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However, before I do that, I want to just put a couple of things in a useful context for you. Firstly, despite the fact that in our canon of Scripture, St Mark’s Gospel comes after St Matthew’s, Mark was in fact clearly written first - their ordering is the result of editorial activity by the early church fathers whose task it was to formulate the canon and then put those books into a coherent order.

Secondly, an important related point. Over the last 200 years, the majority of scholars and clergy have accepted what is known as the ‘two document hypothesis’ with regard to the Synoptic Gospels. (The Synoptic Gospels are Matthew, Mark and Luke).  Under this view, Mark is a very important document because, as the earliest Gospel, it formed the foundation of what we call the Synoptic ‘tradition’. Of the three Synoptic Gospels, Mark is the shortest in length at 661 verses, whilst Matthew contains 1,068 and Luke has 1,149. However, when their respective content is analysed, we see that about 97% of Mark is paralleled in Matthew, and about 89% is paralleled in Luke. To adopt the analogy of cooking a casserole, in the Synoptic tradition Mark is the meat – it is what, undoubtedly, provides the vast majority of the substance. The added veges and herbs for our casserole are mostly provided by the other main Synoptic source which is a common pool of sayings and stories from various oral traditions which were attributed to Jesus and are simply referred to as ‘Q’ (short for Quelle [source in German]). The existence and use of ‘Q’ explains how there can be common material in Matthew and Luke which does not appear in Mark. To return to the casserole, the final constituent part is the garnish which is also served with it, representing that material which is the original contribution of the individual evangelist reflecting his particular emphasis or audience.

Now, to the verses I wish to consider tonight: ‘Then He went out among the villages teaching. He called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. He ordered them to take nothing for their journey except a staff; no bread, no bag, no money in their belts; but to wear sandals and not to put on two tunics. He said to them, ‘Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave the place. If any place will not welcome you and they refuse to hear you, as you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them.’ So they went out and proclaimed that all should repent. They cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them.’

There are four areas I intend to touch on with reference to this passage: Firstly calling or vocation; then simplicity of life; issues concerning healing; and, finally, service.

Calling:

This text gives us an insight into how we should conduct our Christian witness in the twenty-first century also. The first move is made by Jesus. He called the apostles, and he calls us. Initiatives in ministry must always start with Jesus. How often does it happen that, in their fervour, Christians tell the Master what is required rather than ask, as they pray, ‘Lord bless this project of mine…’ To truly serve God is to do just that – to undertake those tasks that He gives us to do, not to try and arrogantly second-guess him or assume that our agenda is the will of God.

When God calls and gives us a task to do, He provides us with the strength and empowerment to do it. After all, it is His will. By prayer and waiting on the Lord, and doing all we do in His strength we shall be made strong, and equipped for every good work. He will provide the direction when we go out in His Name and in His power. The Church is Christ’s hands and feet and voice in the world. We are sent out to make ministry happen in a million different ways depending on where we are sent and how we are raised up – we might be the Pope, the Bishop of Auckland, a teacher, engineer or street-sweeper or anything else – but we are his apostles – literally those who are sent out – and we go out to proclaim His message in the world. 

Remember 1 Corinthians 13, where it talks about the importance of love in everything we do in life? This is exactly paralleled in this passage with reference to God being the initiator of all we do, in that, regardless of what it is or how good it is, if He has not ordained it then it is not of Him. Indeed, 1 Corinthians 13 is a good demonstration of what I am saying – I will substitute ‘love’ for a statement about the call of God.  1 Cor 13:1 – ‘If I speak in the tongues of mortals and angels, but was not sent by God, I am a noisy gong or a clanging symbol.’ Similarly, verse 3: ‘If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but God didn’t call me to, I gain nothing.’ Why does this work? Because God is love and love is His prime motivating fact to call His servants and send them out to do His work in the world.

We are called to follow God’s leading in what we do. Yes, He endows us with what Bishop Holland called ‘sanctified common sense’, but we must realise that the initiative is God’s. Once we start having ideas and instituting new things – programmes, practices or whatever else – because we think God might like them or they might be a forum or opportunity for us to look good we have lost the plot. 

