Proper 9 Year C

Proper 9

2 Kings 5.1–14
Galatians 6.1–16
Luke 10.1–11, 16–20

Going out like lambs amid wolves hardly makes sense in any culture. Only Jesus could propose something so apparently hare-brained yet strangely powerful. Only he, knowing himself to be utterly vulnerable, yet protected by his Father, could suggest the same course to others. Despite certain opposition, misunderstanding, threats and outright rejection (the squeamish lectionary predictably soft-pedals the latter theme), Jesus’ seventy chosen ones will go out in weakness, and yet in power, as a sign to Israel that the kingdom is breaking in, the kingdom at whose approach the dark enemy, the Satan himself, will fall in terror...