NOTES for Luk 10:13-16

And so Jesus sends His disciples out to preach. See what authority He gives them! A whole chain of “authorized representation” is formed here: the Father sends His Son into the world and gives Him all power and authority; the Son, as He educates His disciples, prepares them to become future messengers and Apostles, and raises up the Church that will later bear witness to Christ, passes His authority on to them.

When we become Christians, we are called to bear witness to Him, and therefore these words of Jesus apply to us as well. Whoever rejects our words and our witness also rejects the Son and the Father! That is remarkable. We might rejoice in such authority being granted to us. But I am more inclined to reflect on our responsibility for our words, and for the substance and adequacy of our witness—and to pray about it...

Several times during His earthly ministry Jesus sent His disciples out to preach. And the chief meaning of this preaching was always witness to the Kingdom, to the fact that it is near and ready to enter the world. Of course, such witness was important for preparing people for what was to happen on the day of Pentecost. But this mission was no less significant for the disciples themselves. They too needed to experience the reality of the Kingdom for themselves. They needed to understand what it is like to be its citizen. Of course, this was not yet the experience of Pentecost; the fullness of the breath of the Kingdom breaking into the world like a whirlwind still lay ahead. Yet those sent out to preach felt the first, still distant and faint, but entirely real movement of that breath.

It was enough that, according to their own words, even demons obeyed them. Meanwhile, the Savior directs their attention to something else. He says: rejoice not in power over spirits, but in the fact that your names are written in heaven. For the Kingdom is not superpowers, not mastery of some secret forces, whether natural or supernatural. The Kingdom is, above all, participation in a new life. A life that does not exist in nature. And that means a new quality of one's own life, inward and outward. This, in fact, is Christianity.

By sending His disciples out to preach, Jesus gave them the opportunity to understand what Christianity is. Of course, later He would say much to the Twelve in words. Especially during the Last Supper. But without this mission, without the experience connected with it, His words would hardly have been at all intelligible even to the Twelve. Words could only describe how to live so as not to lose what they had already partly joined.

The experience of the breath of the Kingdom entering the world through a heart that has joined in that breath is the most precious experience, and nothing can replace it. And the Savior gives this experience to His disciples so that afterward, in the days of Gethsemane, and after the Resurrection, and on the very day of Pentecost, it would become a measure for them. So that they would not be deceived about the new life and would not doubt the reality of what was not at all easy to believe in. And so that, as they joined the life of the Kingdom, they would feel that they were returning home, where they were awaited. And where He Himself was ready to meet them.

All of us, in one way or another, are called to apostleship, to the preaching of the Gospel. Clearly, not everyone must be a missionary, a preacher, or some other "minister of the word"; nevertheless, witness to Christ is the work of the whole Church. Today's passage will help us understand the principles on which such ministry should be built.

First, openness and complete trust in God; second, openness and goodwill toward the people to whom we bring the Gospel; third, the real action of grace through us. It may be expressed not only in healing the sick and those possessed by demons, but also in every good deed, in prayer for these people, in peacemaking, or simply in the presence of a loving heart where love is lacking.

The disciples are glad that they have become heralds and co-workers of God's Kingdom, victors over demons and healers of diseases. But Jesus stops them: "You are rejoicing over the wrong thing"... God gives those who believe in Him many good and amazing things (if they can see them), but the chief value of His Kingdom is not this.

The disciples, and with them the readers of the Gospel, are blessed, happy already because they have seen and heard what the prophets and sages of antiquity only dreamed of: they are witnesses, witnesses not only of miracles, healings, victories over evil, but they are near the very Center of God's Kingdom.

So this is not an abstraction, not paradise, not an afterlife, not gifts and miracles, but God Himself, revealed to people in His Son Jesus.

