Messengers of Peace

The prophet promises peace for Jerusalem. After the time of exile, the Jewish people can return to their own land, and can hope for stability and prosperity. The people of Jesus’ time probably hoped for the same things, but the reality was a struggle for survival: subsistence farming, heavy taxation and constant unrest, which would be brutally suppressed by the Roman occupiers. Jesus sent out his seventy-two disciples ‘like lambs among wolves,’ with none of the things that they would normally rely on – money, possessions or even shoes. All that the disciples carried with them was their faith in Jesus. He sent them out with a message of peace; not a peace imposed by the edge of the sword, but the peace of God’s kingdom, brought about by God’s mercy. Their lives would be a witness to the peace of the kingdom. Today, that peace is needed as much as it ever was, and the Lord sends us, his disciples, out into the world to witness.

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