In the Gospel reading for the weekend
of July 11/12, Jesus sent His twelve disciples out, two-by-two, to preach in
the surrounding villages. Scripture explains, “He instructed them to take
nothing for the journey but a walking stick—no food, no sack, no money.”
How strange. Jesus sent them out on an
important mission without any supplies at all. If I had been one of the Twelve,
I would have complained, “Hey Jesus, how do you expect us to be successful if
we go wandering out there without any food or money or important stuff?”
At minimum, I would require: cash,
credit cards, snacks, sunglasses, bug spray, bottled water, snacks, road maps, iPhone,
flashlights, first aid kit, snacks, raincoat, umbrella, toothbrush, extra
clothing, GPS, batteries, laptop computer, and just in case, extra snacks. And
of course, if we were going to be away overnight, I would need a lot MORE stuff.
What was Jesus thinking sending those
guys out with nothing but the tunic on their backs? It’s almost as if He was
expecting them to trust in God for all their needs. What a weird concept. Trust
in God? Who does that nowadays?
Oh sure, we believe in God…most of the
time. And we trust in God to meet our needs…in an abstract, general sort of
way. We know that when we’re 90 years old and on our deathbed, we’ll be able to
look back on our lives and say, “Yep, God took care of me and helped me through
the tough times.”
Yes, we trust in God, generally
speaking, but what about the real world? What about today, tomorrow, and next
week? There are real problems to deal with here. The mortgage is due, the job
is stressful, the car is making a funny noise, the teenager kids have green
hair and half a hardware store piercing their various body parts, and a sharp
pain just below the ribcage keeps waking you up in the middle of the night. You
know what I mean, real problems.
Certainly we can’t get all silly and
spiritual and pretend like we can trust in God to deal with real here-and-now
problems, can we? After all, doesn’t the Bible say that God helps those who
help themselves? (Well, actually, the Bible says nothing of the sort. I did a
computer word search. It ain’t in there.)
One of the main themes of Scripture is
that God helps those who are helpless and who trust totally in Him. This is a
completely foreign concept to modern Americans. We need to be in control and
have all the bases covered. Apparently, trusting God wasn’t a problem for
Jesus’ disciples since they went out on their merry way—without ANY
supplies—and had a very successful journey preaching in the countryside.
So what is Jesus trying to tell us
this week, sending the guys out two-by-two but without any supplies? It’s
simple: we must trust in God and assist one another. He didn’t send them out
alone. He sent them out in pairs so they could help and encourage each other.
This is the exact opposite of what we
do. We don’t trust in God and we depend only on ourselves: the quintessentially
American “Lone Ranger, John Wayne, I did it my way” mindset.
One of the mottos of Alcoholics
Anonymous is, “Let go and let God.” One of the hardest things in the world is
to admit we can’t do everything ourselves and we need God’s help. But if we are
able to take Jesus at His word and trust in Him for everything—even the
here-and-now everyday stuff—our lives will be transformed and our journey will
be successful.
And it probably couldn’t hurt to bring
along a few extra snacks.
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