Above: A summer teamer from our home church gives Bayash Roma children the Gospel of Luke and 50 chronological Bible stories in their language. Your financial support and prayers made that possible, PTL!
We praise God and thank you for your kind and generous financial support, which enables us to translate the Bible for Roma in the former Yugoslavia. We currently have 103% of our monthly support needs pledged. Praise God!
Pam has been working hard lately with her sisters, sorting through the belongings of her mom, who passed away in June. Ariela has recently enjoyed a camping trip with American Heritage Girls, celebrating her 13th birthday with family and friends and spending time with cousins visiting from out of state. Daniel is in Atlanta for 10 days, helping Matthew finish out his basement as Matthew prepares to rent out the upper floor of his house. I (Todd) recently finished checking the drafts of Romans chapter 12-14 (much easier than Romans 1-11!) in three Roma languages.
The following excerpt is the third and final point of a sermon I preached at our home church in April on Luke 10:1-7, entitled “Sharing in the Harvest”. This final point covers the last several verses and brings out a few points about giving for missions, as well as highlighting a few of the details about how we translated this passage in the five Roma languages when we translated the Gospel of Luke.
(Click below to watch the sermon; this sermon point begins at 55:00. Or read the synopsis below.)
When Jesus sent out his 72 short-term missionaries, he gave them the following instructions: “3 Go your way; behold, I am sending you out as lambs in the midst of wolves. 4 Carry no moneybag, no knapsack, no sandals, and greet no one on the road. 5 Whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace be to this house!’ 6 And if a son of peace is there, your peace will rest upon him. But if not, it will return to you. 7 And remain in the same house, eating and drinking what they provide, for the laborer deserves his wages. Do not go from house to house.” (Luke 10:3–7 ESV)
“Behold” is an archaic word that we don’t use anymore. The meaning is “Listen up!” or “Pay attention!” In three of the Roma languages, we translated this literally as “Look!” since that works well in their languages. But in the Bayash language, we translated it as “but listen!” and in the Ludari language, we translated it as “beware,” which captures the idea well. Jesus is telling them to be careful and to go into this with their eyes open. This mission will not be a walk in the park; there will be opposition. There will be wolves, and they will be sheep; while the sheep pray for them, the wolves prey on them.
Jesus sent them out completely dependent on him and the good graces of those they would visit. They were not to take along extra money and provisions. Rather, they were to trust God to meet their needs along the way. The beginning of verse 4 literally says, “Do not carry a moneybag.” This is a metonymy. He mentions the word “bag”, but that represents the money they would carry in the bag. It is not the bag that matters, but the money it implies they will have in the bag. Jesus does not want them to take their own money and provide for their own needs.
But when we translated this, we wanted to ensure that the Roma knew that the issue was not that they could not carry a wallet per se, but rather the money that the wallet would be used to carry. So, in the Arli and Gurbet Roma languages, we translated it as “Do not bring with you a bag with money”. In the Chergash and Ludari Roma languages, we translated it as “Do not take with you any money” because, again, the point is not the container—the bag—but the contents—the money.
As they traveled, God would provide welcoming hosts, or as it calls them here, “men of peace.” They would find places to stay, and people would feed them. But they also needed to be content. They were not to go around from house to house, looking for better accommodation. If they left their host and went to other places, looking for better accommodation, they could easily offend the family that first took them in. They might think their house or food was not good enough for the missionaries.
So, once they found a willing host, they were to stay there, content with where they would sleep and content with their food, until it was time to go on to a new village or city. The missionaries were to be grateful and content with what their hosts would provide. Perhaps you have heard of the missionary hymn: “Where you send me, I will follow; what you feed me, I will swallow!”
They should be content and eat what is set before them. This would also allow the missionaries to focus on healing and preaching the kingdom of God rather than wasting their time looking for different accommodations. Another reason Jesus may have said this is that they would meet many non-Jews in Perea and the Trans-Jordan areas, and perhaps he is telling them not to quibble about whether the food was kosher.
They had a larger concern, which was to give out the gospel. As the Lord showed Peter in a dream later in the book of Acts, when the sheet full of unclean animals was lowered in front of him, God told Peter to kill the animals and eat them. The point was that not only were unclean animals no longer unclean, but unclean gentiles were no longer off limits. They need to be given the gospel, and Peter and the others should not let things stand in the way of getting it to them, including being unwilling to be with them and have fellowship with them in the case that their food is not kosher.
Also, when it says that they were not to carry sandals, notice that the verb is “carry”, not “wear”. I don’t think it means that they were supposed to travel barefoot; only slaves traveled barefoot. I think it means not bringing an extra pair to replace the ones that wear out. So when we translated into Arli and Ludari, we said, “or extra sandals”. The idea is that they were to rely on their hosts to provide not only housing and food but, when needed, replacement footwear. This probably means replacing other clothing, too, since we know they didn’t bring a bag full of extra clothes because they were not allowed to take along a bag.
