The Sánchez Archives FOURTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME Year C

By
Patricia Datchuck Sánchez

Savvy Travelers

ISAIAH 66:10-14
GALATIANS 6:14-18
LUKE 10:1-12, 17-20

Savvy travelers about to embark on a trip often prepare themselves by consulting the appropriate experts. A wealth of helpful information can be found in the form of travel guides which are readily available at any local library or bookstore. Therein, amateur tourists and veteran globe-trotters alike, can become familiar with what there is to see and to do in their chosen destination. Maps of the region aid in planning travel routes. Charts of average temperatures and rainfalls, addresses and telephone numbers of tour operators, timetables for buses and trains, calendars of special events, tables of the monetary exchange rate and listings of local museums, galleries, post offices, markets, banks, etc. . . all prove helpful to those who wish their travels to be uneventful and worry-free. Many guide books also include a region by region description of the most important and interesting sites to visit as well as a brief survey of the history of the area and a profile of personality of the local residents. Budget-minded or financially-strapped travelers usually appreciate the travel-guides’ recommendations as to the price ranges of various restaurants, hotels and motels. Some guides contain descriptions and recommendations as to the local cuisine and certain gourmet specialties. Many also provide a brief dictionary of important words and useful phrases to facilitate the travelers’ efforts at communication. A few of the more detailed travel books even offer tips concerning certain mores and cultural sensitivities of which the average tourist may be unaware. More often than not, those who avail themselves of such information enjoy more pleasant and memorable travel experiences.

In today’s gospel, Luke has featured Jesus detailing a list of travel tips and information of a very different sort; while this advice may not compare to that which is included in a Fodor’s or a Michelin or any other such guide, it is nevertheless valuable and necessary for every would-be disciple.

Because missionary outreach is an integral expression of every believer’s faith and commitment, Jesus thought it important to offer his itinerant followers some guidelines so that their efforts at ministry would be unencumbered. Rather than plan ahead for every eventuality, the disciples were to rely on the hospitality of those among whom they were called to serve. Rather than pack for every possible need and/or desire, they were to travel lightly, with only the barest essentials.

Instead of plotting an itinerary that would include all the major tourist attractions, they were to travel wherever the needs of their ministry would dictate. Rather than flit from place to place, sampling one gastronomical treat after another, the disciples of Jesus were to reside in one place, accepting gratefully and without complaint whatever simple fare was offered to them. Following the example, he had set for them, believers in Jesus were not to be pampered guests but servants, attentive to the needs of all who sought healing, peace and the good news of salvation. They would not have the prerogative of becoming comfortably ensconced in any one place; their on-going and world-wide mission would demand mobility, flexibility and a willingness to be continually uprooted for the sake of the reign of God.

Paul, for one, took Jesus’ travel advice seriously; scholars estimate that he traveled no less than 15,000 miles in service of the gospel. As he racked up all those “frequent flier miles”, his only concern was that the good news of Jesus’ saving cross be revealed to as many as possible. To that end, he boasted of that cross to the Galatians (second reading), insisting nothing else mattered except that one be created anew by the peace and mercy it afforded. Third-Isaiah, in today’s first reading, envisioned the peace and mercy of God extending from Jerusalem to all the nations of the earth.

All that the ancient prophet anticipated for his people and the world was fulfilled in the person and mission of Jesus. Until such time as their earthly pilgrimage has ended, believer in Jesus are charged with continuing his mission: To that end, each of us is called to heed Jesus’ advice and to conduct ourselves as savvy travelers in his name.

ISAIAH 66:10-14

In one passage of his book, To Jerusalem and Back, the Nobel Prize-winning Jewish author, Saul Bellow, described the mystical grip which Jerusalem exercises upon its visitors. “The air, the very air, is thought nourishing in Jerusalem, the Sages themselves said so. . . The universe interprets itself before your eyes in the openness of the rock-jumbled valley ending in dead water. Elsewhere, you die and disintegrate. Here, you die and mingle.” Indeed, in modern Jerusalem, the past mingles with the present as ancient ruins survive alongside modern skyscrapers. The scars of many wars are not cosmetically hidden; rather, Jerusalem seems to flaunt them like precious etchings that memorialize an enduring strength and resilience. Referring to Jerusalem’s treasures and tourist attractions, Yehudah Amichai, the city’s poet laureate advises visitors, that the arch, preserved from the period of the Romans, is not as important as the man who sits next to it. Whereas the arch bears silent witness, the man can fill your ears with the stories of the city, its people and its hope. Not a twentieth century phenomenon, the idealization of the city of Jerusalem is deeply rooted in Israel’s ancient traditions. By drawing on those traditions, the prophet and author of today’s first reading was able to offer hope and encouragement to his contemporaries.

