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.
(To read the rest of this message, please click here:)
https://toddlprice.com/2024/08/16/giving-to-enable-the-harvest-luke-103-7/
