Mark 6:7-13 — No Checked Luggage

Mark 6:7-13

"And he called the twelve [to Himself] and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. He charged them to take nothing for their journey except a staff—no bread, no bag, no money in their belts—but to wear sandals and not put on two tunics.

    And he said to them, “Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you depart from there. And if any place will not receive you and they will not listen to you, when you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them.”

   So they went out and proclaimed that people should repent. And they cast out many demons and anointed with oil many who were sick and healed them.

"Not Like This..." 

Comments: Jesus sent out the twelve into the countryside to preach the gospel of the kingdom of God. He equipped them with the power, his power, to cast out evil spirits and to heal. Jesus also instructed them not to pack for the trip. Why? Well, they needed to respond right away as time was short. There was no time to pack everything but the kitchen sink like we like to do in my family. In addition, it seems that he wanted to teach them something about faith—that they would need to trust God for their provision and shelter. The other lesson seems to have been one of total dependence on God to meet their needs rather than the self-reliance, self-confidence, and self-sufficiency that we see admonished so often today. They had to live by faith, without Jesus right there next to them. This prohibition on luggage was not normative, for later they are told to pack (Luke 22:35-36), but here for the purpose of training them to trust they were sent out to find a son of peace (Luke 10:6) in each village and stay there, trusting that God would provide.

He sent them out two by two. I think that we can see a hint of the inter-dependence in the body of Christ. Christians are not called to be Superman, saving the world by ourselves. You probably at least need a sidekick and partner (even the Lone Ranger did). We are not to be an island unto ourselves but are to function in cooperation and community with other parts of the body of Christ. Practically, two by two is very sensible for accountability, encouragement, agreement in prayer, the legal establishment of a witness (needed two), etc.

The mission of God in the world is always relational. No one is fully a person outside of a relationship with God and others, especially the messengers of the Kingdom of God. God (Father, Son, & Holy Spirit) is relational at his very core.

On a road in Israel

One last observation today… the disciples were sent out to preach repentance! Repentance is a change of mind that produces a change in behavior. We cannot preach the good news of Christ without preaching repentance. He calls us to turn away from not just our sinful and selfish actions and attitudes, but also from our own efforts to earn his love. If the people in Jesus’ day wouldn’t listen to the message that God sent in Jesus then they would be worse off than Sodom and Gomorrah who had no messenger of repentance.

As people received the message of repentance, demons were cast out and people were anointed with oil (symbol of the coming Holy Spirit) and healed in their bodies. Perhaps we should spend more time repenting of our proud self-sufficiency and self-effort and individualism instead of seeking the glory of signs and wonders and we will see more signs and wonders because the glorious God will be at work in our midst.

We are loved and accepted by the Father, in the Son, through the Holy Spirit. We cannot help but be different as a result. Now that is good news!