Untitled Sermon

The heart of the narrative is the instructions for the missionaries contained in it. They are prefaced by a brief note about the empowering of the disciples and followed by an account of how they obeyed their command to preach and heal. But we are told nothing about the course of the mission, and the emphasis lies upon the teaching of Jesus.

First, the disciples are (implicitly) commanded to make the theme of their preaching the kingdom of God (cf. 10:8, 11); in Mk. the theme is not stated, but we are told that they preached that men should repent (). Luke has stressed the positive activity of preaching the good news (9:6) of the kingdom, although he himself often emphasizes repentance; the good news of the kingdom (cf. 4:16–21) precedes the call to repent.

Second, the disciples are commanded to travel with the minimum of equipment. They are to avoid the appearance of other missionaries in the Hellenistic world, who made a good thing out of their preaching. At the same time, their lack of material possessions indicates that they put their trust in God to sustain them on his work.

Third, when they enter a house to stay there, they are not to move around from one lodging to another, apparently looking for better conditions. As 10:7 makes clear, they are labourers worthy of what they receive, but this means that they are to be content with what they receive and not look for more.

Finally, if they get a hostile reception—10:10 makes it clear that this is from a town as a whole rather than from a single house—they are to treat the inhabitants of the place in the same way as Jews treated gentiles, by making use of a symbolical act indicative of the lack of fellowship between the people of God and aliens.

Marshall, I. H. (1978). The Gospel of Luke: a commentary on the Greek text (pp. 350–351). Exeter: Paternoster Press.