In last week’s lectionary passage (Luke 9:51-56), we were told that Jesus set his face toward Jerusalem. This didn’t mean he was making a beeline toward the city, but it was clear the Holy City was his goal. Many things happened along the way to the cross. He met hundreds of people, taught most of them, and healed many.

He did this by moving from village to village, and town to town. We don’t talk about it much, but this isn’t something he did in a helter-skelter manner. It appears that, after his disciples and followers had received a fair amount of preparation from him, he began to send them out ahead of him. From what we can tell in scripture, Jesus would send them out as advance men of sorts to the towns and villages to which he was about to travel. He sent them in pairs and gave them…