Luke, although usually mindful to avoid doubles, is the only evangelist who gives two mission accounts. He wants to show that every mission must be like the one of Jesus, the Son who makes Himself the brother of all. The second account (Luke 10:1-24) is more detailed than the first (Luke 9:1-6) and it is a mine of information. I will highlight some items of it.
Beside the first twelve apostles, Jesus sends other 72 disciples. Disciple is one who learns to act like the Master. As a matter of fact, the sending happens after the three gifts that render the disciples like their Master: freedom from slavery to things, people and self (Luke 9:57-62. Cf. October issue). According to the ancient scholars, “72” is the number of the peoples on this earth: the Mission of the Son is for all and forever.
They are sent two by two, not alone. They have to give witness to brotherhood: where there are two, there is Love that binds them together. And they are sent “in front of God’s Face”: in the mission, it is the Lord Himself who comes to judge and to save (Cf. Malachi 3:1 ff). They go to every city and place where, in their announcement, there comes the One whose name is “The One who is coming,” and He comes wherever He is welcome in His witnesses.
Jesus was saying then and is still saying: “The harvest is plentiful.” The corn is abundant and ripe: we must gather it up, otherwise, it rots. Since the beginning, every person is ripe to become bread of life, otherwise he/she rots unto death. We must not wait for better times. The problem does not concern the harvest but the harvester, the evangelizer not the one to be evangelized. The harvest belongs already to the Lord. We have to pray so that the harvester also may belong to the Lord of the harvest. Freed at last from his slaveries, may the harvester be able to do the same work as the Son and the Father: i.e. to love his brethren.
The expression “lambs among wolves” gives us the color of the mission. The sheep is a humble and useful animal: it gives food and clothing in life and in death. The disciples are like the slain and victorious Lamb: He discloses the secret of history (Ap 5:1 ff); He defeats evil, represented by the wolf, by means of goodness. (Rom 12:21). The Lamb is the Lord of life because He gives life and frees from death. The lamb never loses its qualities: even a billion lambs do not eat the wolf; they are eaten instead. The disciple, like his master, doesn’t own things or people. Poverty is the condition in order to be like the Lamb: self-giving love. We will come back again on this topic that is the heart of mission.
The One who introduces Himself in poverty places Himself in the necessity of being accepted. Those who accept Him fulfill the Gospel: they become children of God because they welcome their brother. This is why poverty is the only means of apostolate and it is powerful and shrewd: it is love that exposes itself in order to be accepted. It can, however, be rejected as well. But, in rejection, the apostle doesn’t fail, instead he accomplishes his mission: he does what he says. He becomes like Jesus who, on the cross, witnessed to a love stronger than death. He gave His life to those who were robbing Him of it. He accepted evil without giving it back. He died for those who killed Him. Only in Jesus we discover who God is and who we are: He is the one who loves in this way and we are thus loved!
Because of this, the disciples, when rejected, do not reject those who reject them. They announce the kingdom and, shaking the dust from their sandals, make the great evil visible: to refuse to welcome the messengers is to fail to enter the Promised Land, i.e. the fraternity of God’s children. The wound of refusal falls on the refused ones. The disciples, once rejected, become similar to the Son: they love the brethren with the same unconditional love as the Father. Jesus remembers the cities that did not accept Him and says: “Alas for you!” He doesn’t say: “Woe to you!” He himself experiences the evil that the one who rejects Him does to himself. The cross is God’s “Alas” for the evil of the world. God who loves us feels our pain. He made Himself to be a curse and sin for us. He sank into the hell of sin and death in order to save us. Popoli – www.popoli.info
