Shake it off!

Mark 6:6b-13

^6bThen Jesus went around teaching from village to village. ⁷ Calling the Twelve to him, he began to send them out two by two and gave them authority over impure spirits.

⁸ These were his instructions: “Take nothing for the journey except a staff—no bread, no bag, no money in your belts. ⁹ Wear sandals but not an extra shirt. ¹⁰ Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you leave that town. ¹¹ And if any place will not welcome you or listen to you, leave that place and shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them.”

¹² They went out and preached that people should repent. ¹³ They drove out many demons and anointed many sick people with oil and healed them.

A series of episodes where faith releases dramatic miracles (the woman healed of bleeding and Jairus’ daughter raised from the dead), and then in Nazareth Jesus meets such a refusal to believe that it prevented miracles. This is his hometown. This is where he should have expected a sympathetic reception. But the level of their unbelief shocks him.

I’d be having a bit of self-doubt at this point.

His disciples were there and saw it all. I’m guessing the experience would have left them feeling discouraged, perhaps less certain about Jesus.

But Jesus moves on to teach in other towns.

And he has a lesson for his disciples. He sends them out with authority to do what he has been doing: teaching and healing. He sends them in their most vulnerable: no food, no money, not even a change of clothes. They will be totally dependent on the reception they receive.

He tells them what to do when they and their message is not welcome: Shake it off! Literally shake the dust off as a symbol that those people are left in the separation they asked for. And shake it off spiritually and emotionally: Go on to those who will welcome them.

When I get a bad reaction to the something I say about Jesus, I tend to get stuck at Nazareth. The dirt sticks. And I get stuck.

I need to hear the next bit. I need to not put my faith in the judgement of those who reject God. I need to put my faith in Jesus, and the overwhelming, life changing, life giving blessing that he is. I need to shake off that dirt and take him to whoever will welcome him.

That’s not often easy. But the disciples saw the miracles that happen when you do.

Written by David Cornell