated many from the demon
possession, shared his power with his disciples. In the name of Jesus,
they healed the abnormal people and manifested Jesus’ power over the
evil spirits. When the 72 disciples returned after their assignment,
they shared with Jesus, “‘Lord, even the demons are subject to us
because of your name.’ Jesus said, ‘I have observed Satan fall like
lightning from the sky’” (Lk 10:17-18).
The disciples continued casting out demons after
the Pentecost. When Philip preached in Samaria, they paid attention to
him, “For unclean spirits, crying out in a loud voice, came out of many
possessed people, and many paralyzed and crippled people were cured.
There was great joy in that city” (Acts 8:7-8). While Paul he was in
Philippi, he cast out demon from “a slave girl with an oracular spirit,
who used to bring a large profit to her owners through her
fortune-telling” (Acts 16:16-18).
Jesus healed the sick for several reasons:
1. Compassion for the
suffering: Jesus healed all the sick who approached him or whom
others brought to him. These he did out of compassion for them. Matthew
reports, when Jesus “saw the vast crowd, his heart was moved with pity
for them, and he cured their sick” (Mt 14:14). When two blind men sought
his help, “Moved with pity, Jesus touched their eyes. Immediately they
received their sight and followed him” (Mt 20:34). Once a leper begged
Jesus to heal him. “Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand” and even
touched him out of compassion which others would never dare to do those
days. The leprosy left him immediately (Mk 1:40-42). Jesus never
declined the request for healing from anyone.
Jesus even healed the sick without them asking him.
When Jesus was in Jerusalem at a pool called Bethesda, he asked a man
ill for 38 years, “Do you want to be well?” (Jn 5:1-6) and healed him.
Peter followed his master’s example in healing a man crippled from birth
begging at “the Beautiful Gate” in the Temple. When he asked for alms
from Peter and John, Peter cured the man (Acts 3:1-10). Since Jesus had
the power for healing, he made use of them because of his compassion for
the distressed people.
2. To Glorify God:
Jesus performed miracles, including healing the sick, to reveal his
glory or to glorify his Father. After describing the first miracle of
Jesus, John writes, “Jesus did this as the beginning of his signs in
Cana in Galilee and so revealed his glory, and his disciples began to
believe in him” (Jn 2:11). “The crowds were amazed when they saw the
mute speaking, the deformed made whole, the lame walking, and the blind
able to see, and they glorified the God of Israel” (Mt 15:31). When
Jesus healed a paralytic, the crowds “were struck with awe and glorified
God who had given such authority to human beings” (Mt 9:8).
3. Messianic revelation:
One identification of the Messiah was his power to heal the sick as
Isaiah had prophesied. “Then the eyes of the blind shall see, and the
ears of the deaf be opened; Then the lame shall leap like a stag, and
the mute tongue sing for joy” (Isa 35:5-6). “On that day the deaf shall
hear the words of a scroll; And out of gloom and darkness, the eyes of
the blind shall see” (Isa 29:18). Matthew documented, “He drove out the
spirits by a word and cured all the sick, to fulfill what had been said
by Isaiah the prophet: ‘He took away our infirmities and bore our
diseases’” (Mt 8:16-17).
When John the Baptist sent his disciples to Jesus
asking, “‘Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for
another?’ Jesus said to them in reply, ‘Go and tell John what you hear
and see: the blind regain their sight, the lame walk, lepers are
cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have the good
news proclaimed to them’” (Mt 11:3-6).
Some Jews asked Jesus, “‘How long are you going to
keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.’ Jesus
answered them, ‘I told you and you do not believe. The works I do in my
Father’s name testify to me … If I do not perform my Father’s works, do
not believe me; but if I perform them, even if you do not believe me,
believe the works, so that you may realize and understand that the
Father is in me and I am in the Father” (Jn 10:24-38). Thus, Jesus
revealed himself as the Messiah through his actions of healing and
proclamation of the good news (Isa 61:1-2).
4. To liberate the sick
from the bondage of the evil: Sickness came as an outcome of the
original sin. People might suffer also because of their own mistakes or
of others. The evil in the world also causes sickness. According to
Peter, Jesus healed “all those oppressed by the devil” (Acts 10:38).
Jesus healed many by casting out demons. The sickness is even
personified when Jesus healed Peter’s mother-in-law. “He stood over her,
rebuked the fever, and it left her” (Lk 4:39). The ultimate destruction
and elimination of the evil will happen at his second coming.
Jesus let his disciples heal the sick in his name
for the same reasons.
