In Luke 10, we read an account of Jesus sending 70 of his followers out ahead of him to do two things: to proclaim the nearness of the Kingdom of God and to heal the sick. He sent 35 teams of 2 out to the cities and villages to which he would come later. Previously, Jesus had asked his disciples who the people said he was. They responded with two answers, either John the Baptist, raised from the dead, or one of the great prophets. However, in this action of sending these 35 teams, Jesus demonstrated that he was greater than even the greatest of prophets, proving he was not one of them, but someone greater.
These teams were like heralds, as John the Baptist was a herald to all of Israel, who proclaimed both the nearness of the God’s Kingdom, fulfilling Isaiah 61:1 by proclaiming good news and healing up the brokenhearted. These messengers/heralds both did what John did, but even what John the Baptist did not do. They both proclaimed the Kingdom, which John did, but they also healed the sick, which we have no record of John doing. In this sense, this was an even greater sign than John’s ministry, because it wasn’t just one person ministering, but 70. What Jesus did, his heralds did also. The prophets of old, like Elijah and Elisha raised the dead and healed the sick, but they had no authority to delegate that authority to others. This was a great sign of Jesus’ power and authority, because he delegated his authority to heal to others, something that neither John nor the prophets did. In this way, he demonstrated that truly he was someone greater than John the Baptist or the great prophets of old.
After Jesus’ death and resurrection, when his enemies thought that they would never have to deal with Jesus again, his followers went out and transformed the world. First they transformed the Roman Empire, which for three hundred years tried to eliminate all Christians. Then after the western Roman Empire perished, Jesus’ followers went out and transformed the very same kingdoms that had conquered Rome. These kingdoms could conquer Rome, but they could not resist Jesus. Today we live with esteemed values such as equality, compassion, benevolence and forgiveness, when in Jesus’ day they were identified as signs of weakness and viewed negatively. These values did not originate from some enlightenment philosopher, but with Jesus and were communicated to the world through Jesus’ followers. Jesus’ leadership and influence are so great today that the vast majority of people living in the western world assume the values that he taught to be true and by there very lives demonstrate and prove his relevance today. Jesus not only changed people, he has and continues to transform nations and cultures. He was and is so vastly superior to any leader or prophet, that there is no comparison.
David Freitag 