Thursday of the Second Week of Lent – March 4, 2010
Mark 6:7 – 13
Calling the Twelve to him, he began to send them out two by two and gave them authority over evil spirits.
These were his instructions: "Take nothing for the journey except a staff—no bread, no bag, no money in your belts. Wear sandals but not an extra shirt. Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you leave that town. And if any place will not welcome you or listen to you, shake the dust off your feet when you leave, as a testimony against them."
They went out and preached that people should repent. They drove out many demons and anointed many sick people with oil and healed them.
Jesus sent his twelve disciples into the world to carry on his life-work. They went out to do the very things Jesus himself was doing. In essence, they were his feet and hands, his mind and heart, his ears and lips and eyes as they went into the world.
The disciples had no special schooling for this Jesus-work of driving out demons and praying over the sick for healing. They had only their experience with Jesus, their apprenticeship to the One who did these things normally and naturally as a part of who he was.
The passage moves quickly to Jesus “sending out” the Twelve, but if we miss the first phrase, the rest of the narrative gets completely off track. Jesus did not first send out the disciples. He didn’t immediately set them on the road to replicate his ministry in the world.
First of all, he called the Twelve to himself. He drew them to his person. Without first coming toward Jesus, moving toward the One who is the Center of Life, these followers had nothing to give the world. They could give as much as fishermen and tax collectors and political/religious zealots – which was what the disciples were – had in their arsenal to give people; they could not, however, impart a radically new kingdom of love and transformation without first gathering themselves around the One who is the True Pole of the world.
This movement accurately describes our own spiritual journey as well. In order to offer ourselves as a transforming presence in the world, the first movement is always inward, toward the Center, toward the Core. In our zeal to “do something great for God,” we easily may miss this initial movement. We’re all about action, jumping into the world and getting busy, finding the needs and working to fix or advise or construct a solution.
Jesus models for us another way in which the initial movement is not outward toward the problem, but inward toward the Source of our life. At that Source, there is also re-source for us when we move outward. That is, when we have been to the Center, we have something to offer the world which is meaningful and life-giving. The disciples did not offer healing and authority over demons and Spirit-anointed preaching because any of that resided natively in them. They offered what they had received from being with Jesus.
If that sounds difficult to trust in practical terms, it is. For that reason, Jesus insisted that his disciples go out on their journeys without packing any of the usual resources: “No bread, no bag, and no money” so that people who encountered them would not attribute their power and authority to the physical resources they carried.
The primary resources given by Christ to those on the journey are spiritual resources, unseen to the common eye. From our time moving to the Center, to Jesus himself, we are given his very life and Spirit as our resource. As the Gospels demonstrate time after time, this resource is more than enough for wherever the journey takes us.
Calling the Twelve to him, he began to send them out two by two and gave them authority over evil spirits.
These were his instructions: "Take nothing for the journey except a staff—no bread, no bag, no money in your belts. Wear sandals but not an extra shirt. Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you leave that town. And if any place will not welcome you or listen to you, shake the dust off your feet when you leave, as a testimony against them."
They went out and preached that people should repent. They drove out many demons and anointed many sick people with oil and healed them.
Jesus sent his twelve disciples into the world to carry on his life-work. They went out to do the very things Jesus himself was doing. In essence, they were his feet and hands, his mind and heart, his ears and lips and eyes as they went into the world.
The disciples had no special schooling for this Jesus-work of driving out demons and praying over the sick for healing. They had only their experience with Jesus, their apprenticeship to the One who did these things normally and naturally as a part of who he was.
The passage moves quickly to Jesus “sending out” the Twelve, but if we miss the first phrase, the rest of the narrative gets completely off track. Jesus did not first send out the disciples. He didn’t immediately set them on the road to replicate his ministry in the world.
First of all, he called the Twelve to himself. He drew them to his person. Without first coming toward Jesus, moving toward the One who is the Center of Life, these followers had nothing to give the world. They could give as much as fishermen and tax collectors and political/religious zealots – which was what the disciples were – had in their arsenal to give people; they could not, however, impart a radically new kingdom of love and transformation without first gathering themselves around the One who is the True Pole of the world.
This movement accurately describes our own spiritual journey as well. In order to offer ourselves as a transforming presence in the world, the first movement is always inward, toward the Center, toward the Core. In our zeal to “do something great for God,” we easily may miss this initial movement. We’re all about action, jumping into the world and getting busy, finding the needs and working to fix or advise or construct a solution.
Jesus models for us another way in which the initial movement is not outward toward the problem, but inward toward the Source of our life. At that Source, there is also re-source for us when we move outward. That is, when we have been to the Center, we have something to offer the world which is meaningful and life-giving. The disciples did not offer healing and authority over demons and Spirit-anointed preaching because any of that resided natively in them. They offered what they had received from being with Jesus.
If that sounds difficult to trust in practical terms, it is. For that reason, Jesus insisted that his disciples go out on their journeys without packing any of the usual resources: “No bread, no bag, and no money” so that people who encountered them would not attribute their power and authority to the physical resources they carried.
The primary resources given by Christ to those on the journey are spiritual resources, unseen to the common eye. From our time moving to the Center, to Jesus himself, we are given his very life and Spirit as our resource. As the Gospels demonstrate time after time, this resource is more than enough for wherever the journey takes us.
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