Getting started is often the hardest step in any endeavor. It doesn’t matter whether it is something lofty, like climbing a gigantic mountain, or something as mundane as putting away our laundry. The first step may seem insurmountable, but if we never take it, then we will never begin. In our churches, we often feel we need to be 100% prepared, and if we aren’t, we ask ourselves whether a lack of certainty and readiness paralyzes us. Without moving toward readiness, we start making excuses: we must first have more money to carry out the work, better education, a fine-tuned program, or the perfect circumstance to be ready to go out and be a faithful witness to the Gospel. We tell ourselves, “We just aren’t ready yet.” In Luke 10, Jesus gathers the seventy-two faithful disciples and tells them it is time to get ready to work. He sends them to towns and places Jesus was going to visit to prepare the way. He gave them no handbook or supplies before they went out; all he said was that the ground is ready, so they needed to get ready to work it. In this area, God is not looking for perfect people acting perfectly; He is only asking for those who are faithful to work for the good of the Gospel, because ultimately God is collecting the harvest that is already His. At every step, God provides for us, as the provision is already arranged. Our calling is to get ready to work.
After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them on ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself intended to go. 2 He said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. 3 Go on your way; I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves. 4 Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals, and greet no one on the road. 5 Whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace to this house!’ 6 And if a person of peace is there, your peace will rest on that person, but if not, it will return to you. 7 Remain in the same house, eating and drinking whatever they provide, for the laborer deserves to be paid. Do not move about from house to house. 8 Whenever you enter a town, and its people welcome you, eat what is set before you; 9 cure the sick who are there, and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’
New Revised Standard Version: Updated Edition (Friendship Press, 2021), Lk 10:1–9.
The world is God’s field, and the Lord has seeded and prepared the land, and the harvest is upon us. Our calling to work has a limited scope, as we are called only to harvest the land God has prepared. The workers are not asked to plant or cultivate the fields, nor are they asked to plan which crops go next to one another. The Lord is the Lord of the harvest. God is already working in our neighborhoods, workplaces, and families before we arrive. This is good news for us, since we do not have the burden of beginning the work; rather, we get to participate with God in the harvest. God takes care of the hard part of starting so we can focus on doing the work. Also, we know that we aren’t even responsible for finishing up the work, because we see in this passage that Jesus sent the seventy-two to the towns where Jesus was going. We are appointed as the advance workers for King Jesus. Our primary purpose is to bring the Gospel through God’s comfort and grace. Through grace, peace will follow as Christ Himself shows up. By participating with Jesus in the harvest, we become partners in God’s mission in the community. However, it begins through prayer and asking God to send out workers for His harvest. Thus, work begins through the understanding that fruitfulness comes from God’s Spirit, not our ingenuity. Therefore, we are called to simply show up because the harvest is already present, prepared, and God’s through sovereign electing grace.
God’s grace carries those ready to work into the fields, not special preparation, training, or tools. Those going into the harvest will be vulnerable to attacks from the enemy and the world. Jesus recognizes this and sends them out knowing they will be like lambs among wolves, because vulnerability is key to effective ministry. Ministry requires vulnerability, not special tools and skills. As God asks the workers to travel light, He also reminds those of us working for the Gospel that we don’t need to carry much because we are supposed to be completely reliant on God. Ultimately, extra weight becomes a crutch we lean on instead of trusting God to carry us through. It’s easy to fill our pockets and hands with a heavy load in the name of being prepared, but when our hands are full of stuff, we can’t receive God’s provision. That provision comes through the very people we are sent to, as the disciples are told to remain in a home, eating and drinking what is provided. The evidence of grace is that even as the Gospel is spread, the very people God sends His servants to become the provision promised. Thus, we do not need an endless stockpile of supplies; we only need a willingness to show up, listen, and share bread with those we meet because God always provides.
When participating in God’s mission, the Church must remember that Jesus was specific in the call and that we aren’t called to do more than the call invites us to do. Too often, our churches get distracted by whatever is happening in the culture at the moment. We chime in on controversies, or do so much to be seen as a body that is constantly status-seeking, and this leads to administrative exhaustion. Jesus calls the workers to bring peace wherever we go, reminding us that we are called to flee anything that pulls people apart and to strive to be a calming agent in a polarized, anxious world. If anything, we should strive to bring reconciliation everywhere we go. Our world has many broken places, and these are precisely where the workers are sent. As we enter these places, the workers are to tend to the sick and the brokenhearted. In these areas, we are supposed to look out for the vulnerable as we visit the lonely and advocate for them. For the peace we bring to these communities will be a louder proclamation of the Good News than any perfect three-point sermon. By doing so, we are a living conduit who brings the Kingdom of God near to the people. We connect every act of mercy to the grand truth of the Gospel, and we proclaim that God’s gracious reign has entered human history through Jesus Christ, the same Jesus who sends us to bring peace to all of the broken communities around us.
We might feel intimidated by the call to work for Christ the way the seventy-two were sent out into the world. This might give us visions of going to a far-away place or learning new customs, but the work starts with taking one step. Think about going on a hike. Some might think of a gigantic undertaking like climbing one of the world’s largest mountains, but plenty of hikes are available right here in our community. This is the same community where God has given us a clear calling to go out and participate in an abundant harvest. To participate, we don’t need a full pack as if we are about to take a trip on the mighty trails across the entire continent; instead, we only need the basics and a willingness to go. God provides for us along the way, and we are called to lean upon only this provision. Therefore, we need to set aside all our excuses about being ill-prepared or not having enough resources to participate. Just like when we go out on the trail to begin our hike, we don’t go assuming we’re trying to win an ultramarathon. When God sends us, we aren’t expected to solve world hunger or bring world peace; instead, we are called to bring peace to the people we are sent to and work to share the Good News with a neighbor, a co-worker, or someone who just needs to know that God loves them. That is the work God calls us to, so we just need to get ready to work.
