‘’Mission.’’ Luke 10,v1-20, July 6th 2025.
By Bishop Norman Banks.,
From St. Luke’s Gospel, Jesus said to them, I watched Satan fall like lightning from heaven.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
So the 72 come back to Jesus after their for first foray into the mission field, and they are it was recorded, ‘’rejoicing’’.
Well, that word ‘’rejoicing’’ does little justice to their emotions. They were fit to bursting. With exultant joy joy, the Greek word implies leaping about and hand waving. The nearest I can get to it is like doing a positive Desmond Tutu (an African Bishop known for his enthusiastic worship).
You see what Jesus had predicted, had come to pass. It had happened. Somehow by speaking in his name, had caused all opposition to fall away from them. So they said, ‘’even the devil submit when we use your name’’.
Now, Jesus listens to this carefully. Sure, he’s delighted, but what follows from him is one of those mystifying, tantalizing statements that offer more questions than answers. He hints, it’s very rare, but he hints at his divine nature and his knowledge of his preexistence in heaven.
The words of scripture ‘’I watched Satan fall like lightning from heaven’’. Yes, I have given you power to tread underfoot, ‘’serpents and scorpions.’’ Now, have you ever thought about why he says serpents and scorpions?
Well, what he’s explaining to them, and they would’ve picked it up as pious Jews, that it was quite deliberate, that he’d sent out 72 in mission. For this was the number of elders that had been appointed by Moses on the Holy Mountain, who had received a share of the Holy Spirit that rested on Moses.
And of course then the protection offered by Moses to his people in the wilderness against those venomous snakes. Remember, they’re all being bitten to death. God said, ‘hold up that bronze serpent’ people look at it and they will no longer die. What Jesus is alluding to, that he is the new Moses, and they are the new 72, who he sent out into the towns and villages, and they had been protected just as the people had been protected by looking at the bronze serpents.
But he also implies, of course, that going out amongst the towns and villages, was going into a spiritual wilderness, going into the desert. The desert of the Exodus.
And so they have gone out in the name of Jesus, the new Moses, and what they discover, is speaking in the name of Jesus, it gives them a power and authority that completely intoxicates them. They return elated, ministering in the name of Jesus works.
Well, that now worries Jesus a little bit. He doesn’t want them to get over-full of themselves or to get the wrong idea, and so we get from him a sobering warning.
He says to them, mission is not about success in numbers. Mission is not even the healings and the exorcisms, that have been so effective. Mission is a celebration he says, of sharing in my life and in my kingdom, making known to the people, the love of God, making known that in me, the victory will be won. Your task is to help people to understand it, to realize it.
And this has continued to be at the heart of what we know as mission and as Christian discipleship. That’s why I began our worship this morning with those few words.
Now, I don’t want to flatter you. That’s not good for anybody, but I would like to say and take this opportunity, that coming to worship with you here and in the past in the barn (Kosmik Cultuurboerderij) that you had before you here, um, has for me been an extremely encouraging experience.
And why is it?
Well, it’s because in you, I actually do see an example of a church that is living out the life of the 72. That here, there is an openness and an availability, as you worship God and have fellowship as a living Christian family. You are available. People can come and feel welcomed, and at home.
You’ve used absolutely everything you possibly can, even modern technology to make worship time, something that people will be able to respond to and resonate with very, very quickly. And you are a living Christian family. And for this truly, thanks be to God.
But I think you also realize that the job that you have, the mission that you’ve got, the vocation that you have here, is only ever going to get more difficult in the harder and harsher secular world in which we are now living. And I know that, you know, there is so much to be done and you cannot, you cannot sit on your laurels, as they say. You cannot pause, you cannot think that your work is done. Quite the opposite.
Perhaps one reason for the problems that we have within the wider Church and within so many of our Christian communities, which I don’t see here, but I think you, you’ll know what I mean when I say it, is that for so many people because of that, that sense, um, that out there, the world is antipathetic to the church, that faith has become a private matter that we, people get on with their faith, uh, on a Sunday or in their homes or whatever, and they’re almost frightened to, to share it or, or talk to other people, even to even say that they’ve been to church, uh, on a, on a Sunday.
But Christianity is not a private matter. It cannot be a private matter. Christianity, the faith, the relationship with Jesus cannot be held by one person. We cannot hold it just to ourselves. It’s one of the main things that Jesus continued to say over and again to his disciples. ‘’Don’t cling on to me’’. Uh, you are, you are my representatives, but you know, you have to be there for others.
And of course, Jesus as we. As we read in the mission that he had with his disciples, he always sent them out, at least in pairs. Do you notice how he always taught in groups, even though he sometimes took one or two aside and revealed to them his nature in special and specific ways.
And after his resurrection and the ascension. Why was it, how was it that this small, tiny group of followers, of this one man, this young rabbi Jesus, were able to captivate and capture the spirit of so many people so quickly? The Holy Spirit spread, the gospel spread across the Roman with empire. As they said from the time of Jesus right up until the 19th century, that was the time when the, the Roman roads allowed the good news to spread across the then known world.
Never forget that Christianity took hold, because society and societies were used up. They were, they were parched. So much of society was, was so harsh and so disillusioned with the delusional gods.
Christianity took root and it spread so rapidly because it was fresh, it was wholesome, it was good news. The life and teaching of Jesus made sense. It changed lives for good, and we’re in that sort of world again now.
But that is not to say that if we are intentional in the right way, if the church recognizes, what it is about, then the sense that good news can, again, particularly within Western Europe, spread afresh.
I might have said to you before, but I worked with an elderly religious sister and she said Christianity took root because people were hungry and it was like the smell of fresh baking bread on the air.
So then coming to the end now, but Jesus reminds those 72, those missionaries, and they were extremely brave fo followers of Jesus, extremely devoted to him, to have gone out in the way in which they did. Jesus reminds them, and he continues to remind us, that his prime goal is to restore people to his heavenly Father. To get people back into a right relationship with God.
And of course, from having a right relationship with our Heavenly Father, flows new transformative life.
He tells them, don’t worry about yourselves. Your names are already written in the Book of life in heaven. Don’t worry about yourselves, worry about those whose names are not written in the book, whose names are yet to be written?
Vocation is a Christian, is to bring others to the knowledge That is the greatest gift that we possess, which is our friendship with the Lord. It’s a task, it’s a privilege, it’s a responsibility. It’s no different in our generation, than it has been through all the generations.
Going back to those 72, and I don’t know about you. But in my Christian ministry, not necessarily as a priest and bishop, but as my Christian ministry, going back before then, there is no greater experience. There’s no more intoxicating joy than of winning a soul for Christ.
So I end with a challenge. Thinking about those 72 and that sense of excitement they had when they reported back to Jesus. When’s the last time that you actually hugged yourself in the knowledge of the good news, that our names are written in the Book of life and that we are Christ’s and as he is ours for all eternity? When did we last hug ourselves? Just because we know that the Lord truly rules in our hearts.
And in return, having said all of that, all that Jesus offers to us and all he continues to offer to us, what does he ask for from us in return? What’s the Lord asking from us in return?
It’s simply that we share that same treasure, that same healing, that same renewal, that same restorative love with others. For in Christ the prophecy of Isaiah is truly fulfilled in abundance ‘as a mother comforts her child, so I will comfort you’, so you and I, and I have full faith and confidence in you as a shining example of a Christian community living out the gospel – to take that comfort that we receive out into our parched and hurting world, and let the kingdom in break for us and to God’s glory.
Amen.