Jesus summoned the Twelve and began to send them out two by two. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the Lutheran pastor and theologian executed by the Nazis, once wrote that the reason Jesus sent the disciples out two by two was so that they would have someone to forgive. Certainly it would have been a help and support to have a companion on the journey, However, the human reality is that whenever you have two people rubbing up against one another you have the giving and the taking of wounds. By presenting themselves as forgiven and forgiving the newly minted missionaries demonstrated the power of God to transform our human nature. We who are called to the missionary disciples in the providence of our everyday lives are in a similar way to show how God’s forgiveness makes us into a new creation. As we are forgiving and forgiven the good news of Jesus becomes tangible.
