Reader’s Guide: “The Word for Today” Friday, February 15, 2013 Read – Luke 10:1-20 Once again Luke strikes out on his own by telling us the story of the mission of the seventy. No other gospel writer knows of this mission and most of the content of this story is found only in Luke. Having said that it may well be true that Luke has built this story on a previous story that he found in Mark (Mark 6:1-13 and 30) and related to us earlier in his gospel (Luke 9:1-6). Mark’s story was about the mission of the Twelve. Some of the same concerns are expressed in Luke’s story of the mission of the seventy but others are added. One of the new elements that Luke adds is a saying by Jesus that the “harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few, therefore ask the lord of the harvest to send out laborers into the harvest” (Luke 10:2). In one of his summary passages, Matthew uses this same saying of Jesus, “the harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few, therefore ask the lord of the harvest to send out laborers into the harvest” (Matthew 9:37-38). The context in Matthew is different but the words are the same. Another very similar saying of Jesus can also be found in the gospel of John. It comes in John’s story about Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well. As John’s story is coming to a close Jesus says, “I tell you look around you and see that the fields are ripe for harvesting” (John 4:34-38). Likely Jesus used these words and Matthew, Luke and John had the image of the harvest available to them. Each places the words in a different context. Luke’s concern seems mostly about the behavior and care of those sent on the mission. They will encounter hardship and rejection – but they will also receive a welcome and what they need for the mission. Again we are reminded of Simeon’s words about the fall and rising of many. Could it be that Luke has constructed this story more for the people of his own time than to reflect what happened in Jesus time? Into the midst of this story about the mission of the seventy Luke inserts a brief section that he found in his “Q” resource. Matthew tells the same story in a completely different setting (Matthew 11:20-24). In words that remind us of Jesus’ protest at Nazareth that Elijah needed to find a widow of Zarephath to help him because he was not welcome in Israel and that Elisha could heal only the foreign leper, Naaman, Jesus speaks harshly about the cities of Chorazin and Bethsaida and Capernaum. We have not heard much if anything about the first two cities but Capernaum has figured prominently in the story so far. Is this one more hint that the journey of Jesus to Jerusalem did not begin well? Luke reports the return of the Twelve. What a mission it must have been! “Lord, in your name even the demons submit to us!” To that response Jesus makes one of the most confusing responses we will hear in Luke’s gospel – “I saw Satan fall from heaven like a flash of lightning.” Nothing Luke has told us could prepare us for that saying. As the church developed its theology many have seen in this passage the reality of the pre-existence of Christ and the full-blown Christology of later Christian faith. But could Luke have already shared that Christology? Where might this saying come from? In the book of Isaiah, Isaiah speaks of the coming fall of Babylon with the words, “How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star, Son of Dawn! How you are cut down to the ground who laid the nations low!” (Isaiah 14:12). In other writings from the time just before and after Jesus these words of Isaiah had been expanded to speak of the destruction of Satan – who was sometimes spoken of at the Day Star, the Son of Dawn, Lucifer – the angel of light. This concept finds its way into the book of Revelation as well (Revelation12:9). It may well be that Luke is reflecting this idea in what he says. As far as the claim that followers of Jesus “have been given authority to tread on snakes and scorpions” Luke may likely be reflecting Psalm 91- “You will tread on the lion and the adder, the young lion and the serpent you will trample underfoot” (Psalm 91:13). There may also be an allusion in Luke to Genesis 3:15 where it is said of the ancient serpent in the garden, “He will strike you head, and you will strike his heel.” Noticing these connections is helpful in dealing with what is otherwise a confusing image. And having said all that, the point Jesus makes is that one is not to rejoice over the marvelous powers one might have over evil but rather that one’s name is written in heaven.