The Sending of the Twelve: Authority Over the Mission (Luke 9:1-6)
Jesus now sends out the Twelve on their first mission. His task is not just carried out by Him. From the start, we see that Jesus is going to empower His followers to carry the task as well. What is that task? How do we as Jesus’s followers accomplish it? What does it look like? Not all those answers are completely (or for some satisfactorily) answered here. Here is what we do see:
What is the task? The Twelve are to proclaim the good news and demonstrate said good news through healings and exorcisms. The miracles are not the primary goal of their mission. They serve to prove the validity of the message.
How do Jesus’s followers accomplish the task? Jesus gives them power and authority. Power is the ability to accomplish their task; authority is the right to do it. Neither the power nor the authority is the disciples’. Jesus has the authority and the power.
What does it look like? Here in Luke, there are a lot of special details and instructions. They will go to a village and stay in the house they are welcomed into. They will preach and heal from that base. If a village rejects them (does not offer them hospitality), they are to testify against that city. They will bring no provisions for their journey and task. Those will be provided by the villages they serve.
There are differences between this first commissioning and what will come later, after Jesus’s ascension. For one, the Twelve here do not have the indwelling Spirit of God. The instructions are more detailed than later efforts, and once the Spirit comes the disciples not only have more power, they have guidance.
People often try to look at this and other examples of scripture to tailor strategies for today’s Christian mission. That is not wrong, but it can be taken too far. The stories in the Bible are not “How Tos” that can be used to reverse engineer a movement of God. The source of the power, guidance, and results then as now, is God Himself. These stories are examples, sure, but they serve to inspire, encourage, and motivate us to trust God and His plans more than as things to be analyzed for strategy.
What is the task? The Twelve are to proclaim the good news and demonstrate said good news through healings and exorcisms. The miracles are not the primary goal of their mission. They serve to prove the validity of the message.
How do Jesus’s followers accomplish the task? Jesus gives them power and authority. Power is the ability to accomplish their task; authority is the right to do it. Neither the power nor the authority is the disciples’. Jesus has the authority and the power.
What does it look like? Here in Luke, there are a lot of special details and instructions. They will go to a village and stay in the house they are welcomed into. They will preach and heal from that base. If a village rejects them (does not offer them hospitality), they are to testify against that city. They will bring no provisions for their journey and task. Those will be provided by the villages they serve.
There are differences between this first commissioning and what will come later, after Jesus’s ascension. For one, the Twelve here do not have the indwelling Spirit of God. The instructions are more detailed than later efforts, and once the Spirit comes the disciples not only have more power, they have guidance.
People often try to look at this and other examples of scripture to tailor strategies for today’s Christian mission. That is not wrong, but it can be taken too far. The stories in the Bible are not “How Tos” that can be used to reverse engineer a movement of God. The source of the power, guidance, and results then as now, is God Himself. These stories are examples, sure, but they serve to inspire, encourage, and motivate us to trust God and His plans more than as things to be analyzed for strategy.
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