The Seventy-Two, and the Friend at Midnight

By now there were a great many more people following him than the twelve. And one day he picked out seventy-two of them and sent them out ahead of him, two by two, into every town and village he was meaning to come to himself.

And before they went, he told them how to go. “The harvest is great and standing ready, but there are only a few workers to bring it in. So beg the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into his harvest. Go, then. Look — I am sending you out like lambs walking in among wolves. Take nothing at all for the road except a walking stick. No bread, no bag, no purse, no money in your belt, no spare pair of sandals: wear the sandals you have, and do not take a second coat. And do not stop for long greetings on the road. When you go into a house, the first thing you are to say is, ‘Peace to this house.’ If a son of peace lives there, your peace will come and rest on him; and if there is not, your peace will come back to you again. Stay in that same house until you leave the place. Eat and drink whatever they put in front of you, because a worker is worth his pay. Do not go moving about from house to house. When you come into a town and they take you in, eat what is put in front of you, and heal the people there who are ill, and tell them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ But when you come into a town and they will not have you, go out into its streets and say, ‘Even the dust of your town that is sticking to our feet, we wipe off and leave with you. But know this, all the same: the kingdom of God has come near.’”

And then he said something hard about the towns along the lake, the ones that had watched him do everything and had gone on exactly as they were: “I tell you that on that day it will be easier for Sodom than for a town like that. How terrible for you, Chorazin. How terrible for you, Bethsaida. If the powerful things that were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, those two towns would have changed their minds long ago, and sat themselves down in sackcloth and ashes. It will be easier for Tyre and Sidon at the judging than for you. And you, Capernaum — are you going to be lifted up as high as heaven? You will be brought down as far as Hades. Whoever listens to you is listening to me. And whoever will not have you will not have me. And whoever will not have me will not have the one who sent me.”

So they went, two by two, down every road in the country, with no money and no luggage and no spare shoes.

And while they were away, something happened that everybody in the country heard about.

King Herod had shut John the Immerser up in prison, because John had said to his face what nobody else would say to a king: “It is not right for you to have your brother’s wife.”

Herod was afraid of him. He knew John was a good man and a holy one, and he used to send for him and listen to him and come away not knowing what to think. But Herodias, his brother’s wife, wanted John dead, and she waited.

Her day came on the king’s birthday. He gave a great dinner for his officers and for the important men of Galilee, and Herodias’ daughter came in and danced for them, and the king was so pleased in front of his guests that he promised her out loud that she could have anything at all that she asked for.

She went out and asked her mother what to ask for; and she came back in and asked for the head of John the Immerser on a plate. The king was very sorry; but he had promised in front of everybody, and he would not take it back in front of everybody. So he sent a soldier, and it was done, and the head was carried in on a plate and given to the girl, and the girl gave it to her mother.

John’s own followers came and took his body away and laid it in a tomb. And then they went and found Jesus, and told him.

And that is where the seventy-two came back to. They came back so full of joy that they could hardly get the words out. “Lord — even the demons do what we tell them, when we use your name!”

And he said, “I was watching Satan fall out of heaven like lightning. Look — I have given you the right to walk on snakes and scorpions, and power over everything the enemy can do; and nothing at all will hurt you. But do not be glad about that. Do not be glad that the spirits do what you say. Be glad that your names are written down in the heavens.”

And in that same hour the Holy Spirit filled him with joy, and he said out loud, in front of all of them: “Thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you hid all of this from the clever people and from the ones who understand everything, and showed it to little children. Yes, Father — because that is what pleased you. Everything has been handed over to me by my Father. And nobody knows who the Son is except the Father, and nobody knows who the Father is except the Son — and anybody the Son chooses to show him to. Come to me, all of you who are tired out and carrying too much, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke on you, and learn from me, because I am gentle and I am not proud; and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is kind, and the load I give you is light.”

And then he turned round to his own followers, so that only they could hear it, and said, “Blessed are the eyes that see what you are seeing. For I tell you that a great many prophets and kings wanted to see what you are seeing, and never saw it, and to hear what you are hearing, and never heard it.”

He had just had the news about John. And there were so many people coming and going that the twelve had not even had time to eat. So he said, “Come away, all of you, by yourselves, to a quiet place, and rest a little.” And they went off in the boat to a lonely place.

They were on the road again after that, and came to a village where a woman called Martha asked them all into her house.

Martha had a sister called Mary. And while Martha was getting a meal ready for the whole crowd of them, Mary sat down on the floor at Jesus’ feet, the way a student sits with a teacher, and listened to him talking, and did not get up.

And Martha got busier and crosser, until at last she came in and said it in front of everybody: “Lord — do you not care that my sister has left me to do all of it by myself? Tell her to come and take hold of it with me.”

And he said her name twice, gently, before he said anything else: “Martha, Martha. You are worried and upset about a great many things. But only a few things are needed — really, only one. Mary has chosen the good part, and it is not going to be taken away from her.”

And that was all he said. He did not send Mary out to the kitchen.

He prayed a great deal himself, usually early and usually alone. And one day, in a certain place, when he had stopped praying, one of his followers said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray — the way John taught his followers to pray.”

And he said, “When you pray, say: Father, let your name be kept holy. Let your kingdom come. Give us each day the bread we need for the day. And forgive us our sins, because we ourselves forgive everybody who owes us anything. And do not bring us into the testing.”

It is short enough to say while you are lacing your sandals. He had given them a longer form of it once already, up on the hillside above the lake.

And then he told them a small story about a man banging on a door in the middle of the night. “Suppose one of you has a friend, and you go round to him at midnight and say, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves. A friend of mine has turned up at my house off a journey, at this hour, and I have nothing at all in the house to put in front of him’ — and the man inside calls back, ‘Do not make trouble for me. The door is shut and bolted for the night, and my children are in bed with me. I cannot get up and give you anything.’ I tell you: even if he will not get up and give him the bread for friendship’s sake, still — because the man outside will not stop, and will not go away, and does not care in the least how it looks — he will get up and give him as much as he needs.”

And straight out of that story he said this: “So I tell you: ask, and it will be given to you. Look, and you will find. Knock, and it will be opened to you. For everybody who asks receives, and the one who looks finds, and to the one who knocks the door is opened. Which of you fathers, if his son asks him for a fish, would hand him a snake instead of the fish? Or if he asks him for an egg, would hand him a scorpion instead? Well then. If you, who are not much good, know how to give good things to your own children — how much more will the Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to the people who ask him.”

That was the whole of his answer to ‘teach us to pray’: a handful of short lines, a man banging on a door at midnight, and a father who would not hand his own child a snake.