Why were they told not to greet people? It was not to be rude. It was to emphasize the urgency of the task. They were not to stop and chit-chat. They needed to focus on getting the gospel out. In some cultures, such as in the East, a greeting would not just be saying “hi” and waving your hand as you go by on your way. It would mean stopping and engaging in conversation that could take quite a while
When we translated this, we did not want to translate it so literally that the Roma would misinterpret it. So, in the Bible translation for Arli Roma, we said, “Do not lose your time by stopping to greet people”. In the Chergash language, similarly, we said, “On the way, do not lose your time by greeting people and talking with them.” In the Gurbet language, we rendered it, “And when you are walking, do not stop to talk on the way with anyone and lose your time”
Perhaps their culture was like that in Bosnia, where we lived for many years; in that culture, if someone comes to your door, you are culturally obligated to drop whatever you are doing. You invite them in, serve them coffee and something sweet, and talk with them as long as they want to stay, which could easily be an hour or two. They weren’t to have those Midwest goodbyes, or, as Pam’s family says, the Norwegian goodbyes that take 30 minutes, where you start saying goodbye in the kitchen, keep it up through the living room, stop again at the door, and again in the driveway, etc. In the Bayash Roma language we translated this as “and do not stand around a long time and talk with people so as not to lose time”.
Every farmer knows that when the harvest is ready, you’ve got to jump in and get the harvest done. You hire extra workers. You pull out all the stops. You start work from early in the morning until late in the evening. And you bring in the harvest before the crop rots or before bad weather ruins it. There is an urgency to world missions today. As I’ve mentioned before, 1.4 billion people, speaking about 5,000 languages, still need all or some of the Bible translated into their mother tongue.
Now, vv. 5-6 are admittedly difficult to understand. What does it mean “first say, ‘Peace be to this house’” … “and if a son of peace is there, your peace will rest upon him”.
The Bible often uses an “of” phrase when describing someone or describing their characteristics. A “son of thunder” means someone who has a thunderous personality, meaning that they get angry easily. An “offspring of vipers” means someone with the evil disposition of a venomous and dangerous snake. Here, a “son of peace” means a peaceful person who is willing to listen to the message about Jesus. In the Arli, Gurbet and Bayash Roma languages, we translated this as “a person who wants peace”. In the Ludari language, we translated it as “If in that house there is a person who wants peace with God”
Peace is not just the lack of war. It is wholeness and spiritual blessing from God. It can even be used as shorthand for peace with God or even for the Gospel, which is the source of peace with God. Like Luke had said in Luke 2:14, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”
This is not just any peace. In the broader context of the Bible’s message, we can see that it means there will be someone at that house who is open and positive toward having peace with God and hearing the message of the Gospel. Such people would be open to the gospel message
Jesus says you are to do that first thing when you are looking for a place to stay. Don’t waste time. Make sure that the people want to hear about peace. Make sure you are giving your time to an audience that is open to the Gospel of peace.
We don’t have time to look at the following verses, but Jesus goes on to say that if the people of a town will not accept the disciples’ message of peace, the disciples should wipe the dust from their feet and leave. This action of wiping the dust from their feet was a visual way to communicate that the disciples were not going to waste time there and would no longer have anything to do with those people. They are under God’s judgment
Probably then, these 72 would report back to Jesus, informing him which villages and places had accepted their message and were open to the message of peace. Then Jesus would know to go to those places but not bother going to the places that had rejected the message of peace. As he sought to fulfill his mission and visit as many places as possible, he would want to go to those who had shown openness to his message of peace.
Notice how Jesus sent them out with an urgent message. They were not to take time to earn or gather provisions, and once they were on their way to preach the gospel, they were not to get sidetracked by other tasks. They couldn’t take the time to stop and get jobs along the way. They were dependent on the hospitality of those who were favorable to their message and wanted to help them. Jesus said, “The worker is worthy of his hire”. In other words, the missionary should be compensated for the work he or she is doing so that they are free to give their full time and attention to it.
This is a biblical principle mentioned several times. “The worker is worthy of his hire” is mentioned also to the 12 apostles in Matthew 10. Additionally, Paul said it twice: In 1 Corinthians 9:14 (ESV): “In the same way, the Lord commanded that those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel.” And in 1 Timothy 5:18: “For the Scripture says, ‘You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain,’ and, ‘The laborer deserves his wages.'”
That leads me to an application point: GIVE. The short-term workers Jesus sent out needed support. They were busy going and preaching and preparing the way for Jesus. They needed supporters who would provide housing and food for them
The same is true in missions today. While we are spending our full time giving out the gospel, or in my case, and in the case of the Roma Gypsies that I serve, translating the Bible. It is not possible for them or me to have another full-time job to earn a living.
This is our full-time job. Our income must come from men and women of peace who give out of the goodness of their hearts. Whether they open their homes, provide food or provisions for the journey, or give in some other way, giving is an important part of fulfilling the mission
There is room and need for the whole body of Christ to be active in sharing in the harvest. We can all be involved in global missions, praying, by going and by giving.
Thank you so much for your prayers and financial support. Soli Deo Gloria!