After months of training with Jesus, the apostles
were competent to preach and perform miracles of benevolence by
themselves. Hence, Jesus sent them for practical training, so they get
self-confidence to continue his mission after his departure from them.
In Matthew, Jesus restricted the apostles from
entering to the non-Jewish territories. “Jesus sent out these twelve
after instructing them thus, ‘Do not go into pagan territory or enter a
Samaritan town. Go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel’” (Mt
10:5-6). Besides the apostles, Jesus sent out 72 “others whom he sent
ahead of him in pairs to every town and place he intended to visit” (Lk
10:1). According to Mark 6:7, Jesus sent the apostles two by two as he
did with the 72 disciples.
The miracles Jesus and the disciples did, such as
healing the sick and casting out evil spirits, were only temporary and
earthly relief. The permanent solution comes only through the entry into
the kingdom of God. For that, they had to repent of their sins and work
for eternal salvation with other Christians in the church Jesus was
about to establish on the Pentecost through the Holy Spirit.
The kingdom of God refers primarily to the rule of
the Almighty over the entire universe with no territory, because
everything belongs to God with no border. “The LORD has set his throne
in heaven; his dominion extends over all” (Psalm 103:19). In a specific
sense, Israel was the kingdom of God because God’s dominion is a
spiritual ruling over the lives and hearts of those who remain faithful
to Him. Jesus reconstituted it, forming the church with Christ as its
head. This kingdom is spiritual, and that is why Jesus said to Pilate:
“My kingdom does not belong to this world” (John 18:36). The church is
only a foretaste of the perfect kingdom of God that will happen later in
its fullness when the time of redemption is over with the second coming
of Christ.
God will govern his kingdom that is eternal,
peaceful, free from any struggle, and is open only for the faithful
children of God. “In the lifetime of those kings the God of heaven will
set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed or delivered up to
another people; rather, it shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and
put an end to them, and it shall stand forever” (Daniel 2:44). Thus, the
Kingdom of God has different stages. God initially established it in the
world at large, then among the chosen people of Israel, Jesus restored
it later by establishing the church, and it will come to its perfection
with the second coming of Christ.
John preached in the desert of Judea saying,
“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” (Mt. 3:1-2). The same
was the message when Jesus sent out 72 disciples ahead of him in pairs
to every town and place he intended to visit. (Lk 10:1-9). Thus, John
the Baptist, the 12 apostles, and the 72 disciples were heralds of the
Messiah. Unlike the apostles and other disciples, John performed no
miracle.
When Jesus sent out the 12 apostles, he asked them
to heal the sick while proclaiming the kingdom of God to them (Lk 9:2).
Matthew gives more details of the powers Jesus gave to the 12. “Cure the
sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, drive out demons. Without cost you
have received; without cost you are to give” (Mt 10:8). Mark gives the
impact of the ministry of the 12. “So they went off and preached
repentance. They drove out many demons, and they anointed with oil many
who were sick and cured them” (Mk 6:13). The apostles and the other
disciples did miracles in the name of Jesus to help the less fortunate.
That made their listeners hospitable to them, trust in their message,
and excitedly wait to welcome Jesus, in whose name they did the wonders.
Each journey of the apostles to nearby villages for
preaching lasted only for a few days. So, they did not need to carry
much luggage with them. Instead, they should be free for movement and
detached from comforts of life. A second tunic was a luxury during those
days. That was the reason for John the Baptist to teach, “Whoever has
two tunics should share with the person who has none. And whoever has
food should do likewise” (Lk 3:11). The apostles also had to depend on
God’s providence through the hospitality of the people they served.
Jesus wanted his disciples to be detached from the
worldly needs and comforts. He had warned them, “Every one of you who
does not renounce all his possessions cannot be my disciple” (Lk 14:33).
They should rely on the people whom they served as representatives of
God. In Luke 12:22-34, Jesus gives detailed instruction on this. Using
the examples of ravens (v. 24) and flowers (v. 27-28), he said,
“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life and what you will
eat, or about your body and what you will wear” (v. 22). “As for you, do
not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, and do not worry
anymore. All the nations of the world seek for these things, and your
Father knows that you need them. Instead, seek his kingdom, and these
other things will be given you besides. Do not be afraid any longer,
little flock, for your Father is pleased to give you the kingdom” (Lk
12:29-32).
At the Last Supper, Jesus asked the apostles,
“‘When I sent you forth without a money bag or a sack or sandals, were
you in need of anything?’ ‘No, nothing,’ they replied” (Lk 22:35). Thus,
God’s providential care was with them during their ministry. However, at
the Last Supper, Jesus changed his policy because of the long-distance
journeys and opposition from non-believers. “But now one who has a money
bag should take it, and likewise a sack, and one who does not have a
sword should sell his cloak and buy one” (Lk 22:36).
