The first thing to say about Luke 10:1-12 is that it expands a passage from the previous chapter—that is, 9:1-6. Here they are in succession:
Luke 9:1-6
9 Then Jesus called the twelve together and gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases, 2 and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal the sick. 3 He said to them, “Take nothing for your journey: no staff, nor bag, nor bread, nor money—not even an extra tunic. 4 Whatever house you enter, stay there, and leave from there. 5 Wherever they do not welcome you, as you are leaving that town shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them.” 6 So they departed and went through the villages, bringing the good news and curing diseases everywhere.
What will be interesting about this next passage are the ways Luke expands it. I’ll italicize what stands out most to me and then comment on it:
Luke 10:1-12
10 After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them on ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself intended to go. 2 He said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. 3 Go on your way; I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves. 4 Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals, and greet no one on the road. 5 Whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace to this house!’ 6 And if a person of peace is there, your peace will rest on that person, but if not, it will return to you. 7 Remain in the same house, eating and drinking whatever they provide, for the laborer deserves to be paid. Do not move about from house to house. 8 Whenever you enter a town and its people welcome you, eat what is set before you; 9 cure the sick who are there, and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ 10 But whenever you enter a town and they do not welcome you, go out into its streets and say, 11 ‘Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet, we wipe off in protest against you. Yet know this: the kingdom of God has come near.’ 12 I tell you, on that day it will be more tolerable for Sodom than for that town.
Comments:
seventy-two others — Of course Jesus sent out the disciples, and of course he didn’t have to tell them very much. They’d already been trained, and much of this understanding of mission either was, or else ought to have been, in their hearts.
where he himself intended to go — These missions don’t run parallel to, or analogous with Jesus’s mission. They introduce it. We’ve heard the devotional gloss of 1 Cor. 10:13, that goes, “God won’t put you in a situation He won’t also lead you through.” The devotional gloss on this one should be, “Jesus won’t send you anywhere He doesn’t intend to go himself.”
ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest — one of the ironies of this line is that, as Jesus sends these men and women out, He tells them to ask God to send people out. This maps nicely onto our post-communion liturgy. After the ablutions, we say a two-part prayer. The first part acknowledges (“you have graciously accepted us… you have fed us…”) and the second part asks for a sending (“Send us now into the world in peace…”). In response, after the retiring procession, the deacon answers our prayer by ‘sending’ us with one of three sending formulae: “Let us go forth in the name of Christ,” or “Go in peace to love and serve the Lord,” or “Let us go forth into the world, rejoicing in the power of the Spirit.” The second formula takes ‘peace’ from Luke 10:6; the third takes ‘rejoice’ and ‘power’ from v. 17.
first say, ‘Peace to this house!’ — unlike his disciples, Jesus gives these ‘others’ a couple of sentence stems. This peace, which Jesus calls ‘your piece’ has (at least) two aspects. ‘Your peace’ has to do with the peace that comes (liturgically and existentially) after our prayers for the Church and the world, and our confession and absolution. In these, we make our peace with the world, ourselves, and with God. After these, we turn to our (pew) neighbors and offer a sign of peace—which normally consists of a handshake (or a kiss), a wish that the peace of Christ (which we have) be extended to the other, and some pleasantry or other.
say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you’ — Jesus had just told them, as He’d told His disciples, to “Heal” (v. 9). This is one of those dominical exhortations that shouldn’t be overdetermined (presuming the power to cure diseases instantaneously), nor should it be underdetermined (being so educated and trust-the-science that we neglect to hope for healing. Whereas there are a handful of technical approaches to making sense of this exhortation, I think this one might be the simplest. Jesus, the presence of God, draws near to the world to heal it with his powerful, contagious holiness. Being sent by him, with peace, makes our presence inherently healing. When we draw near to people in peace, we necessarily contribute to their healing.