Where are you sending me?

Jesus had been killed, cruelly and painfully. The disciples were scared, upset and disorientated. They had upended their entire lives for this man, whom they believed to be God’s Messiah, the one who was to come. They hid together, in a locked room, hiding away from those who might identify them as Jesus’ followers, and subject them to his fate. They did not know where to go next, or where to turn. Could they just go back to the lives they living before? What would that even look like? All their neighbours knew they were followers of Jesus; they were not sure if they could go back. They only knew that Jesus, their master, was dead.

Some of them were aware that Mary had gone to the tomb, and when she came running back with the news that Jesus’ body had gone, two of them had followed her back to the tomb to check. She was correct, Jesus was no longer there. Puzzled, and still frightened, they returned home, leaving Mary behind weeping. They were all gathered together when she burst in with the news that Jesus was alive, that she had seen him. Was this true? How? Why on earth would Jesus appear first to Mary, and not one of the disciples? They were left even more disorientated, when, that evening, Jesus was suddenly there, among them. ‘Peace be with you’ he greeted them, before showing them his hands and side. They realised that this was indeed Jesus, and rejoiced. Jesus repeated his greeting of peace and then told them that, just as the Father had sent him, so he was sending them. He then breathed on them and told them they were receiving the Holy Spirit. (John 20:19-23).

Return to that phrase in verse 21: as the Father has sent me, so I send you. Told to the first disciples, we could argue that it has nothing to do with us today, but I think that would be an excuse. This passage, and the story of the arrival of the Spirit told in Acts 2, are our foundations, the beginnings of the early church. This is Jesus sending his disciples out to spread the Good News, and it is a sending which is still relevant today. It is rooted in the Trinity: the Father sent Jesus, so now Jesus sends us, and accompanying that sending is the receiving of the Spirit. In our sending, it is important to realise that. We are not sent separately or of our own initiative. We are sent by Jesus, as Jesus himself was sent by his Father, and we are working in the power of the Spirit. This sending is something which unites us, not just to those we work with, but to all those sent by the Father (however much we might disagree with them theologically). We are sent within the context of God, who is Trinity.

We are sent personally by Jesus. This is not some anonymous institution asking us to do this or that work, but a personal relationship within which and through which we are sent, although for most of us there will be an institution through which we work. Moreover we are sent by Jesus, just as Jesus was sent by the Father. How exactly was Jesus sent? This could take up a whole book, rather than a few paragraphs, starting with his birth and following through his life, death and resurrection. But I want to take you back to the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, when he goes to the synagogue in Nazareth and reads from the prophet Isaiah. Read the passage in Luke 4:16-22, and the original passage in Isaiah 61. This is why and how Jesus was sent, the beginning of his mission, and how he interpreted it. If we are sent, as Jesus was sent, this is presumably how: to preach good news to the poor, and freedom and liberty to captives and those who are oppressed. Exactly what this looks like for each one of us will be different, but it is worth taking time to come back to this passage now and again and asking: how and where is Jesus sending me?

If we are sent as Jesus was sent, we should also remember his beginning and his end. Born of an ordinary human couple, he was born in humility, not power; dying on the cross, he was killed, the shameful death of a criminal. Our sending will replicate that, even if we are one of those who are sent to a powerful position: how do we do that sending rooted in the humility of the incarnation? How does our sending involve taking up our cross, as Jesus took his? If we are sent, as Jesus was sent, there will be something of a Christlikeness in the sending, even if we are not aware of it (especially if we are not aware of it). A Christlikeness which will grow, as we do, and lead us further into the depths of the Trinity. A sending and a Christlikeness which will be developed by the Holy Spirit, given to us.

What does this mean for each of us in our own contexts? Do we even conceive of ourselves as sent, or are we convinced that we are in control of what we do? Do we ever take time to sit back and ask: what is God asking of me today? What is God asking of me in my life at this moment? Your situation may be one where you cannot be ‘sent’ anywhere, for health reasons or otherwise. Still, there may be a sending to be found in that very limitation. Or your sending may be something of a larger, vocational nature, the work you do, or how you support your local church. Asking where God is sending us is a question always worth asking. We may ‘only’ be doing the flowers, running the Sunday School, preparing for services, but that is all something we may – are – sent to do by Jesus. Where is God sending you today?