The Way of the Lamb

After Pentecost • Sermon • Submitted 2 years ago

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Jesus sends out his followers as lambs among the wolves. By embodying Jesus' lamb-like calling and proclaiming his gospel of peace, we announce the Kingdom of God.

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When we want to succeed, we strive to be more skilled, more powerful, more creative---more, more more.

Teams win by working harder, Pol. campaigns by raising more money, Armies by having more troops & weapons

In the upside kingdom, less is more. We see this in Jesus’ instructions to his disciples as he sends them out to announce the kingdom

Luke 10:1–12 NLT

The Lord now chose seventy-two other disciples and sent them ahead in pairs to all the towns and places he planned to visit. These were his instructions to them: “The harvest is great, but the workers are few. So pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest; ask him to send more workers into his fields. Now go, and remember that I am sending you out as lambs among wolves. Don’t take any money with you, nor a traveler’s bag, nor an extra pair of sandals. And don’t stop to greet anyone on the road. “Whenever you enter someone’s home, first say, ‘May God’s peace be on this house.’ If those who live there are peaceful, the blessing will stand; if they are not, the blessing will return to you. Don’t move around from home to home. Stay in one place, eating and drinking what they provide. Don’t hesitate to accept hospitality, because those who work deserve their pay. “If you enter a town and it welcomes you, eat whatever is set before you. Heal the sick, and tell them, ‘The Kingdom of God is near you now.’ But if a town refuses to welcome you, go out into its streets and say, ‘We wipe even the dust of your town from our feet to show that we have abandoned you to your fate. And know this—the Kingdom of God is near!’ I assure you, even wicked Sodom will be better off than such a town on judgment day.

“I am sending you out like lambs among wolves” Jesus says. What does this mean?

Unassuming Messengers

Weakness

You would expect Jesus to send out his people from positions of strength and authority

Sending them out with some flaming sword angels would do the trick

Maybe empower them to call down fire on unbelievers

But Jesus sends them out like lambs among wolves

Lambs among wolves will quickly become dinner.

The weakness (positional, not moral) of Jesus’ followers shows the power of God to look out for and watch over us, sustaining us through difficult times

Jesus probably has in mind a quote from Isaiah, describing new creation

Isaiah 65:25 NLT

The wolf and the lamb will feed together. The lion will eat hay like a cow. But the snakes will eat dust. In those days no one will be hurt or destroyed on my holy mountain. I, the Lord, have spoken!”

God’s new creation is breaking into the old one. We see how he sustains his lamb-like disciples in their weakness

Following Jesus

But there’s something else going on here too. We see lamb like language all over the bible.

Sacrificial law often prescribes lambs offered in atonement for sin

Pastoral language - David: The Lord is my shepherd (implied, I am his sheep or lamb) So God’s followers’ calling is to be like sheep

Messianic language: John the Baptist “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (Jn. 1:29)

Jesus’ disciples are being sent out as lambs whose sacrifice prefiguring Jesus’ sacrificial death

We come after Jesus, so we can’t prefigure, but we follow after Jesus taking up his lamb-like vocation.

The saints follow the lamb wherever he goes (Rev. 14:4)

Just as Jesus gives himself in sacrificial love, so we do the same through:

Generosity to the needy, Forgiveness to those who have wronged us, Humble Service to the poor & weak

We are truly his disciples when we adopt his lamb-like posture towards the world

A Message of Peace

The manner of the disciples’ calling is important, but so too is the content of their message

God’s Generous Offer

The disciples take with them a message that God’s Kingdom has come close

Jesus instructs them to stay with people of peace b/c such people have proven receptive to his peace agenda

But many of Jesus’ contemporaries have no interest in pace

They have lost patience w/pagan Roman occupiers

They look for a kingdom forged in the war they’re sure they’ll win

They want a Messiah whose gospel is war not peace

Jesus comes to offer peace, but many of his people aren’t interested in peace

The Consequences of Rejecting Peace

When the disciples wipe the dust from their feet, are they threatening God’s punishment?

No, they’re saying that the means don’t match the objective

Like saving for retirement at the casino, it’s a plan, but it’s a very, very bad one

Jesus is telling them that if they reject the offer of peace to pursue war, that the natural consequences of that will be catastrophe.

CONSEQUENCES OR PUNISHMENT? | If parents warn a child to stay away from the street, but the child runs out into traffic and is seriously injured, is that injury punishment? No, it’s consequence. God isn’t announcing punishment, he’s warning of consequences.

The chickens come home to roost about 40 years later. Jewish nationalists provoke war w/Rome

Hundreds of thousands of Jews die, Jerusalem & Temple destroyed, Jews exiled from homeland for 1900 years

It truely is more bearable for Sodom (overthrown in a day) than for Jerusalem (starved for months)

It’s especially bitter b/c God’s kingdom came near, and the people rejected it to pursue a disaster

Putting it Into Practice

2K years later, Jesus’ command still important to us: we are to embody his lamb-like calling & announce gospel of peace by:

Embodying His Lamb-Likeness

Speaking form a place of powerlessness, trusting God to make it effective

Maybe we don’t need more showmanship but greater dependence on God to be effective?

Being willing to make sacrifices for others (forgiveness, inclusion, generosity, humility)

Proclaiming This Gospel of Peace

As Jesus’ message calls people to peace & reconciliation (P&R), so we too ought to look to (P&R) to bring KoG

We don’t stand for war or violence (even when we’re pressured to bless the use of violence).

VIETNAM | During war in Vietnam, it was patriotic duty of Christians to fight and kill their country’s enemies. Jesus tells us war can never bring the kingdom.

Also in our comportment: We don’t seek to dominate or humiliate our enemies, but instead to work with them.

Choosing God’s Way Over Our Way

As followers of Jesus, we want to see God’s Kingdom come, maximum human flourishing

But we often have our own ideas about how to do this, and they don’t look very lamb-like

But perhaps we need to pay attention to what Jesus tells us and the example he set for us

The way of God’s kingdom doesn’t come when we’re wolves among lambs, but when we’re lambs among wolves.