GOSPEL MEDITATION #189
JESUS SENDS OUT THE APOSTLES
MARK 6:7-13
- Find a quiet place without distractions.
- Be comfortably alert, still, and at peace.
- Say the Lord’s Prayer. Sing or cant the Jesus Prayer.
- Pray for family, friends, neighbors, and yourself.
- Slowly and carefully read the passage of Scripture.
- Jesus, undaunted by the rejection at His hometown, begins sending out the twelve, two by two, into other parts of Galilee.
- He does not go with them; likely He continued teaching, preaching, and making people whole as He had done before He called the Twelve to follow Him.
- He gave the apostles “authority” exousia in the Greek and not dunamis or power over unclean spirits. Miracles accompanied the preaching, which focused on repenting, a message similar to that of John the Baptist.
- This was certainly risky business for Jesus to commit to; Judas was also among them and none really understood who Jesus actually was.
- The Twelve were to go out empty handed, without provision. In that part of the world it was customary for travellers to be received as they journeyed. The pairs of two would be recognized as itinerate prophets and thus invited into homes for food and shelter.
- Jesus strictly charged them not to take advantage of customary sustenance by ‘moving up’ to better accommodations if offered. Have we lost this lesson along the way?
- Shaking the dust off the feet – a sign that one leaves behind whatever the results of the ministry was or was not. Moving ahead is the point.
- Miracles accompanied the apostle’s work, as is typical in times of awakening.
- How we wish for these days.