Mark 6:7-13
Gospel according to Mark 6:7-13
Calling the Twelve to him, Jesus began to send them out two by two and gave them authority over impure 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, leave that place and shake the dust off your feet 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.
Reflections
In today’s Gospel, Jesus sends forth the Disciples two by two. They go in pairs to support each other and for safety. Not going alone reminds them that Jesus also sends them forth with authority and help from the Holy Spirit to accomplish their mission. It is interesting that the instructions were carefully recorded by Mark because Jesus advises His Disciples to follow a way of simplicity: Carry only what is necessary and what is essential. Do not worry about where the resources will come from. And have trust that there will be places and people who will show generosity and good will to welcome them. At the same time, Jesus is aware that not all the places will be welcoming and when that happens, Jesus tells the disciples not to force anyone to listen, but to move on and to find other places where their message is welcomed.
The authority to be Jesus’ messengers and to act in His name comes from Jesus Himself. This event happened before Jesus’ death and Resurrection while He was still with them and waited for them to come back and to tell Him what they encountered on their journey. We could think of it in a way as if the Disciples were apprentices and Jesus gave them an opportunity to try out what it was like being His witnesses. Already at this point, He gave them authority to heal the sick and to drive out evil spirits, which means that Jesus shared the authority that He had.
What would it take today to be messengers of the Good News? First, one would have to have proper formation to be able to express the ideas and the message of the Gospel, and to be able to faithfully and adequately transmit it to others. Usually, when one thinks of a formal formation, this would happen in the course of education in theology, Bible studies, philosophy and history. But the Disciples received their formation from Jesus, where the most important consideration was not so much their intellectual ability, but their willingness to accept Jesus’ message. Therefore, the most basic requirement for being a good disciple who can be sent into the world is to accept the message of the Gospel with conviction.
Jesus asks His emissaries, the ones who He entrusts His message to, to be single-minded about the mission and not to worry about what they will wear, what they will eat, whether there will be enough resources to cover their journey. This seems a bit paradoxical in today’s world, where one would tend toward first completing an exact calculation of how much investment needs to be done for a certain outcome to be achieved, to determine if it is feasible, or financially worthwhile. Jesus asks to put such calculations aside. What is needed are basic necessities, and with that, He means that anyone can become His messenger if they are willing to do so. Being His Disciple doesn’t require one to be rich, or successful, or to have special abilities because all these will be added at the time of the mission, not out of being worked toward, but out of generosity.
This advice may remind us of King Solomon, who when he was offered that he could ask for anything and it would be given to him, only chose wisdom. Everything that he needed as a king proceeded from this gift and was given to him by grace.
Another image is Jesus gently knocking at the door of our hearts and never seeking to enter by force. Jesus waits patiently until we are ready to respond.
Being sent on a mission sounds like a general task, but being sent on a mission to love and to convert hearts is a calling of every Christian. There are many different types of missions. For some people, a mission means to become good at their profession. For others, it may be to accomplish a significant goal. But this mission that Jesus asked the Disciples to accomplish is a different kind of mission because it helps others to transform their lives. Fundamentally, this mission is entirely not self-centered, but is done for the sake of the others. It actually requires some amount of self-sacrifice and self-denial to live not for the self, but for the other – To travel not for the sake of changing scenery or sightseeing, but for the sake of meeting people who need help.
Jesus gave the Disciples the authority to heal, and this deep healing that only could come through Him could not be accomplished in any other way than in complete reliance on Him. So by going on this mission, the Disciples, as they were learning how to walk in the footsteps of Jesus, could reach out to others through the strength that they received from God. This strength was not psychological or physical, but it came through the dimension of the spirit. It was so strong that it had the impact of making the body and the mind prepared to undertake this task.
Today, similarly, if anyone wants to become a Disciple, one must ask for the strength that Jesus gives through His Holy Spirit. Over time, that strength will prepare the body and mind for that mission which is entrusted to each. Today’s Good News is that anyone who has an open heart is invited to be the carrier of healing to others, and to know that it is possible to grow in strength and that when the time comes, through grace, one will be given strength to accomplish the most that is possible in that moment. The Gospel of today essentially assures us that through grace, we are going to be given the strength that we need for the mission.
We may not always see ourselves strong enough or wise enough to be among the chosen. Especially when we have limitations, we may feel that it may just not be us; we fall short of what is expected. But when we have these thoughts, then we need to remind ourselves that for grace to happen, it is required for us to be imperfect. Grace cannot happen without imperfection because it emanates from perfection. So for this mission, it is not perfection that is required, but just the humility to accept that there is such a thing as Divine Grace and the willingness to welcome Jesus when He knocks at the door of our hearts.
There is a lot of need in today’s world, just as it always has been in history. We can be sure that the more broken the world is, the more urgently it is needed for there to be people who can carry a message of hope and reconciliation.
In the last sentence of the Gospel, we see that the Disciples were effective. They healed a lot of people, and they anointed them with oil, and they cured a lot of sicknesses. This tells us that when Jesus calls for a mission, He is not calling for something that is impossible, but that when through the Spirit, we feel that we are being called, then there is a healing effect that is going to follow. The key, therefore, is to be willing to be instruments for Divine Healing to take place in the world.
In the world’s eyes, a person may be small and insignificant. In God’s eyes, the persons who He calls are indispensable. Today, He is calling, not shouting, not forcing, not commanding, but just asking. It is in the depth of our hearts where we need to look for our response, and as He promised, He will walk with us to the ends of the world.