I SEND YOU AS SHEEP IN THE MIDST OF WOLVES

«This is the first image of Jesus the evangelizer that is presented: defeated, kicked, not listened to, unwanted, and it is truly a mysterious scene if we think about who Jesus is the evangelizer. This is not a solitary scene, and if Luca put it here, it is because he knows he is touching something that belongs to a constant of the Kingdom of God"

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After the start of Jesus' pilgrimage towards Jerusalem Saint Luke narrates the sending of the twelve (LC 9,1-6). Now "other disciples" are sent by Jesus ahead of him.

It's a number which the tradition of ancient manuscripts transmits in different ways. For some of them there are seventy-two and therefore they would represent all the peoples of the earth, according to the list of Genesis 10, at least following the Greek translation (LXX); because in the Hebrew text (masoretic) the peoples appear to be seventy. In other Greek manuscripts the number seventy is reported, that is, how many elders were chosen by Moses according to the story in Numbers (cap. 11). In one case or the other, Luke says that Jesus sends not only the Twelve, but also other disciples, and sends them to everyone. Let's read the evangelical text of this XIV Sunday of ordinary time.

"During that time, the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of him in every city and place where he was about to go. He told them: “The harvest is abundant, but there are few workers! Therefore pray to the Lord of the harvest, so that he may send workers into his harvest! Go: there, I send you out like lambs among wolves; Don't bring a bag, nor bag, or sandals and don't stop to say hello to anyone along the way. Whatever house you enter, tell me first: “Peace to this house!”. If there will be a son of peace, your peace will come upon him, otherwise it will come back to you. Stay in that house, eating and drinking what they have, because he who works has the right to his reward. Don't go from one house to another. When you enter a city and they welcome you, eat what is offered to you, heal the sick who are there, and tell them: “The kingdom of God is near you”. But when you enter a city and they will not welcome you, go out into its squares and say: “Even the dust of your city, that stuck to our feet, we shake it at you; but know that the kingdom of God is near. I tell you that, on that day, Sodom will be treated less harshly than that city.". The seventy-two returned full of joy, saying: "Man, even the demons submit to us in your name". He told them: “I saw Satan fall from heaven like lightning. there, I have given you power to walk over serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy: nothing can harm you. However, do not rejoice because the demons submit to you; rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven." (LC 10,1-12.17-20).

Staying on topic-number it is clear that twelve evokes the mission to Israel, tale, indeed, it was the number of his tribes; that of seventy or seventy-two can only recall, instead, the universal mission of the Church. However, this has not started, historically, at the time of Jesus, but only after his death and resurrection; the present narration therefore appears as an interpretation, a way of saying that the mission towards the Gentiles was already present in the will of the Lord Jesus. For a sending to the pagans to take place, indeed, those conditions narrated in the Acts of the Apostles must occur, which had not yet been realized at the time Jesus made his journey to Jerusalem. In particular, the persecution of the Church after the death of Stephen and the dispersion of Jesus' disciples; Paul's encounter with Christ; Peter entering the house of the centurion Cornelius and remaining at table with the pagans. In the end, the first assembly in Jerusalem, which resolves issues that had never previously been foreseen, concerning the circumcision or otherwise of converts.

Today's evangelical page can be easily divided into two parts: in the first, instructions on the mission are given, the second describes the return of the envoys. The disciples must go two by two, a probable reference to the value of the testimony which requires confirmation by several: «In your Law it is written that the testimony of two people is true» (GV 8, 17; cf.. Dt 19,15). Jesus warns them that they will be "like lambs among wolves": they will have to, that is, be peaceful despite everything and bring a message of peace to every situation; they will not take with them clothes, money or other useless things, to live on what Providence will offer them; they will take care of the sick, as a sign of God's mercy; where they will be rejected, they will go, merely warning about the responsibility of rejecting the Kingdom of God. The announcement of the coming of Jesus and the Kingdom, then, foresees an urgency that means the disciples won't even have to stop to greet people. Following this, Saint Luke highlights the enthusiasm of the disciples for the good fruits of the mission and records this beautiful expression of Jesus: “Rejoice instead because your names are written in heaven” (LC 10, 20). This entire passage from the Gospel is an invitation to awaken in the baptized the awareness of being missionaries of Christ, called to prepare the way for him with words and with the testimony of life.

I focus on Jesus' phrase reported above in response to the disciples who rejoiced at the outcome of the mission, because it might seem unsettling, played on paradox, as Jesus often does, which uses apocalyptic language due to the mention of demons submitting, of Satan falling from that sky where the names of the missionary disciples are instead ascribed. The evangelical saying wants to underline that every Christian mission, although requiring human availability, does not totally depend on the envoys, but by the power of the Word and by God. For this reason it also provides for refusal; in the Gospel passage, indeed, The idea emerges three times that evangelization can fail. In the expression of v. 6: "otherwise (the pace, n.d.r) will return to you"; in that of v. 10: «when you enter a city and they do not welcome you»; and also in the allusion to the v. 3: to be "lambs among wolves". We could also mention the warning of v. 16 not reported today by the Lectionary, regarding Corazin, Bethsaida and Capernaum, where we talk about Jesus despised and the disciples who suffer the same fate: «Whoever listens to you listens to me, he who despises you despises me. And he who despises me despises him who sent me.". It is understood that the destiny of the disciple is like that of the Master, there may be successes, but also encounter walls that block the way to evangelization. Jesus, from the beginning of his journey to Jerusalem, he is immediately presented as unwelcome, as they were approaching a village of Samaritans: «they did not want to receive him, because he was headed towards Jerusalem" (LC 9,53). Thus that ancient diatribe between Jews and Samaritans, in which social reasons are mixed, cultural and religious, it seems like a premonition of what we see happening today in the land that also belonged to Jesus. As happens in many similar situations, when the unhealed wounds of memory make the resentment of reconciliation stronger. So Jesus also falls into the exact same situation, how boring, enemy scheme. It doesn't matter who it is, what you say or bring: He is a Galilean to be rejected. Indeed we can say that Jesus right from the start, in the Gospel of Luke, He appears like a reject, when the fellow citizens of Nazareth themselves do not want to believe his first announcement, indeed they tried to put him to death (LC 4).

«This is the first image of Jesus the evangelizer that is presented: defeated, kicked, not listened to, unwanted, and it is truly a mysterious scene if we think about who Jesus is the evangelizer. This is not a solitary scene, and if Luca put it here, it is because he knows he is touching something that belongs to a constant of the Kingdom of God" ((C). M. Martini, The evangelizer in Saint Luke, Milan, 2000).

History repeats itself, also for the disciples, and a culpable refusal to the announcement is expected. But these must in any case tell those who reject them that: if we shake the dust at you; but know that the kingdom of God is near." (LC 10,11).

After the Resurrection of Jesus the primitive Church will acquire full awareness of this dynamic and it will be precisely the persecutions unleashed in Jerusalem against Christians of Greek culture that will ensure that the Gospel reaches, together with Baptism and the gift of the Spirit, also to those Samaritans who once did not want to welcome Jesus, as Luke recounts in the Acts of the Apostles (cap. 8). The obstacles of division are thus removed, because the sign of Pentecost, of the new community that now speaks in all languages ​​and unites peoples into a single people, in a family of God, it has become reality. Thanks to It, foreigners have become friends and, beyond borders, they recognize each other as brothers.

From the Hermitage, 06 July 2025

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