The Mission of the Twelve

Mark 6: 7-13

 Jesus summoned the Twelve and began to send them out two by two and gave them authority over unclean spirits. He instructed them to take nothing for the journey but a walking stick—no food, no sack, no money in their belts. They were, however, to wear sandals but not a second tunic. He said to them, “Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave from there. Whatever place does not welcome you or listen to you, leave there and shake the dust off your feet in testimony against them.” So, they went off and preached repentance. They drove out many demons, and they anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them.

Discussion Questions: 

1. How do you balance the vulnerability of trusting in God’s providence while still taking faith-based action in your life? What does this look like for you?
2. Why do you think Jesus tells the disciples to take nothing for the journey? How does this injunction to travel lightly relate to us today?
3. How do your attachments to material possessions and security needs possibly blocking your entrance to the spiritual path set by Jesus?
4. Where in life have you been unwelcomed or experienced rejection, and how did you handle it? Does this Gospel reading give you any guidance in that regard?
5. Where have you noticed your life mission as a disciple becoming an invitation for others to undertake their own spiritual adventure?

Biblical Context

Mary M. McGlone CSJ
Mark 6: 7-13 

It helps if we listen to today’s Gospel in its context, remembering that last weeks ended with the statement that Jesus could work no mighty deeds among his own because of their lack of faith. That’s what the disciples witnessed just before Jesus called them together to send them out to carry forth his mission. Given the context, his invitation to mission could have seemed a great set-up for frustration.

Then, to add to the difficulties, Jesus gave them a series of guidelines apparently designed to exaggerate their vulnerability. Disregarding what their mothers had surely told them from the time they were little, Jesus sent them off without any provisions except sandals, a staff and the clothes on their backs. Like Jesus who could work wonders for people who accepted his message, they were to rely on those who received them.

Although the disciples were told not to provide for themselves, Jesus did give them the power to serve others. For the first time in the Gospel, we see here that Jesus not only had authority over the demons, but that very power was something he could bestow on others.

Mark doesn’t tell us much more about their mission — there was no script except to repeat what they had learned from being with Jesus. Accentuating the simplicity of their approach, Jesus told them to stay with the first people who received them rather than to move from place to place. Then, perhaps more realistically, he told them that if a place refused to welcome or listen to them, they should act as if it were a pagan country and shake its dust off them before returning to the Holy Land.

We are left to wonder what those disciples felt as they were sent off. Did they think they were prepared for the task? What were they going to tell others about the repentance/metanoia they were preaching? How had it changed their lives? Were they eager or fearful about entering into combat with the demons? They had seen that the demons knew and spoke out about who Jesus was, what would the evil spirits reveal about them if they perturbed them? Unconcerned about our curiosity, Mark only tells us that the twelve went off and preached repentance and drove out many demons.

Scripture scholar and Jesuit Fr. Silvano Fausti comments on the disciples’ mission saying that they were sent without anything because when we have things, that is what we think we can give. When we have nothing in our hands or pack, we can only give what comes from inside us. Perhaps that’s the symbolic import of Jesus’ sharing of his power over the demons. All that the disciples had to give was what they had received from Jesus, qualities that can’t be contained in a sack or carried on a belt.

Today’s readings invite us to look at our own call as disciples. Most real prophets (Isaiah excepted) don’t choose that profession but find themselves called or cajoled into it. As they put their vocation into practice, they discover that the call to serve others becomes their unique way of entering into communion with God and their own people. The calling draws more out of them than they ever believed they could accomplish. Are we ready to get caught up in that dynamic?

 The Way to be Disciples Take Nothing for The Journey

Reflection
Mark 6: 7-13
E. Jane Rutter

Temporality is a restless state of being, whereby we jump ahead to the next want, event, or activity to keep us in the center of, as my now-adult nephew Zach said in his younger years, “where the action is.” It is a childish longing for more that is never quenched.

The eternal, on the other hand, leads us to quiet, where we find our soul’s rest in God alone. It is in prayer that we discover our role as disciples is simply to be God’s messengers. To bring others to him through the love we share. The same love that God has for his son Jesus.

Jesus prayed submersing himself in the quiet of the desert, mountainside, and garden. Thus, refreshed and invigorated by communion with his father, he returned to the real “action,” teaching us the message of eternal life.

Prayer is the state of being from which our true longing for the eternal emanates. Prayer is what leads us to discipleship, to live as joyful, grateful, and generous stewards. “Love others and pass along my message of joy,” is all God asks. Steeped in his love, our desire for the temporal fades to a whisper.

We teach the message in many ways, not all of us through words. Like the apostles we act it out by visiting the sick and imprisoned, feeding and clothing the hungry, comforting the lost, and even rejoicing with other Christians. Putting on this face of Christ, we are natural evangelizers. The fruits of the Holy Spirit—among them kindness, joy, goodness, and love—are magnets that attract others to our Christ and thereby God.

Abandoning my soul to love is the only way to live a life of discipleship, a life of stewardship. Temporal desires are the obstacles I must shed as the weight that slows my travels to him.

What a balancing act this life on earth is. A scale seems an inadequate image to depict living in Christ. Rather, it is the constant interplay of faith, prayer, and response to God that molds us into willing disciples.

E. Jane Rutter, adapted from Seasons of the Spirit
E. Jane Rutter is a writer and national fundraising and development consultant. She was formerly the director of stewardship and development for the Diocese of Jefferson City, Missouri.