Part of a longer poem which announced the end of Jerusalem’s suffering and the beginning of a new era of peace, this vision of Trito-Isaiah was intended as a message of consolation for the post-exilic inhabitants of Jerusalem. Their homecoming from Babylon had been bittersweet. On the one hand, they were pleased at returning to their own land and to the promise of a new beginning. On the other hand, the process of reconstruction was difficult, the pace plodding. Aware of their ambivalence, Third-Isaiah summoned his people to rejoice as he delivered what has been described as an oracle of salvation.

Although the prophet’s oracle is an anthological composite of phrases drawn from other sources (e.g., v. 10 = Zechariah 9:9; Isaiah 3:14; Isaiah 60:1; v. 12 = Psalm 46:5; Ezekiel 47; v. 13 = Isaiah 40:1, 52:9), his image of Jerusalem’s maternity is somewhat original. As Thierry Maertens and Jean Frisque (Guide For the Christian Assembly, Fides Pub. Inc., Notre Dame, IN: 1972) have noted, the Hebrew scriptures included frequent allusions to the imminent fertility of Jerusalem as a loved, forgiven and reconciled spouse, but this is the first time that Jerusalem’s tenderness for her children as a mother has been stressed. However, the consolation she offers is not her own; it is her gift from God; therefore, Jerusalem becomes the sacrament of God’s loving, nourishing, life-giving presence in the world.

Maertens and Frisque counsel Christians, who apply Trito-Isaiah’s image of the people of God to the church, against too “horizontal” an interpretation. The people of God do not exist merely because of the association of its members or due to a federation of local assemblies. The church, as did Israel before it, depends on a founding act that is outside itself. For this reason, the prophet’s image of motherhood speaks a valuable message in that it places emphasis on an antecedent act. God is logically prior to the people of God; having called forth Israel into being, God also calls forth and sustains the church. In response to that call, each of us who has been called forth becomes responsible for nourishing one another as well as the universal band of pilgrims who have been summoned by God to travel the world with us en route to the same eternal destination.

GALATIANS 6:14-18

Visitors to the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin, Ireland, can view Papyrus # 46 which contains the conclusion of Paul’s letter to the churches in Galatia (Galatians 6:10-18). Dated ca. 200 C.E., this document is the oldest known manuscript of Paul’s letters and its copyist followed the apostle’s lead, writing large and bold to stress the importance of his message (see Galatians 6:11).

Ending his letter with the same emphasis with which he began, Paul proclaimed that the gift of God’s grace is the sole cause of salvation. For Paul, the term charis or grace summed up the whole of the good news revealed by God in Jesus Christ. Paul understood that grace is God’s free gift, undetermined by any human circumstance, and independent of the law. As F.F. Bruce (Paul, Apostle of the Heart Set Free, William B. Eerdmans Pub. Co., Grand Rapids: 1977) has pointed out, the free grace of God which Paul proclaimed is free in more senses than one--free in the sense that it is sovereign and unfettered, free in the sense that it is held out to men and women for their acceptance by faith alone, and free in the sense that it is the source and principle of their liberation from all kinds of inward and spiritual bondage, including the bondage of legalism and the bondage of moral anarchy.

Sandwiched in between Paul’s dual emphasis on grace (Galatians 1:3, 6:18) is a vehement and thoroughgoing argument against certain of Paul’s adversaries who threatened to dilute or diminish God’s saving gift by their insistence on the necessity of the law and its accoutrements, e.g., circumcision. Unfortunately, these adversaries called themselves Christians; Paul referred to them as false teachers, hindrances to salvation and as corrupting leaven. Actually, Paul’s opponents were a group of right-wing Jewish-Christian evangelists whose gospel was rooted not in grace but in the law of Moses. Fearing that their preaching would threaten the integrity of the gospel of grace, Paul confronted his adversaries head on, all the while doing damage-control among his converts to Christ.

