Father, Your might was showcased out our window as a storm in all its splendor flew by! The calm and the sun have returned, and all is well. What a mighty God we serve!

Luke 10:3 (<<click to read the passage)

According to Merriam-Webster,

vulnerable adjective
….: capable of being physically or emotionally wounded

Shouldn’t that be our life’s goal? Isn’t that something, early on, that we instill in our children? Isn’t that something we all set out to accomplish every day? “Alright world, heads up! Today I am going to be…vulnerable!”

Bad idea, you say? You’re having none of that? Not happening on your watch?

Jumping back into Luke 10, I stopped at verse 3. Remember Jesus is sending out a troupe of disciples in pairs to towns that he was planning to visit. Many needed to hear the good news that he intended to share, and they were His forerunners. After speaking of the need for workers for the great harvest of souls to come, He commands them,

Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves. (NIV)

A portion of a study on the Blue Letter Bible website says,

Jesus commands them to go with a certain kind of heart, that trusts in God and doesn’t seek to abuse and manipulate people. Going as lambs among wolves doesn’t sound very attractive to us! Yet, it is exactly as Jesus was sent, and how the power of God worked through Him mightily.

Isn’t that what gives us pause? We are believers! We are more than conquerors! …but going out as “lambs among wolves”? Talk about being vulnerable!

“Yet, it is exactly as Jesus was sent…”

The King of Heaven placed Himself, willingly, into the womb of a young Israelite girl. Is there anything more vulnerable than a newborn child? Infinite deliberately placing Himself into finite.

Nothing about His life was easy. He exerted His power, not for His own gain, but for the benefit of those in need. He hungered but fed the hungry. He grew weary but did not withhold His attention from those who craved His touch. He was always on call and literally had to slip away in the quiet morning hours to spend much needed time with His Father.

Our Almighty Creator God allowed Himself to be betrayed, tried, convicted, beaten, and crucified on a cruel cross as…a lamb.

In his Bible Commentary, Matthew Henry, in reference to Luke 10:3, stated,

Your enemies will be as wolves, bloody and cruel, and ready to pull you to pieces; in their threatenings and revilings, they will be as howling wolves to terrify you; in their persecutions of you, they will be as ravening wolves to tear you.

It’s easy to see it applying to Jesus, but to us?

Henry goes on to say,

But you must be as lambs, peaceable and patient, though made an easy prey of. It would have been very hard thus to be sent forth as sheep among wolves, if he had not endued them with his spirit and courage.

Jesus asks nothing of us that He has not already done.

Again, I will address the mentality of those with a “my rights” mentality. We are sent by a wounded Savior to touch a world that will just as readily accept our extended hand of mercy as it will just as readily bite it off.

There are no guarantees. There are no apologies. The opening word in verse 3 is “Go!” It is not a suggestion…it is a command. The Lord of Heaven’s Armies leads the way…by example…and we must readily follow. Then, and only then, will we be endued with His spirit and courage. It is exactly as Jesus was sent, and how the power of God worked through Him mightily and will work through us, as well.

The way of vulnerability is not easy, but it is the way we must go.

May 14th, 2020, Thurs, 6:46 pm