During their preaching, the apostles could find
lodging in the house of hospitable people. Because of their prophetic
style of preaching and miracles of mercy, people gladly invited them to
their houses. Poor people welcomed them more than the rich because their
ministry was more appealing to the less fortunate in the community.
Though the families that provided them accommodation and food were
mostly of inferior status, the disciples had to be satisfied with such
offers than seeking favors from well-to-do families.
It is natural that dust clings on to the feet of a
pedestrian, especially on dusty roads. When the disciples traveled by
feet from house to house preaching the gospel, the same could happen.
The Jews during that time had the practice of shaking the dust from
their feet and clothes when they exit from a Gentile land. It expressed
their disgust against the Gentiles and to show that they did not want to
bring anything pagan to Judea.
When Jesus asked the disciples to apply this in
their ministry, it had a slightly different meaning. If the townsmen
would reject the Word of God, Jesus asked the disciples to shake off the
dust from their feet in public in the town square to show that they did
all they could for the salvation of the townsmen. The disciples were no
more obliged by the fate of the land. The Jews could understand it
because they had done such acts against the gentile towns.
When Paul and Barnabas preached at Antioch in
Pisidia, the Jews rejected them. So, they turned to the Gentiles, who
happily welcomed their exhortation. The Jews “stirred up a persecution
against Paul and Barnabas, and expelled them from their territory. So
they shook the dust from their feet in protest against them and went to
Iconium” (Acts 13:50-51). However, they did not take the rejection from
the villagers as a personal insult because they “were filled with joy
and the holy Spirit” (Acts 13:52).
Even before receiving the Holy Spirit on the day of
Pentecost, the disciples could preach the gospel and heal the sick. They
could achieve them because they had shared the power and authority from
Jesus. Unlike people in the towns, the villagers were simple people and
were receptive to the word of God.
The Bible starts with the good news and the bad
news. The good news is that God created everything in the universe for
the humans. Unlike other creations, God created man in his own image and
likeness (Gen 1:26-27). “God blessed them and God said to them: Be
fertile and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it. Have dominion over
the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and all the living things
that crawl on the earth” (Gen 1:28). However, the bad news is that the
first humans failed in God’s test by disobedience. God expelled them
from the paradise, giving them hope of victory over the tempter through
a savior (Gen 3:15).
The humanity has been waiting for the God-promised
savior of the world. Centuries passed while expectation for the Messiah
continued through prophetic revelations. When Jesus was born in
Bethlehem, the angel of the Lord appeared to the shepherds and told
them, “I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all the
people. For today in the city of David a savior has been born for you
who is Messiah and Lord” (Lk 2:10-11). When Jesus preached in the
synagogue in Nazareth, he quoted from Isaiah that the Spirit of the Lord
anointed him to bring glad tidings to the poor (Lk 4:18).
The Greek word for good news is gospel. It entails
the message of salvation. God’s promise of a savior is fulfilled in
Jesus. He accomplished his mission through his incarnation, public
ministry, passion, death, resurrection, and ascension to heaven. His
victory and his promise of coming again to reward those who keep his
commandments is the good news the apostles shared. The people have to
repent and accept this salvation through baptism, observation of the
commandment of love, and participation in the church Jesus established.
MESSAGE
1. Like Jesus, who had only three years and a few
months for his public ministry and to offer his life for the salvation
of humanity, we also have limited time in this world when we can work
with the church for the kingdom of God. Let us effectively make use of
our time and talents to accomplish our God-assigned mission in this
world.
2. Most of us are blessed to inherit our faith and
membership in the church from our forefathers. It should not end with
our lives. We have to hand over our faith and church membership to the
next generations by training our children in faith. The training Jesus
gave to his 72 disciples and 12 apostles is a role model for us.
3. Jesus gave his disciples the authority and power
to preach, to heal the sick, and cast out demons. God worked through
them. When we work for Jesus through his church, God will generate
abundant results even beyond our expectation.
4. Jesus and his disciples faced rejection and persecution from people who were worldly. Jesus told the disciples they do not belong to this world though they are in the world. Let us also positively face challenges in our work for the church and for the spiritual wellbeing of our family and others.
5. The villagers who received the service of the
disciples provided for the needs of their preachers. Let us also support
our consecrated persons who serve us and the missionaries who work for
the kingdom of God in remote areas.
6. The Christian believers worked with the apostles
for the strengthening and expansion of the church. Likewise, let us also
work with bishops and priests in building up the church.