Before Jesus went through Samaria, he sent 36 pairs (seventy-two lay persons) ahead of the group traveling with him. The twelve apostles were not sent with them. The laymen were instructed to go into every town and place where he was about to go. Luke did not use a Greek adjective that would designate them as men. Rather, he used the adjective “heteros” which could include male and female, though considering the culture none were probably a pair of women.
With a passion for bringing many people into the kingdom of God through faith in him, Jesus regretted that not enough had accepted his call to follow him. This is perhaps why Luke recorded right before this passage three rejecting the call and Jesus’s response to their rejection. Luke, as a layman, not a leader like the apostles understood the importance of accepting Jesus’ call to the laymen’s mission field.
Jesus told the seventy-two laymen, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.” Jesus refers to laymen as field workers. We are the ones who prepare the field, plant the seed, look for weeds, and harvest the crop which is actually little different than the call of the twelve.
A layman’s call is not easy. We are lambs working amongst wolves. We have to live by faith that the Lord will meet our personal financial needs and our mission’s financial needs. We live by faith, not by wealth’s strength. Our mission is a one-by-one encounter. We depend on God and the companion he calls to walk with us. Few laymen are remembered in history, yet church history would have stop if not for their continued mission work.