Affirming the sufficiency of the cross of Christ, which is the foremost sign and sacrament of grace, Paul claimed that the cross gave him cause to boast (v. 14). J. Louis Martyn (Galatians, Doubleday, New York: 1997) suggested that Paul’s opponents may have been “preening their feathers” with the boast that their ministerial efforts put Paul’s to shame. Whereas they boasted of their own successes and accomplishments, the basis of Paul’s boasting was not a personal accomplishment but an event that happened apart from him, viz., the grace-driven and salvific death of Jesus on the cross. Through his boasting, Paul preached the cross as the foundation of his confidence and faith. He declared that everything other than the cross, including the law, circumcision, etc., was now crucified to him. In other words, his former way of life and efforts at salvation were redeemed and created anew (v. 15) by grace.

In concluding his letter to the Galatian Christians, Paul declared that he would not be perturbed any longer by those who refused to appreciate God’s gifts. Rather than look their proverbial “gift-horse” in the mouth, Paul called his readers to glory in Christ’s salvific cross as he did. Moreover, he gloried also in the scars or “brand marks by Jesus” (v. 17) which he had sustained because of his participation in the Christ event. J. Louis Martyn (op. cit.) described the scars Paul had received from gentile stones and from Jewish whips (2 Corinthians 11:24-26) as the wounds of a soldier sent into the front trenches of God’s redemptive and liberating war. Paul regarded his scars as the present epiphany of the crucifixion of Jesus and therefore his physical body as a place in which others could witness the present activity of the redeemer in the world. Contemporary readers of Paul and believers in Jesus, who may incur little and large sufferings because of their commitment and life-style should find encouragement in his words.

LUKE 10:1-12, 17-20

Contemporary disciples of Jesus, who can easily commute to and from work on smoothly paved highways, or, who can “leave the driving” to someone else and relax in comfort on a high speed bullet train or airline shuttle, can only imagine the difficulties of travel in the ancient world. Despite the renowned network of Roman roads which connected all regions of the Empire, private travelers often had to be content with narrow, rocky pedestrian paths. On an average day’s walk of 15-20 miles, travelers were often endangered by drought on the one hand, and by flooded rivers on the other. Scorching heat and unscrupulous bandits caused many to choose to travel by night; but the coolness of the evening offered no protection from hungry lions, wild boars and jackals in search of prey. Food and water sufficient for the journey had to be carried and places of lodging were not known for their comfort or convenience.

Given the rigors of travel in his day, it would seem that Jesus need not have placed any additional burden on his disciples. Nevertheless, his travel instructions, as reported by Luke in today’s gospel, are undeniably challenging to the extreme! Was it that Jesus was simply being realistic with his own lest they enter naïvely into his service? Or could it be that Jesus wished his disciples and the people whom they would be serving to become fully aware, first, of their utter dependence on God’s provident care and protection and, secondly, of their mutual responsibility for one another. Just as the disciples were responsible for bringing the message of salvation to all who would hear, so would those who welcomed the good news be responsible for the hospitable and loving care of their ministers.

Of all the evangelists, only Luke tells his readers of the sending forth of the seventy ministers (manuscripts are evenly divided between seventy and seventy-two). Those who favor seventy, believe the number to be in keeping with Luke’s universalist views; it was believed that there were seventy nations in the ancient world (Genesis 10:2-31). Therefore, the disciples’ mission was shown to be inclusive of all peoples. Other scholars are of the opinion that Luke was portraying Jesus as a prophet like Moses, who appointed seventy elders to share his ministry (Numbers 11:16-17).

The enjoinder to travel without walking staff, bag or spare sandals (v. 4) indicated that the only equipment the disciples would require would be given them by God. On the strength of that “equipment,” e.g., courage, grace, and power, the disciples would be able to preach the reign of God, heal the sick (v. 9), confront evil (vv. 19-20) and remain unharmed. The urgency of the disciples’ mission is underscored in the instruction to “greet no one along the way” (v. 4). Without intending any lack of courtesy, the Lucan Jesus was calling for that single-hearted and undistracted commitment with which he himself served others. Elisha similarly instructed his assistant Gehazi when he sent him off to heal the son of the Shunammite woman (2 Kings 4:29).

As further indication of the urgency of their ministry, Jesus advised his disciples not to tarry in those places where they found no welcome. If the good news of salvation was refused in one town, they were to shake its dust from their feet and be off to the next. After all, the harvest is rich and of worldwide proportions and the laborers are few. The harshness of Jesus’ statement (v. 11) delivers a somber warning for those in the mission fields. Authentic emissaries of Jesus continue to travel among us bringing the good news of salvation into our midst. Shall we welcome them and hear their message or shall we be found guilty of the testimony of their dust.

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