One day Jesus called together his twelve disciples and gave them power and authority to cast out all demons and to heal all diseases. Then he sent them out to tell everyone about the Kingdom of God and to heal the sick. “Take nothing for your journey,” he instructed them. “Don’t take a walking stick, a traveler’s bag, food, money, or even a change of clothes. Wherever you go, stay in the same house until you leave town. And if a town refuses to welcome you, shake its dust from your feet as you leave to show that you have abandoned those people to their fate.” So they began their circuit of the villages, preaching the Good News and healing the sick. (Luke 9:1-5)Jesus got the twelve together for a kind of a trial run on preaching. He wanted them to have a taste of what it was like to go out and actually do all of the stuff he had been doing themselves.
After all, he was not going to be there forever, so they needed to know what it was like.
In seminary, we did this. We went door to door (not as unwelcome in those days) and had our Bible tracts and Bible studies that we did. Jesus knew, as did our teachers, that it is a lot different doing it than talking about it.
In their case, they went for a few weeks. Jesus told them that they would be taken care of while they were doing this. God would see to it. But they had to have faith themselves.
His instructions: take no money, not even a walking stick or extra clothes. All they needed would be given them.
He also told them not to upgrade when they went somewhere. Whoever it was that invited them first, that was where they stayed. Even if some wealthy person was grateful and offered them his mansion, they stayed put where they were. He wanted them to avoid the appearance of profiteering. They were not in this for the money, they were in it for the teaching.
And one thing for sure, if a town didn’t want them, they left. They shook the dust off their feet and they left. There were too many people and not enough time for them to sit around and beg the people to listen to them. Not only that, but he wanted the leaving to be public, to show that you have abandoned those people to their fate.
One thing came to mind, though, while I was reading this. It is the first time I ever thought of it. What did Jesus do while they were gone? He had already been preaching non-stop for several years. Did he rest? Go visit his mother? Go back into the wilderness and fast again?
It really doesn’t matter, I suppose, but you know he had to do something. He evidently didn’t go with them, since he knew they needed the experience.
But they were excited when they got back. You know they had to be. Nothing is more exciting to a young preacher than going out and doing a good job.
But he teaches them faith, and at the same time, a certain self-reliance. I don’t know if they went out in pairs, or one big group, or little groups or singly. It doesn’t say. The next group Jesus sends out, in the next chapter of Luke, is sent out by two’s. The too come back excited.
They don’t know that soon it will be like this permanently. Jesus will be gone and they will be doing this all the time.
Jesus wants them to know that God will take care of them as long as they are in his will teaching his message, and that they are not in it for the money nor the glory.
They are in it for the kingdom.
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