Following Jesus is not predictable and it is not always safe. It can disrupt our plans and upset our lives. It can take us in places that may unsettle us, along with our comfort. The disciples were not to let persecution upset the mission. The disciples were sent out as lambs in the midst of wolves. They were to be as their Lord, who when He faced the persecution and rejection of the cross, “He opened not His mouth” with a single word of protest. In this, Jesus modeled for us how to handle rejection, mocking and persecution.
“After this the Lord appointed seventy others and sent them on ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself intended to go. 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. Go on your way. See, I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves’” Luke 10:1-3 (NRSV).
