The Cost of Labouring for the Gospel

Today we find the Lord sending out of the first missionaries. The seventy-two here actually
follow on closely after the Twelve that He had sent out previously to Israel in Luke 9:1-6.
Now, they may indeed not have been as prominent as the Twelve, but the task was equally
important and theirs too was a calling to spread the Gospel news. Going out in pairs, ‘two
by two’, ahead of Jesus, they are dismissed with the words:

‘The harvest is plentiful, but the labors are few; pray therefore the Lord of the harvest to
send out laborers into his harvest. Go your way; behold I send you out as lambs in the
midst of wolves’ - (Lk 10:2-3).

So despite the fact that the timing is ripe for the mission, great resistance however is to be
expected along the way. But Jesus, all the same, instructs these early missionaries to travel
light on the mission. The strong tone here is on dependence on Him and His provision as
they go out into a world of souls ripe for the harvest.

Now if ever you travel into the country, no more than 50 km from the city, you’ll notice that
Cape Town is surrounded by sprawling fields of wheat. The Swartland and Overberg districts
are our country's ‘breadbasket’ thanks to the dependable winter rainfall we experience. Lying
almost dormant and barren in winter, the fields are golden and ripe for harvest by early
summer. What an industrious and busy time the harvest signals. Extra hands are required
and long hours put in to gather a harvest ready for work. There is a great sense of urgency
lest the crop be lost or spoilt altogether through avoidable delay.

Thus we, even today, can find rich meaning in Jesus’ analogy. The harvest refers to those
who need to hear the Gospel proclaimed so as to be gathered in, lest they, like the wheat,
are too lost for not having been brought in at the time when they are exactly ripe.

Recall that Jesus at this point has His face 'set to go to Jerusalem’ (Lk 9:51). He Himself has
had to deal with an ever increasing amount of open hostility and opposition towards both His
words and ways, not only in Galilee, but also now as He passes through Samaria on towards
Jerusalem. Yet the Gentile world too was much a part of Jesus’ agenda. The Good News is
after all, for Jew and Gentile alike. All manner of men perish without the Good News: That
Jesus is the way of salvation (Jn 14:6).

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The Church throughout the centuries has made much of the ‘Seventy’ we read of today.
Tradition has that many of them laboured unto death for their Saviour. Some became
Bishops, others martyrs. But all were instrumental in the foundation of the Church. And all
were equipped with nothing but an undying trust in God as they searched for souls.

Dangerous missions always require trust and a level of great commitment.

So question beg to be asked of us this morning in the face of this witness:

• Do you look out on the world and see a harvest that is ripe? Ripe with the lost, the
confused, the hurt and the dying?

• Are you able to reach out and preach, minister and heal?

• Are you committed to a mission that surely involves labour, opposition, tribulation,
persecution and many other hardships?

• Are you prepared to face the wolves?

• Do you place your trust solely in Jesus and trust in His ability to supply and meet
your every need?

• And are you committed, devoted and loyal to Him and the Gospel even unto death?

These are but some of the requirements of us as Christian believers. And the sad truth is
that unless you, yourself have a firm and sure confidence in Jesus and His Gospel, you will
not share it. If you do not believe that Jesus and His Gospel are life-changing, and you have
never experienced that impacting or changing your own life, then you’re not going to talk
about it.

William Temple, who was the 98th Archbishop of Canterbury, once wrote:

‘Evangelism is to so present Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit that men might
come to trust Him as Savior and serve Him as Lord in the fellowship of His church’.

These first disciples got to know Jesus and His Gospel, immersed themselves in it, and took
it out into a world that needed to know, that there was, is, indeed a way of salvation. And no
matter what this world throws at you, it will never be able to take your focus off the
proclamation of that saving news.

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During this past week, the Church remembered the First Martyrs of Rome. After the city
burnt in the year AD 64, the Emperor Nero used the occasion to blame Christians and
quickly swept up and directed the public outrage towards the faithful. Terrible persecution
ensued with torture, suffering and death. The pagan Tacitus in his Annals describes the
situation

... Mockery of every sort was added to their deaths. Covered with the skins of beasts,
they were torn by dogs and perished, or were nailed to crosses, or were doomed to the
flames and burnt, to serve as a nightly illumination, when daylight had expired.

Nero offered his gardens for the spectacle, and was exhibiting a show in the circus, while
he mingled with the people in the dress of a charioteer or stood aloft on a car. Hence,
even for criminals who deserved extreme and exemplary punishment, there arose a
feeling of compassion; for it was not, as it seemed, for the public good, but
to glut one man's cruelty, that they were being destroyed. (15, 44)

We are fortunate not to have yet faced such persecution. But the truth be told, it is always in
the face of such, that true believers are shifted from the nominal... when lambs find
themselves in the midst of wolves, faith is tested!

Don’t we ourselves owe much to the blood of martyrs? What a great witnesses and example
of courage and steadfastness in the Christian faith do they not provide? They lived their lives
taking Christ’s instructions seriously enough to imitate His very own example in death. And
in doing so, provide for you, and I, a great encouragement in our walk of faith, pushing us,
continually, to emulate the same.

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.,

Amen.

14th Sunday of the Year

Year C

04 July 2010

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