The Beloved Son sends ‘seventy’ – a symbolic number for those who are faithful – to prepare for His arrival. This was standard practice when someone important was on their way. The messengers had to make sure they would receive the welcome they deserved. After His Resurrection, these ‘pairs’ became the presence of Jesus in every town they visited. They carried with them the story of Jesus. They proclaimed the power of the life, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus. They celebrated the rituals of Baptism, Table fellowship and healing in a way which continued the revelation and the reality of the Fathers plan for all creation. The mission of Jesus is being handed on!
This sending ‘chain’ is amazing. It begins with Jesus, but the carriers of the message are always changing. Because He is the first the message cannot be lost no matter where it travels. But it can be lost if it ceases to be proclaimed within the embrace of life giving and life affirming relationships. Each new generation of carriers of the message becomes the Body of Christ – the visible sign of God’s presence and action in the world. During His life, intentional disciples ‘followed’ Him. Even when they went ahead of Him, they find that He is already there when they arrive. The Christ, present in the heart of every disciple, encounters the Christ already present in the people they meet. The Eternal Word, who played with God in the creation of the Universe, now waits for intentional disciples to make His presence explicit in the love and forgiveness they pour out, and in the way they bring the suffering of others to an end. In every circumstance, everything depends on the quality of the relationships they create. The harvest is ready, disciples must gather it in. The seed has already been sown and disciples must wait, watch, and encourage its growth. The harvest comes but it is not an end in itself. It is the beginning of a new transformation. Those who eat with full understanding of the One who sowed the seeds, will themselves grow in the art of guiding the seed through harvest to food for others. The Lord of the harvest does not appear at the end but has been the source of growth since the beginning.
Intentional disciples can only do what Jesus did. We can offer the Kingdom but we cannot force its acceptance. In our words and deeds, in fact in our very presence, the Kingdom comes near, but it only arrives when people work hard to understand the meaning of eating and drinking together without any ulterior motive. As we join hands around Loves Table, we begin to see ourselves more clearly as ‘middle people’. If we look carefully at the hands we are holding, and celebrate with Joy all that God is doing for us and through us, we will see with new eyes those who passed the treasure onto us and those to whom we are passing on precious gifts. Perhaps it is simply because we have joined Jesus in His Mission to lessen the destruction of life, that the joy we feel never really leaves us.
And Jesus, the lover of the earth, was filled with this Joy every time his disciples returned from the mission filled with joy that God had worked through them to bless their sisters and brothers. That was why he whispered into the ear of those who would hand on his mission until the end of time, “Your names are written in heaven”.
