If Jesus Were Commissioning The Twelve Today

Jesus, are you serious?

Jesus sent out the twelve with the following instructions: “Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans. Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel. As you go, proclaim this message: ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’ Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received; freely give."  Matthew 10:5-8

Were Jesus to send his followers on a similar mission in 2022, would he give them the same assignment? 

For starters, he would have a hard time persuading many of us that we could actually accomplish any of those things. And while his miracle-based deeds addressed some truly priority needs among people in the first century, would they represent the same kind of good news to the average American today?

After some reflection, though, I wondered whether Jesus might actually mandate something like the following:

1. Heal the sick. The need for affordable healthcare is always with us. But unlike the primitive and almost non-existent medical care available then, we have access to proven medicines and treatments unheard of in Jesus's day. So his brand of free divine healing was a lifesaving godsend for the many people he healed with fatal and debilitating health conditions.

But people are still suffering from physical and emotional illnesses for which they need the kind of help caring Jesus followers can provide, employing all of the resources of healing, both natural and miraculous, we can bring to a world of hurt. So we all need to keep promoting wellness and good health for everyone, regardless of their ability to pay.

2. Raise the dead. We have no record of any of Jesus's twelve ever physically raised anyone from the dead, so Jesus may not actually have even been referring to literal resurrections. But are there not people everywhere who are "dead" in their spirits, lacking in their ability to hear and see and feel the abundant life available to them? Are there not multitudes ever needing to be raised from their death-like stupor and sleep?

3. Restore outcastes. In the first century leprosy was a label applied to a variety of disfiguring conditions believed to be contagious, resulting in people being shut off from normal social contacts with others. They were to live only with fellow lepers and were required to warn others to keep a safe distance, with cries of "Unclean" as others approached.

What groups among us are ostracized and considered untouchable today? How are we to welcome, embrace and love them in healing communities that are truly like a heaven on earth?

4. Drive out evil spirits. Millions of people remain under the oppressive influence of nationalism, mammonism, materialism, militarism and other spirits that control their minds and their behaviors in ways that are deadly and debilitating. A pandemic of misinformation, untruths and outright lies are affecting whole populations, as described in the text, "The Spirit makes it clear that as time goes on, some are going to give up on the faith and chase after demonic illusions put forth by professional liars. These liars have lied so well and for so long that they’ve lost their capacity for truth." *

So let's take a fresh look. There's a lot of urgent work to do, and you and I are to make it a part of our mission.

* the apostle Paul, I Timothy 4:1-2