Pew Sheet, Sunday the 6th of July 2025. Third Sunday after Trinity / Proper 9
Call it a healthy degree of scepticism or simply inquisitiveness, but I always wonder why the writers of the Lectionary decide to omit certain verses in the middle of a passage as they do in today’s Gospel reading. This may be because they represent a conceptual detour from the main ideas or arguments being discussed, or there may be some doubt as to whether they were present in the very earliest manuscripts, and inserted by early copyists to strengthen or provide examples of the message being conveyed from other scriptures.
In today’s passage, we have the story of the seventy disciples (or seventy-two, depending on which version of the story or translation of the Bible you read)* being sent out to cure the sick and proclaim the Good News of the Kingdom; after warning them to make no preparation for their journey, and rely totally on the goodness of God through others for their food and lodging as they do so. Later on; the disciples return eager and excited, to report that ‘even the demons’ submitted to them as they preached the Gospel of the Kingdom; but Jesus reminds them that the cause of their joy should be that their names are written amongst those destined for heaven, rather than any power they may have experienced over demons or the other evil forces they encountered.
The ‘missing verses’ come just after Jesus told the disciples to shake the dust from their feet and not remain in any place where they are not welcomed, with the warning that God’s judgement will be more tolerable for Sodom than for any place which rejects them or the message which Jesus has given them to share with others. The verses, which are then excluded from today’s ‘pericope’ or passage in the lectionary, go on to say: “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the deeds of power done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. Indeed, at the judgment it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon than for you. And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? No, you will be brought down to Hades.”
These words seem surprising on the lips of Jesus, for Chorazin, Bethsaida and Capernaum are three of the towns or cities in which much of Jesus’ early ministry in Galilee took place. Chorazin, or Korazim, was a small city on
The northern shore of the Sea of Galilee, close to Capernaum, and together with Bethsaida, represents the area in which Jesus most often walked, talked, and performed his early miracles. Bethsaida too, was a small town and the birthplace of the disciples Andrew, Phillip, and Peter as noted elsewhere; and yet Jesus knew that none of those places, for all their familiarity with his miracles and hearing the word preached time and time again in their midst, would accept the Gospel, and would in fact, reject it out of hand.
The word ‘woe’ (oὐαί in Greek) used here does not just imply condemnation but pity as well, as it does in the other 47 usages of the word in scripture, including of course, the ‘blessings and woes’ of Luke 6 and Matthew 23. There is a sadness and regret in the warning, and no sense that Jesus takes any delight in their fate, though I am not sure that this would have been of much consolation to Andrew, Philip, and Peter on hearing this warning about the future of their hometown. Nazareth too of course, was no more accepting of Jesus and the Gospel of the Kingdom than these other cities would be, and Jesus has already warned his disciples that a prophet is never welcomed in their hometown (Luke 4:24), so it may simply be a prime case of ‘familiarity breeding contempt’.
Luke’s Jesus highlights the fact that Tyre and Sidon, former Phoenician cities populated by Gentiles would have responded more readily to this message than those in Galilee, as they subsequently did when the early Church grew quickly from its epicentre in Jerusalem to the towns and cities of the Levant, Asia Minor, Egypt, Syria, and other places beyond their shores.
Bethsaida is rarely mentioned after Jesus’ earthly ministry, for it was quickly renamed ‘Julias’ (in honour of Caesar Augustus’s daughter Julia) by Philip the tetrarch as a way of gaining imperial favour, and it declined rapidly after this, disappearing by the end of the second century so that only its ruins can be seen today. Chorazin too, quickly lost its prominence, and was completely deserted by the time that the fourth century historian Eusebius sought out its once notable buildings; and Capernaum too, the centre of Jesus’ Galilean ministry and the scene of many of his most famous miracles was completely abandoned by the time of the First Crusade, to be replaced by a small village bearing the same name in the early Islamic period which remains little more than a shadow of its predecessor, in whose environs it now sits.
Clearly, these verses are integral to the text and the instructions Jesus was giving to his disciples, and they are of course, very much in line with Luke’s clear purpose in writing his Gospel for a predominantly Gentile readership.
The Gentile Christian communities to whom he was writing would have been reassured to hear from Jesus’ own lips the plan of salvation for the cities which some of them may well have come from, even as others in first century Palestine – some of which Jesus was intimately acquainted with, would reject the Gospel. They would have known this to be the case; and may even have seen the early signs of these places’ demise, confirming the efficacy of Luke’s message and the fulfilment of Jesus’ prophecy about them.
Luke’s readers would also have known that the epicentre of the ‘Jesus movement’ had moved away from the shores of Lake Galilee after that first Easter and Pentecost (save for a small number of encounters Jesus had with his disciples on the shore of the lake there before his ascension), and will have looked to Jerusalem as their ‘Mother Church’, where the Christian community, led by Jesus’ half-brother James and some of the other apostles (most notably Peter) would have provided yet more evidence of the way in which the fortunes of a particular town or city could be changed entirely by its willingness to accept or reject the Gospel.
