No Names, Just Peace
Luke 10:1-9
October 18, 2020
It’s Saint Luke’s day and yet we hear nothing of Luke – just a little reference in the Epistle reading. St. Paul tells Timothy, “Luke is with me.” That should reassure Timothy. Paul has his friend and physician with him – the good doctor Luke.
This is good wisdom for your funeral. It would be best for family and friends not to hear too much of you. You are the sole cause of your death and talking about you will never get you out of your casket. The other problem is that when we talk about dead people we don’t tell the truth. Our tributes and words never include their failures, shortcomings, and persistent sins. Let the people at your funeral hear about Jesus. He can break you out of your coffin as surely as He walked out of His own tomb.
So there’s no talk of Luke today. Instead we hear about 72 other guys. We don’t get their names either. I wonder if they got upset because their names didn’t get in the bulletin.
Jesus called these 72. He gave them authority to go ahead of Him, to speak peace, to heal and announce the nearness of God’s kingdom.
“[Jesus] said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. Go your way. The final harvest of souls was about to begin. Jesus was heading to Jerusalem where He would be planted as a dead seed in the ground. Three days later He would burst to life again. His resurrection is the start of the final harvest. The last day was in sight. God was gathering into His storehouse the fruit of His labor – you and all who believe. The 72 played a part in that Harvest, announcing that the Seed was coming in the person of Jesus. They prayed for God to send workers and then they went to work. Sometimes we pray and then expect God to do all the work. Sometimes we pray just so it works out for us. We learn from the 72 to pray trusting His will, doing what He has given us to do, even when His good will and work might lead to trouble and loss for us.
That’s what happened to the 72. Behold, I am sending you out as sheep among wolves. How would a sheep do among the wolves? He would do well – medium well – just a little pink in there – that’s how the wolves like their sheep. The Kingdom of heaven comes by death. These 72 pre-apostles had to die. They had to die to their wisdom – this didn’t look like a successful plan. They had to die to their needs – no money, no extra clothes, no hotel reservations. They had to die to themselves. No matter what the Lord has given you to do – you will need to die. If He gives you marriage you need to die for your spouse. If He gives your marriage children you’ll need to sacrifice yourself for the good of those little ones. Whatever work, talent, or wealth He gives you you’ll need to die to your love of earthly gifts to use them properly.
The central truth of the Kingdom of God is that it comes by death. The Kingdom starts with death – the death of Jesus Christ for sinners. That’s the end of sin and the beginning of life for you. You don’t get out of sin without death so Jesus dies. You don’t get past death without forgiveness so Jesus buys your forgiveness with His life. You don’t have hope without a certain future and Jesus’ resurrection proclaims that His death worked, sin is forgiven, and your resurrection is as certain as His.
The 72 were sheep among the wolves, heading for death, and now it appears Jesus wants them to be unfriendly as well. Greet no one on the way. I like that instruction. It’s not hard for me to be unfriendly, but that’s not the point. Have you ever been around farmers during the harvest? There’s no time for visiting. It might rain or snow or freeze. They barely take time to eat or drink especially as the end draws near. The 72 had a word to deliver in preparation for Jesus’ arrival. Jesus didn’t want them chatting with people, taking surveys about what they would like to hear, worrying about who to impress and who to ignore, what suburbs might prove more successful for planting the Word, what areas of downtown were so hard they could be ignored. Get on with it – the end is near.
When you go “Whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace be to this house.’ You may have noticed that not only is Luke’s name not mentioned in the text, but neither is Jesus’ name.” The 72 are not told to preach the name of Jesus. They are not instructed to call people to repentance. They are given one word and one word only, “peace.”
Peace is a Messianic word. The Hebrew people, the Jews were longing for their Messiah, the Prince of Peace. When God’s anointed Savior came He would usher in the age of peace. So what did the angels sing at the birth of Jesus? “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!” (Luke 2:14, ESV) When Jesus rose from the dead the first word He spoke to the twelve minus two was “Peace be with you.”
This is God’s peace – that Christ Jesus has died for your sins. These is peace for your conscience because it Christ’s blood has washed away your shame and guilt. This is peace for your anger because His forgiveness covers your neighbor’s sins too. You don’t need to get revenge. This is peace for when you realize life is too short to do all you need or want to do. Christ has done everything necessary to secure abundant and eternal life for you. This is peace in the hour of death because you’re not going to die but live. This is peace in the struggle against sin because you don’t save yourself by being good. You are saved by Christ’s good life and good death.
The last odd instruction is that the 72 were to stay at homes where their peace was received and they were to eat whatever was set in front of them. The 72 had Jesus and they needed to be received. This also is the way of the Kingdom. God gives and you receive, however, if you don’t want Jesus He won’t force Himself into your house or heart. If the 72 weren’t received they moved on. But where they were received they took what they were given. If they were fed beans in wiener water soup then that is what they ate. They didn’t go next door where the guy was slow smoking a beef brisket and making some homemade corn bread. Receive what you are given because that’s how the Kingdom works – God gives Jesus and we receive Him. We don’t tell God what sort of Savior we want or try to make Jesus fashionable. God gave us Christ and Him crucified and that is what we preach. God raised Him from the dead and that is what we believe. Any Jesus other than the dead Jesus who now lives is no Jesus at all. We receive what God feeds us in His Word and at His Table.
I’m glad I wasn’t among the 72. I would have thought the whole time – this will never work. Just go into a village and town and say, “Peace be to this place” and then wait for a bed and breakfast to welcome you in. Do you remember how the mission of the 72 ended? They returned with great joy. As they were out proclaiming peace Jesus said, “I saw Satan fall like lightning form heaven.” But then He warned them, “Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” Once again Luke gives us no names, but rather the certainty, that where the peace of Christ is proclaimed, Satan takes it on the chin and goes down for the count. Where Jesus is received names are written in heaven – the name of Luke, the names of the 72, and yes, your name is written in heaven in the name of Jesus. Amen.