There came a man
Few people in the Bible were so clearly sent as John the Baptist. Born after an angelic vision to an elderly father and apparently barren mother, he was destined from birth 'to be great in the sight of God...filled with the Holy Spirit...to make ready a people prepared for the Lord' (Luke 1:15-17).
It would be presumptuous indeed for us to claim to be sent like John, or like Abraham, Moses or Isaiah - who were specially commissioned to fulfil critical roles in the history of God's people. Still less for us to claim to be sent like Jesus - whom God sent into the world to bring life to the dead.
And yet...didn't Jesus say to his disciples, 'As the Father has sent me, I am sending you' (John 20:21)? He had already warned them that he was sending them 'like sheep among wolves', but they would be going in his authority, to do the kinds of things that he did.
And that is one of the keys to what it means for us to be sent today. Since we are his body, we are 'in Christ', we go into the world to do the kinds of things that he did: to affirm the marginalised, bring hope to those in despair, encourage the disheartened, witness to the love and grace of God - seeking to be channels for the mighty power of the Holy Spirit.
But there is a second key: God sent Jesus to take on himself the nature and limitations of physical humanity. He incarnated himself: 'the Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighbourhood' (John1:14, Message version). He identified himself with us, bearing our griefs and carrying our sorrows. And that is, therefore, what he sends us to do.
Perhaps we don't feel sent when we leave the house in the morning, when we arrive at work, when we take the children to the playground, when we visit a lonely neighbour. But wherever we go - feeling often in a hostile or indifferent world like sheep among wolves - we may bring the sweet fragrance of Christ, like the sudden scent of a rose in a suburban hedge.
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