Jerusalem, the hard-hearted city of the scribes and pharisees had seen a tremendous growth in the numbers of believers after Pentecost, including it seems, some of those scribes and pharisees themselves. This is a partial fulfilment of the prophecy made in today’s Old Testament reading, which sees Jerusalem as the source of blessing for the nations of the world, so it is ironic that many of these same Jewish Christians were often inclined to insist on full obedience to the Mosaic law, and in particular the need for male circumcision and adherence to the Jewish dietary requirements as a pre-condition for becoming a Christian. This is why Paul rails against them so vehemently when they sent out their own competing missionaries with the message that all new Christians must submit to the Mosaic law in its entirety which caused anxiety and consternation in many of the Gentile churches which Paul had founded; and it is sobering to think that the ‘Jews’ he often complains about were actually Jewish believers from the Jerusalem Church.
It is an abject lesson in why it is so important not to read single texts in isolation out of their original context and make them a pretext for rules or regulations which God may never have intended us to follow. It also shows why it is important to look at passages in scripture in their entirety, and not just the sections which the writers of the Lectionary give us, albeit with good intentions no doubt… to prevent our weekly readings becoming too long, or wearisome, or repetitive perhaps; as a partial reading of scripture can be as bad as no reading of it at all in such circumstances!
Collect
God our Saviour,
Look on this wounded world in pity and in power;
Hold us fast to your promises of peace won for us by your Son,
Our Saviour Jesus Christ.
Isaiah 66:10-14
Rejoice with Jerusalem, and be glad for her, all you who love her; rejoice with her in joy, all you who mourn over her, that you may nurse and be satisfied from her consoling breast, that you may drink deeply with delight from her glorious bosom. For thus says the Lord:
I will extend prosperity to her like a river
and the wealth of the nations like an overflowing stream,
and you shall nurse and be carried on her arm
and bounced on her knees.
As a mother comforts her child,
so I will comfort you; you shall be comforted in Jerusalem.
You shall see, and your heart shall rejoice;
your bodiesshall flourish like the grass,
and it shall be known that the power of the Lord is with his servants,
and his indignation is against his enemies.
Galatians 6:7-16
Do not be deceived; God is not mocked, for you reap whatever you sow. If you sow to your own flesh, you will reap corruption from the flesh, but if you sow to the Spirit, you will reap eternal life from the Spirit. So let us not grow weary in doing what is right, for we will reap at harvest time, if we do not give up. So then, whenever we have an opportunity, let us work for the good of all and especially for those of the family of faith.
See what large letters I make when I am writing in my own hand! It is those who want to make a good showing in the flesh who try to compel you to be circumcised—only that they may not be persecuted for the cross of Christ. Even the circumcised do not themselves obey the law, but they want you to be circumcised so that they may boast about your flesh. May I never boast of anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world. For neither circumcision nor uncircumcision is anything, but a new creation is everything! As for those who will follow this rule—peace be upon them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God.
From now on, let no one make trouble for me, for I carry the marks of Jesus branded on my body.
May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers and sisters. Amen.
Luke 10:1-11; 16-20
After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them on ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself intended to go. He said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few; therefore, ask the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest. Go on your way; I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves. Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals, and greet no one on the road. Whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace to this house!’ And if a person of peace is there, your peace will rest on that person, but if not, it will return to you. Remain in the same house, eating and drinking whatever they provide, for the labourer deserves to be paid. Do not move about from house to house. Whenever you enter a town and its people welcome you, eat what is set before you; cure the sick who are there, and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ But whenever you enter a town and they do not welcome you, go out into its streets and say, ‘Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet, we wipe off in protest against you. Yet know this: the kingdom of God has come near.’ I tell you, on that day it will be more tolerable for Sodom than for that town.
“Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the deeds of power done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. Indeed, at the judgment it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon than for you. And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? No, you will be brought down to Hades.
“Whoever listens to you listens to me, and whoever rejects you rejects me, and whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me.”
The seventy-two returned with joy, saying, “Lord, in your name even the demons submit to us!” He said to them, “I watched Satan fall from heaven like a flash of lightning. Indeed, I have given you authority to tread on snakes and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing will hurt you. Nevertheless, do not rejoice at this, that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”
Post Communion Prayer
O God, whose beauty is beyond our imagining,
And whose power we cannot comprehend:
Show us your glory as far as we can grasp it,
And shield us from knowing more than we can bear,
Until we may look upon you without fear;
Through Jesus Christ our Saviour.
This Week’s Events
Monday
Bell ringing at 7.30pm in St Laurence. Contact Jan on 07835 461361.
Tuesday
Zoom Morning Prayer at 9am. Meeting ID: 539 3978774 Password: TuaR0T or contact Sue on [email protected] (The 0 in R0T is a zero not an ‘O’)
Evening Home Groups, contact Jo on 07803 942 687.
Wednesday
Morning Coffee from 10.00 am in the St Laurence Rooms/Great Horwood Village Hall followed by Midweek Holy Communion at 12 noon in St Laurence’s.
Thursday
Daytime Home Group, contact Jo on 07803 942 687.
Friday (Benedict of Nursia, Abbot and Founder of the Benedictines c550)
Junior Choir, 6.30pm in St Laurence, followed by full Choir Practice at 7.30pm.
*Seventy is generally assumed to be a symbolic representation of the seventy nations of the earth mentioned in Genesis 10. Seventy-two would include these nations together with Israel and Edom. The number of disciples sent is symbolic of the Gospel going out into every nation on earth after Pentecost in so far as the nations of the world were then understood.
