Traveling Companions

Luke 10:1-2

After this the Lord appointed seventy 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 laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.

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Do you need anybody
I just need someone to love
Could it be anybody
I want somebody to love.

Oh, I get by with a little help from my friends

"With a Little Help from My Friends" by Joe Cocker

God bless the "Lone Wolf", but the truth is that people live longer when they live with somebody. With a partner in life, life is fuller, life is more wonderful. As it says in Genesis 2, God did not make man to be alone. So it's a wild world out there. The going is not easy. We need people in our lives, we need partners. We need traveling companions on the big blue marble. We need people to share the ups in life and maybe even more, we need people to share the downs.

Jesus knew this too. He knew when he sent the disciples out in the world that while seventy disciples could cover more territory; it would be more effective, more efficient, and better for everyone concerned to send 35 couples. Jesus knew it would be better for the disciples and better for those hearing the gospel if the disciples went out in pairs. Pairs bring balance. Pairs bring different views of the same Lord, just look at the gospels for an example of that. Pairs make a single person a group of three, and where two or more are assembled...

Well, that just goes to show the Lord is not a lone wolf.

Joe sings of wanting someone to love, anyone to love. This is the what God expresses in creation. We were created so that the Lord would have someone to share creation with. We were created to be in a couple with our Lord. This is the emphasis upon being the Bride of Christ. We are called into a loving relationship with God and with each other through the church. God created us to join him in that journey together.

What begins as a simple couple, what begins with the a pair of disciples going out two-by-two is just a reflection of how we are called into relationship with the Lord God. We are called to be God's traveling companions in this life. So find a partner, a prayer partner or a life partner, an evangelism partner or a study partner, and go into the world with the one who has called us to be traveling companions, to bring in the harvest in the name of the Lord.

This is how we get by, with a little help from our friends.

Faithful Friends

Luke 5:18-20

Just then some men came, carrying a paralyzed man on a bed. They were trying to bring him in and lay him before Jesus; but finding no way to bring him in because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and let him down with his bed through the tiles into the middle of the crowd in front of Jesus. When he saw their faith, he said, “Friend, your sins are forgiven you.”

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I'll be there for you
When the rain starts to pour
I'll be there for you
Like I've been there before
I'll be there for you
'Cuz you're there for me too...

"I'll Be There for You" written by Phil Solem and Danny Wilde, recorded by The Rembrandts. This song served as the theme to the NBC television series "Friends."

Jesus was in town healing the people. The scene could be described as a melodrama-there's the good guy-Jesus, the bad guys-the Scribes and Pharisees who will describe Jesus as blasphemous, and even the femme fatale-the sick and injured who needed healing. Melodrama also has one more important character, the crowd. The audience provides dramatic punctuation to the proceedings--and this crowd fulfilled that qualification.

So a group of men bring their friend to be healed. They rip a hole in the roof to lower their paralyzed friend into Jesus' lap. Jesus was so impressed with the friend's faith that he had to do something. When the rain starts to pour, when the roof begins to crash in, when stricken with paralysis-good friends are hard to find, but they were there for him.

So he forgave the man's sins. He didn't heal him, he forgave him his sins. Suddenly the crowd is in shock. They've seen healings before, but never did it turn into absolution of sin! Is that even possible?

Jesus calls the man "friend." What a friend we have in Jesus. A friend who will be there when the world crashes all around us. When the rain starts to pour, when the roof begins to crash in, when stricken with paralysis-a friend who is able to forgive our sins. Thanks be to God Jesus is there for us.

Jesus is there for us, let us be there for Jesus too.