Luke 10 and modern missiology

[Pergamum]

What does Luke 10 tell us, or not tell us, about how we should now in this era conduct missions?

Are there techniques, strategies, methodologies that can be gleaned from Luke 10?

How does Luke 10 impact missiology for us today?


Or was this sending out of the 70 something that was time and era-specific so that all Jewish towns could hear one last time before Messiah's work was done? If so, can we still glean missionary principles from it?

For instance, many mission orgs are advocating the CPM Model (Church Planting Movements Model) where a first, initial step is to identify a "Person of Peace" as per Luke 10.

Luke 10

King James Version (KJV)


10 After these things the Lord appointed other seventy also, and sent them two and two before his face into every city and place, whither he himself would come.

2 Therefore said he unto them, The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest.

3 Go your ways: behold, I send you forth as lambs among wolves.

4 Carry neither purse, nor scrip, nor shoes: and salute no man by the way.

5 And into whatsoever house ye enter, first say, Peace be to this house.

6 And if the son of peace be there, your peace shall rest upon it: if not, it shall turn to you again.

7 And in the same house remain, eating and drinking such things as they give: for the labourer is worthy of his hire. Go not from house to house.

8 And into whatsoever city ye enter, and they receive you, eat such things as are set before you:

9 And heal the sick that are therein, and say unto them, The kingdom of God is come nigh unto you.

10 But into whatsoever city ye enter, and they receive you not, go your ways out into the streets of the same, and say,

11 Even the very dust of your city, which cleaveth on us, we do wipe off against you: notwithstanding be ye sure of this, that the kingdom of God is come nigh unto you.

12 But I say unto you, that it shall be more tolerable in that day for Sodom, than for that city.

13 Woe unto thee, Chorazin! woe unto thee, Bethsaida! for if the mighty works had been done in Tyre and Sidon, which have been done in you, they had a great while ago repented, sitting in sackcloth and ashes.

14 But it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the judgment, than for you.

15 And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted to heaven, shalt be thrust down to hell.

16 He that heareth you heareth me; and he that despiseth you despiseth me; and he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me.

17 And the seventy returned again with joy, saying, Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name.

18 And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven.

19 Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you.

20 Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven.

 

[Contra_Mundum]

We can't separate Lk.10 from Lk.9:1-6 that preceded it, and from the ministry/mission of Christ in general. I'm not sure exactly what facts mission-societies are gleaning from the sending out of the 70 or 72 (depending on the Gk. text); but there's barely a "pattern" for missionary service in general.

Other than the fact that we have an example of Ecc.4:9-12 put into practice, "Two are better than one, ... For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up! ... And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him..."

There are a few pearls of wisdom for preachers of the gospel generally. Clearly, the 70 are successors to the Twelve, who are sent forth with similar directions, as Mt.10 shows even more clearly; and v23 of Mt.10 is perhaps more explicitly applicable to this sending of 70 than to the training mission for the Twelve, "... for truly, I say to you, you will not have gone through all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes." If this statement was almost absurdly true for what was essentially a Galilean fan, that lasted but a few weeks, it was urgently true for the larger and later mission. The final Passover was also now only weeks away, surely not enough time for 35 teams to get word to every town from Hermon to the Negev. But that didn't mean they shouldn't go forth in obedience, following our Lord's Providential guidance. Again, this is a general truth also applicable to gospel ministry, but I see missionary activity as just a specialized form of the general practice.

Of course, "He who hears you, hears me," v16, is a powerful expression of the authority of the gospel message in the mouth of a commissioned herald. And "a laborer is worthy of his wages," cf.1Tim.5:18. But as for identifying a "person of peace," that seems peculiar to those circumstances to me.


Luke seems to juxtapose the two "sendings" by Jesus, first of the Twelve, then of the greater number of his disciples. The sending of the Twelve was an aspect of their training, and taking the Mt/Mk chronology as more strict, actually takes place earlier in time than Luke records it. Luke sandwiches Peter's confession and the Transfiguration tight between these two sendings.

The "mountain-top" experience is the prelude for Jesus descent into hell, in his process of "going up" to Jerusalem to lay claim to his throne. The sending of the 70 is a kind of "blanket heralding" of the immediacy of the Messiah's approach. It is because of shortness of the duration of this specific sending (as in the first) that Jesus advises both groups not to bother with significant preparations. For missionaries today to simply fly out the door, having some "faith-promise" notion of divine provision based on this text, is to make a radical assumption about how to apply events in Scripture to self, not to mention a careless and presumptuous outlook on God's maintenance.

And should missionaries basically leave a difficult station after a try or two at evangelism, cursing the population as they go? Do we really know we are at a "last-chance" moment for such places? Those were the last days of the Old Covenant. Rejection at that point was truly reason to shake off the dust of a place and move on. We have no such revelations about the Second Coming.

Are we miracle workers? Are we to assume power over demons? How does the presence of those extraordinary signs qualify the 70's commission?


Those are some of my observations, how that commission was like, and perhaps more importantly unlike, a modern missionary's call.
"