Today's reading brings us back once again to a passage connected with the theme of the apostolic proclamation. Unlike Matthew, Luke mentions a certain wider circle of seventy apostles about whom Matthew says nothing. But this does not change the essence of the matter: the seventy apostles receive from Jesus the same instruction that was given to the twelve closest disciples. Apparently, Jesus allowed no esotericism in His circle and had no special secret teaching for the “initiated.” And when the apostles returned, elated by their victory, and told their Teacher about the healings and exorcisms they had performed, He advised them to rejoice not in these successes, but in the fact that their names were “written in heaven” (vv. 17–20).

The point is, of course, not that the successes of His apostles in proclaiming the Kingdom were unimportant to Jesus. He simply considered it necessary to set the emphasis correctly in His disciples' spiritual lives. Visible successes always attract attention. And the apostles' attention was apparently fixed on the actions and manifestations of the Kingdom that accompanied their proclamation. Here there is always the danger of becoming absorbed in the process and forgetting what matters most. One can bear witness to the Kingdom only when one is rooted in it oneself. Such rootedness does not arise by itself; it is given by God and needs constant strengthening. For a person who physically lives in a world not yet transformed and lying in evil, abiding in the Kingdom is itself a distinct spiritual task.

But something else is important here as well. Bearing witness to the Kingdom is not an end in itself either. At first sight this sounds paradoxical, for Jesus Himself and all the apostles are occupied solely with bearing witness to it in word and deed! And yet bearing witness to the Kingdom is secondary. In the end it resembles an author displaying a work he has created: he himself, and sometimes some of his friends, invites everyone interested to look at what the author has managed to make. But what if such a work needed constant renewal and could exist only in this way? Then the chief task would clearly be not the display as such, but the creative effort directed towards renewing the work itself.

In the case of the Kingdom, the witness finds himself in precisely this position. One can bear witness to it only by manifesting it, and one can manifest it only by renewing one's own spiritual life through contact with it, a life that cannot be renewed in any other way. It then turns out, paradoxically enough, that the witness's chief work is not to bear witness to the Kingdom, but to live in it, and to live openly, in full view of everyone. This is how the chief task Jesus gives His disciples is accomplished: the growth of the Kingdom, which after His return will embrace the whole world.

Let us listen, and then reflect on what Saint Theophan the Recluse tells us in his commentary on today's Gospel passage (Thoughts for Each Day of the Year): ‘So unbelievers have no reason to comfort themselves with hopes of the Lord's indulgence. Only here on earth can they do as they please; once death comes, the full storm of God's wrath will descend upon them. What a great misfortune to be among the unbelievers! Even on earth they have no joy, for without God and the Lord Jesus Christ, the Saviour and Redeemer, everything here too is dark and comfortless; as for what awaits them there, it is impossible either to describe in words or to imagine. It would be more comforting to cease to exist, but even that will not be granted them.’ Are we ready to follow him in this rigorism, severity and harshness? Perhaps some are ready, but the author of these lines feels a certain fear when thinking of these words of the saint. What, then, do we believers exist for? Only to save ourselves? But that is not very noble. A prayer from the prayers for Holy Communion comes to mind: ‘For You, Lover of mankind, have said through Your prophet: I do not desire the death of the sinner, but that he should turn and live. For You do not desire, O Master, to destroy the work of Your hands, nor do You take pleasure in the destruction of humankind, but You desire that all should be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth…’ (Prayers before Communion, first prayer of Saint Basil the Great). These words place the emphasis quite differently. Who, then, are the people who must help the Lord fulfil His desire for the salvation of all? Clearly, those who are closest to Him: it is through their labour together with the Lord that the Earth is sustained. Thus, the fearsome words spoken by the Saviour today are, in fact, exclusively didactic, preparatory and educational in character. We are very sure of this, even if someone says we are wrong. But we have great faith in our great and holy father Basil, and we very much wish to say with him: but You, O Lord, being free from malice… (the same prayer).

