For those of us who were alive when dinosaurs roamed the earth one of the iconic images of the American experience is of the gunfighter riding off all alone into the sunset with amber waves of grain spread before him and purple mountains majesty in the distance and young Brandon deWilde calling out, “Shane, come back. Come back, Shane.” The image is iconic because it captures a certain ideal that our culture has of a hero: the strong, silent type who alone against great odds manages to triumph. The image is repeated often – in John Wayne films, in the Clint Eastwood spaghetti westerns, nowadays in the Jason Bourne movies. Even when the hero has a faithful Indian companion he is known as the LONE Ranger. Besides these fictional heroes the culture celebrates the actual individuals who stand out from the crowd: Steve Jobs creating a new way of connecting, Albert Einstein sitting by himself in the patent office re-imagining the universe, the anonymous man in Tiananmen Square defying the approaching tanks. We admire the heroic individual.
However, the Bible does not idealize the individual in quite the same way. In the Bible, doing something together seems to be more consistent with the way that God operates. After all, the one God is not simply a monad sitting off in solitary glory but a Trinity of persons bound together in love. Since togetherness is more divine than apartness, one of the first things that Jesus does when he begins his ministry is gather people around him. St. Mark calls them “the Twelve.” We usually refer to them as the apostles. (And no, to settle this once for all, the epistles are not the wives of the apostles.) The Bible shows that Jesus didn’t do his ministry as the Lone Ranger. Jesus needed people around him.
All of which might explain why, when Jesus sends the twelve out on mission, he sends them out “two by two.” Just as Jesus couldn’t do his ministry all alone, nor should the apostles. Together is the way to be an apostle. Now there are some obvious reasons why it is good to have a companion for the journey. A companion for the journey can keep talking so you won’t fall asleep while driving. A companion for the journey can scratch that itch that you can’t quite reach. A companion for the journey will split the split the bag of microwave popcorn with you so you don’t make a pig of yourself and scarf down the whole thing. It’s good to have a companion. But there are some specific reasons why Jesus sent the twelve out, the apostles out, two by two. We need to examine why the only way to be an apostle is not as Lone Rangers but together.
First, when you are together you are reminded that you have to take your own medicine. When you’re by yourself you can think that the reason for a difficulty is that the other person has a problem. If only those people would hear my message and change, then everything would be all right. But when you have a companion you are reminded that the problems aren’t out there, they are in here. No one makes me get angry. No one makes me lose my patience. No one makes me be unhappy. I do that all on my own. I am responsible for my own feelings. So it’s insane to say, “I’m not feeling so good, therefore you take this medicine and I’ll feel better.” No, I have to take my own medicine and change myself before I can be an effective apostle and call others to a closer walk with God.
Second, when you go out two by two you find that love only happens after forgiving the giving and the taking of wounds. I used to have a poster that read: Dear Lord, so far today I have been nice to everyone. I haven’t spoken a harsh word. I have always acted with kindness. I have not yelled or cursed. But I’m about to get out of bed now so I’ll need your help for the rest of the day if I am continue to be kind and loving. If there is one thing that is needful when there is a companion on the journey it is forgiveness. Whenever two people are involved there is a frequent need to forgive and to be forgiven. By myself I can have the illusion about what a nice guy I am. But put another person in my way and look out. Going out two by two rubs the rough edges off. The need to forgive and be forgiven is woven into being together. The apostles are sent out as those who experience the centrality of forgiveness in any relationship.
Finally, Jesus sent out the apostles together so that they could learn to receive as well as to give. Look at the marching orders Jesus gives them: no food, not sack, no money, no extra shirt. In other words, the pair of apostles will be completely dependent on the hospitality of those they are visiting. Yes, they are preaching good news, they are bringing peace but they do not do so from a position of superiority — the “I have something and you don’t” attitude. Instead they are bringing what they have and receiving what the other gives. That is the model of mission that Jesus urges on the apostles and hence on us. Yes, we are glad to be people of faith and desire to share that faith with others because it will make their lives better. But we are also open to hearing from the other, to understanding who they are and what they are going through. It is the give and take of relationship that makes the faith flourish. Jesus sent the apostles out two by two because his message is about love. They were to embody his message by how they related to one another. By really loving one another and all those with whom they interacted the apostles proved that faith in Jesus was the way to life, life to the full.