Go Tell

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF LUKE

GO TELL

Luke 9:1-6

9:1 When Jesus had called the Twelve together, he gave them power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases, 2 and he sent them out to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick. 3 He told them: "Take nothing for the journey — no staff, no bag, no bread, no money, no extra tunic. 4 Whatever house you enter, stay there until you leave that town. 5 If people do not welcome you, shake the dust off your feet when you leave their town, as a testimony against them."  6 So they set out and went from village to village, preaching the gospel and healing people everywhere.

NIV

This is certainly just a record of what took place between Jesus and the twelve and apparently has little to do with us. It would seem we are not to identify with these twelve in any sense, such as, going on a journey without any supplies to preach the gospel with the power to drive out demons and cure diseases. So what can we learn here for our life lesson? How long were they gone? How many towns did their visit? Were they fed and housed by the owner of the house who invited them in? How did they live? Nothing is said about any of that, expect they set out as Jesus told them to, without any provisions. Perhaps this could only apply to missionaries as they are sent out to preach the kingdom of God, but they usually do not have the power to drive our demons and cure diseases and certainly not without provisions,  so we are back to just the twelve. Maybe this is a lesson in just doing what Jesus told them to do. A lesson in believing God will provide without us helping him. They had no idea where they  would sleep, no extra tunic for those cold nights, where they would eat, no food taken, no staff for defense, or hunting, nothing, just the clothes in their backs. They would have to depend on God for all their provisions, hospitality of strangers would be their provisions. As we do not know what towns they visited or how long they stayed in each or if they knew anyone in any of these towns. We are still left with believing God will provide even when we have nothing of our own, without us helping him. But then have we been told to go into every town and preach about the kingdom of God? It seems we have because Jesus said, “Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation”. We certainly have accepted those words, but it seems we only do that through paying missionaries to do that. Maybe we just need to see this as a twofold lesson about, first doing what Jesus tells us, and second believing God will provide for us. However that looks may be different for each of us. But the end result should always look like more people hearing about the kingdom of God. Some will accept it and some will not, and if they reject it, shake the dust off our feet and move on to the next person. We cannot hammer the kingdom into their hearts and minds, all we can do is tell them about it and maybe, just maybe if we are telling we might just also get some power as well. But the idea here is to go tell.