Jesus began his ministry by drawing around him a small circle of new disciples; it was the number of Israel’s tribes. Because he felt that his task was to form a new people of God, a new Israel, he took this number as symbolic.
Now Jesus takes the next step in his mission to the world. He selects seventy people and sends them into the surrounding countryside two by two. One thing we can’t help noticing is that there are very few directions. They are “to greet no one on the road.” They are to say “Peace to this house.” They are to accept hospitality. If they are not received they are to leave. In addition, they are told to heal the sick, and say to them “The kingdom of God has come near to you.”
It is significant for Christian life today that the only specific action Jesus commands is to heal the sick. Increasingly for contemporary Christians, the healing ministry is strong and widespread. We can be thankful that healing ministry is an important part of our ministries at St. Simon’s. And then, there is a realization that in a frantic and tense and fearful world, the great power of Christian faith can be to bring healing to the lives of individuals– the healing of fears, angers, anxieties. Perhaps just as valuable is the ability of Christian faith to bring a renewed sense of meaning and purpose into people’s lives.
Our generation of Christians may well be called to a ministry whose primary task is healing, both in individual lives as well as in social and political situations. As we watch Jesus send people out on an essentially healing mission, we realize that healing may be a Christians’ primary vocation in a world of great “dis-ease.”
Peace,
Fr. Bob Dekker+
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