At first sight, Jesus' words about the peace that should be offered to everyone seem rather strange. Of course, one should greet people on entering a house, whoever lives there. Yet the meaning of the traditional Jewish greeting is inseparable from wishing the house one enters that peace of God which, by definition, cannot be given to the wicked. Does this mean that Jesus makes no distinction between sin and righteousness? Hardly. Apparently He gives the traditional Jewish greeting a different, new meaning. That meaning becomes clear in the context of the central message of the disciples He sends out: their witness that the Kingdom has drawn near. Then everything falls into place. Indeed, if it is the Kingdom we are speaking of, it is no longer for human beings to decide who is worthy of it and who is not. Each of us is sinful, and each in our own way; it is not for us to judge the extent of another's sin. If we can bear witness to the Kingdom, it is not because of our own sinfulness but despite it. All that remains for us, then, is to bear witness to what has been revealed and given to us through no merit of our own. And the peace of the Kingdom is the only thing we can give the house we enter. The rest is not our concern: the One who brought the Kingdom into the world will decide who is worthy. In any case, we will lose nothing: if someone in the house we visit accepts the Kingdom, there will be more of it in the world; if no one accepts it, at least there will not be less.

The institution of messengers—or apostles, as they are called in Greek—existed in all Jewish religious brotherhoods from their very foundation. They had two tasks: preaching and bearing witness. The distinction was that preaching was usually addressed to outsiders, those who had not yet joined the brotherhood, in the hope that they too might one day join the movement. Most Jewish religious brotherhoods were movements of communities rather than rigidly centralized organizations. Witness, on the other hand, was directed to their own members, who needed spiritual support and a kind of sharing of spiritual experience: remarkable things sometimes happened in the various communities within the movement, and people needed to hear about them firsthand, from those who had witnessed them.

Naturally, such messengers stayed with their own people, in the homes of those already belonging to the brotherhood; while the messenger was staying there, these homes became the chief centers of the community's life. They bore witness primarily to their own members. To everyone else, they spoke not of what they discussed within their close circle of like-minded people, but of their brotherhood, inviting them to join the movement in order to hear the most interesting things and share in its communal life. Jesus, however, apparently requires His messengers, His apostles, to bear witness to what matters most before everyone willing to listen.

Moreover, He calls on them not to divide people into “insiders” and “outsiders” at all, nor to pick and choose the houses where they will stay on entering an unfamiliar town, but to accept the hospitality of anyone willing to share a roof with them. In turn, they are to share just as generously with everyone their living witness to the Kingdom, for which they have been given power, healing all who need healing. Christianity is not a new religion whose following the Savior wishes to increase, but the life of the Kingdom, in which He wishes as many people as possible to share. To share in it, so as to be saved.

As we read Luke the Evangelist's account of the sending of the seventy apostles to preach, it is important for us to determine as precisely as possible the charge with which Christ sends them. The Evangelist conveys in detail the Lord's words that the seventy should not prepare for long and difficult journeys, but, relying on God, should be content with what He would send them along the way. The main thing, the Lord says, is this: where they receive you, stay there; where they do not receive you, go on from there. The essence of what the Lord sends them with is to bring the message of peace and that the Kingdom of God has drawn near to you.

So the task of the seventy apostles, and after them of the whole Church, is to announce to people that Christ is already near, close beside them. After the apostles, the Lord Himself will come into those villages and towns and will speak the word to those who want to hear and heal those who suffer. In the apostolic ministry of the Church, the main thing is to proclaim to the world the coming of Christ, and the key element in this witness, according to Christ's word, is the ministry of peace. Not to scourge people's vices and "rebuild society," but to bring peace to those who are willing to receive it.

The Lord says: "If a son of peace is there, your peace will rest upon him." It is important that He does not say "My peace," although the prophets had long said that He Himself is peace for people, as the apostle Paul will repeat: "He is our peace." In order to fulfill the commission given to them, the seventy apostles, and the whole Church after them, must themselves be filled with this peace of God, so that it truly becomes ours.