2x2: Luke 10v1

The more I seek to follow Jesus the more I see how his ways are not only practical, nor do they 'just' fulfill the righteous requirements of the law, but they are the best way to go about things. Someone once told me that to truly obey God is more than just doing what you are told, but it is doing what you are told believing in your inmost being that it is the best possible way.

Here, Jesus sends his messengers ahead of him in two's. This not only fulfills the law in that it fulfills the practical requirement for two witnesses, but it provides for continuing fellowship and should one stumble the other is there to pick them up. It also testifies to the way in which God has testified in the past and how the OT copies of heavenly things give way to the actual heavenly things.

It was pointed out somewhere that on the arc of the covenant the two cherubim are facing one another and are of one with the mercy seat and it is there in the midst of that interaction where Almighty God meets with men, where Heaven and Earth meet. So it is no wonder, I suppose, that Jesus says wherever two or more are gathered in my name there am I with them. We have been focused on a personal relationship with Jesus for a long time and while that is so very important, what it ends up reflecting more often than not is the culture of individualism in which we find ourselves planted. So I am at once thrilled and scared to see movements of people who love Jesus taking a more communal and missional approach to their faith. Thrilled because it is more biblical, scared because...it's more biblical... and that means I have to pray for personal change and to take my own faith more seriously. Never the less, Jesus wants us together as one whether we are gathered in worship or sent out to the harvest to gather others. This, I believe, is the best possible way to go about things.

May God provide us each with a ministry partner, a friend, a confidant...a person that we can look at and know... He is in the midst of us. May we discover that it is His mercy that makes us one and within us He has placed a testimony to be delivered to the people. From all this, may we find boldness and strength to go wherever He may send us.