City Life Starter

Written by Efe Abbe

The Word

¹ And he 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.³ And he said to them, “Take nothing for your journey, no staff, nor bag, nor bread, nor money; and do not have two tunics [Greek chiton, a long garment worn under the cloak next to the skin]. ⁴ And whatever house you enter, stay there, and from there depart. ⁵ And wherever they do not receive you, when you leave that town shake off the dust from your feet as a testimony against them.” ⁶ And they departed and went through the villages, preaching the gospel and healing everywhere.

Luke 9:1-6 ESV

²⁴ “A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant [bondservant] above his master. ²⁵ It is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher, and the servant like his master.

Matthew 10:24-25a ESV

Reflection

In Jesus’ day, to be a disciple (talmid) meant your entire life’s goal was to become just like your rabbi. Disciples would train with their rabbis for about fifteen years before becoming rabbis themselves.

At this time, following a rabbi had become a way of moving up in society and potential disciples would seek out important rabbis — those viewed as having special authority (s’mekah) in their interpretation of scripture. However, Jesus’ authority as Rabbi was divinely unique and consequently were His disciples.

Here we see Jesus in under three and half years, already sending out the Twelve to begin practicing to be like Him with His authority (most likely through the laying hands). Unlike ordinary rabbi’s, the authority of Jesus was the authority of God (Luke 4:31-32). He was giving them God-backed power to do what they’d observe Him do: calling people to repentance and healing.

Just like Jesus, the sent disciples were to be reliant on God’s provision through the generosity of others in their ministry — their focus was not to be on achieving status (Luke 9:58). They were also to respect peoples’ response to receive or not receive the good news, like Jesus had done (Luke 8:37). And solely because of the authority of Jesus gave them, they achieved their mission.

Application

Can you imagine if after Jesus empowered and sent the Twelve, they chose instead not to go? Unimaginable, right?

Just like them, we have been empowered and sent, but are we stepping out to do what we observe Jesus, our Rabbi, is doing?

He has commanded us to go make disciples as He did, in His name i.e. in His authority. He has also, blessed us with every spiritual blessing to live godly lives that should bring healing to the people we encounter as we go (Ephesians 1:3; 2 Peter 1:3). But we have to be the type of disciples who intentionally practice being like Jesus — let’s make it our goal today.

Prayer

Dear Lord Jesus, please help me to imitate You with my whole life with the goal of making disciples for You and bringing healing to the broken.