That's a very deep question. The answer is related to the fact that God has made us able to respond to him and to choose his will. We aren't robots. God could "force the issue" with us, but chooses to act in a way that doesn't violate our personhood or our responsibility - our ability to respond to him.
This is so before we come to faith. There may be situations before us which help us to see the logic of faith, but we still have to respond. Saul of Tarsus was kicking against the goads (Acts 26.14). It finally took an extraordinary visitation to convince him to give his whole allegiance to Christ. Could Caiaphas too have responded in faith and become a "chosen vessel" to bear the gospel to others? It took a violent storm in the Atlantic to bring John Newton to call out for help to the God of his mother. Could there have been other hardened slave-traders like him who didn't make the turn of faith?
The same principle applies once we have become Christians. The Christian life is a life of trusting faith. We pray to be given our daily bread and give thanks for every meal. At times our prayer goes beyond simple asking to seeking and knocking (Mt. 7.7-8). God is with us. His promises and blessings go with us, but do we live in constant conscious trust in him? Many times we need to seek and knock because our desires and motives need to be refined (Jas 4.3).
And Christ's Body, seeking to do the work of the Kingdom, needs to live and act on the same principle. We are to pray and to act trustingly. This is brought out rather strikingly in today's reading. Jesus says to the seventy-two, "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. Go! I am sending you..." (Luke 10.2-3).
We are often envious of those first disciples. It was, after all, "the right time". The news about Jesus was "fresh". The Jewish people all had a sound basic religious training - in fact, were expecting a Messiah to appear some time...
I wonder... We do read that "when the time had fully come, God sent his Son" (Gal. 4.4). But maybe God's idea of a "right time" is rather different from ours. It was the time when the majority of the "chosen people" and their leaders were of a mind to have Christ done to death. It was the time when the Roman authorities could be persuaded to carry out the death sentence by crucifixion. Did that make it a better or easier time to be sharing the gospel?
Yet, there was a need - the basic human need to know God, the basic human need to get right with the God against whom we have rebelled, the basic awareness of personal failure and inability to correct the ills of our time... If there is a difference today, it is in the area of our deep belief in our independence and sufficiency, in our ability to be all and to do all.
Jesus knew that he had come to "seek and to save what was lost" (Lk. 19.10; see also his parables in ch. 15). In contrast to the prevailing concepts of leadership, he described himself as having come "not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many" (Mk 10.45).
His disciples didn't understand at the time the depth of human need (including their own need) nor the lengths to which Jesus would have to go to redeem fallen humanity.
There was good news. The incarnational story has begun. The redemptive work is in process, but not yet complete. In Jesus the Kingdom of God has already arrived. Now is the time to respond to what God is doing. Now is the time to become part of the Kingdom.
John the Baptist had called on people to "repent for the Kingdom of heaven is near" (Mt. 3.2). Jesus, baptised by John and tempted, began his preaching, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near" (4.17).
These seventy-two were not to expect a universal welcome. He was sending them out "like lambs among wolves" (Lk. 10.3). Their "shalom" would not always be accepted (vv. 5-6). Some towns refuse to welcome them (vv. 10-11). Some people would listen, but others would reject (v. 16).
Yet there was a call and an invitation to be offered - whether people wanted to respond or not. In a real sense, to have by-passed the offer of Kingdom grace was serious indeed and would incur divine judgment (v. 12).
The Lord is calling us. Do you hear him? "The Kingdom of heaven is at hand. It is time to repent and to believe the good news!"
The Lord is calling us. Do you hear him? "There is a plentiful harvest to be gathered in. People need to hear and to respond to the good news. Pray the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into his harvest."
The Lord is calling us. Do you hear him? "Go! I am sending you out - sending you into the neighbourhoods where you live, sending you to your generation... I am with you, but you are my arms and legs, my ears and eyes, my heart, my lips... I am counting on you."
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