A Wolf or a Lamb?

Today's reading is Luke 10:1-24.

It's a good thing this place forces me to comment and ask questions about each passage we encounter through our reading because, frankly, there are many that I'd just assume to skip over. Yet those are probably the ones I need to wrestle with the most... like today's passage.

Is anyone else bothered by the disconnect between our modern Christian lives and the commands and promises Jesus gives his disciples?

Let me interrupt this thought with another: Whenever there is scripture that confuses, bothers, or seems contrary to what I originally thought or believed about God, or any other spiritual aspect of life, the first examination that follows must be of my own perspective, not the character of God or his word. Even though the temptation is strong to put my own understanding of things at the center of each confusing experience I encounter, God is more Truth than I will ever be able to grasp. He must be at the center, not me. Hopefully that makes sense to you...

So... Jesus sends out 72 disciples to go ahead of him, to all the places and towns he will soon visit. He calls them lambs among wolves, and gives them strict instructions. And whether or not they are welcomed by the people they encounter, the message is to be the same: "The kingdom of God is near."

I don't know why I hadn't had this thought before (probably because I've been avoiding it), but Jesus is sending his disciples to prepare everyone for his own arrival into town. I had always seen it as their own little mission trips, not realizing they were just the opening act, in a way. Jesus was coming, and they just needed to prepare the people for the Main Act. And yet, the town's acceptance or rejection of this opening act determined whether or not they would experience God's healing and deliverance, and oh, please hear this... determined their ultimate acceptance or rejection of God himself. "He who listens to you listens to me; he who rejects you rejects me; but he who rejects me rejects him who sent me."

God has done this before, with his old testament prophets, and, most recently, with John the Baptist. There is such a strong parallel just a few chapters back: Luke 7:29-30. The lambs that God sends us must be listened to. We can't wait until God shows up to accept Him.

So I've changed my course a bit in this post, but obviously this is the message God wanted me to hear. There is more to learn, I'm sure, of how to be a lamb, if that is what I am called to. But today I must take the perspective of the wolf: Am I a person of peace? Then I will receive peace. Will I welcome God's messenger? Only then will I experience God's miracles and enter his kingdom.