Simplicity:

Jesus is adamant that the apostles should travel light, and tells them to accept whatever accommodation and hospitality is offered to them along their way. This is, I believe, an important call for us to simplify our lives and trust the abundant, faithful God to provide what we need. Jesus knows that we, like those first apostles, have baggage which prevents us from sharing and living the Gospel as effectively as we should, and how we find comfort and are dependent on material possessions rather than finding our rest in God. These verses also speak to the Christian community, and outline the responsibility that we all have to provide hospitality for our neighbours, hinting at the interdependence that should be the hallmark of the relationships between followers of Christ. We see also a call to humility – regardless of the simplicity of the welcome and hospitality you are offered, receive it gratefully because it is your host’s offering to God as they seek to do what He commands, and accept it because it is a continued affirmation that God is faithful.

We are called to a simpler life. We often feel burdened with pressure about lots of different things, but what is really required is humble submission to and trust in God. When we do this, life becomes far less complicated as God takes care of the problems. We have to have real faith to be able to do this – because our human nature is to be continually looking to our own intellect and experience for contingencies. We need to trust God because we know that He will sustain us. On the other hand, harking back to the ‘sanctified common sense’ comment of Bishop Holland, being a Christian doesn’t mean you just leave everything saying God will fix it. He gave you tools to deal with issues and situations, and, to honour him, deal with them you must. In other words, although we are called by Jesus to a life of service to the Gospel, a life of simple obedience, ‘it does not mean,’ as my wife’s old Bible class leader said, ‘that you kiss your brains good-bye.’

Healing:

The passage tells of the casting out of demons and evil spirits and the healing of the sick. It is important for us to realise that there are issues surrounding gifts and vocation in this area. The apostles were called to a number of certain tasks, and so are we. Not everyone is called to cast out demons and get involved in extreme activity such as exorcism. Indeed, in my experience, only a few people are. However, everyone is able to pray against evil spirits in the power of Christ, and there is no reason why these will not be driven away. The good news certainly includes physical and spiritual healing, an area that has some times been neglected and oft times misunderstood. The Guild of St Raphael and the Order of St Luke are two groups that have powerfully demonstrated the church’s ministry of healing and comprise people gifted in these areas who have brought glory to God through their respective ministries.

The command to shake the dust off our feet as a testimony against those who do not receive us or our message is an important reminder to us that the most important thing we can do in our Christian witness is to be obedient and faithful to the message. We are not chastised or punished because people hear the message we proclaim but choose to ignore it. Indeed, that is their choice, but we need to realise and, in love try to help them understand, the seriousness of their actions. We need to be tactfully persistent, to befriend people and demonstrate the love of Christ in our own lives, and we need to try very hard to understand their context. If we witness and live through God’s abundant grace, yet fail to get through to people, we are not failures because we approached the task in faith. Sometimes we just have to accept that there is resistance to the Gospel amongst those whom we have been called, and that at a time of the Master’s choosing it is acceptable to move on to new mission fields. As the Scripture says, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.’ In other words, if we are faithful in our witness, but it falls on deaf ears, God will open up new opportunities for us to share our faith. We must always remember that it is God’s mission, but their decision. People cannot be coerced, enticed or threatened into the Kingdom of God. Unfortunately, at times during its history, the church forgot this and perpetuated evil deeds through the medium of forced conversions.

Service:

Devotion to the task given them rather than devotion to themselves is imperative for those who serve God. We don’t always get to choose where we may go to do the work of the Gospel. It may be next door, but it may be to death’s door. In order to be of service to Jesus and others we must die to ourselves. Answering a call to serve others may be risky, but it is even riskier to ignore the call. When he was elected to be the second Bishop of Waikato in 1950, John Holland, who had only been Vicar of New Plymouth for about 18 months, wrote in the parish magazine that he felt his work in the parish had hardly even begun, yet there was never any question of turning down the call to Hamilton. In his mind, being a servant of God meant that he had to be ready to move at a moment’s notice. Indeed, he observed in the same article, ‘when God calls, there is bound to be upheaval.’ To be an effective servant of God, we must be prepared to trust Him and lay our insecurities at the foot of the cross – we need to have the faith to be able to move outside our ‘comfort zones’.

The promise of the passage we are considering is permanent. When those first apostles, imperfect though they were, went out in obedience to the Master, the authority He gave them became operative and effective. They preached a message of repentance, they cast out demons, and they healed people who were sick. The power of God became evident through their weakness because they were faithful and submitted to Him. Indeed, they relied on Him to sustain them. It is imperative for us to remember that resources on their own do not accomplish the work of God, and nor do we. What counts is the power of God conferred on us by Jesus. That is why He sends us, why we dare to go, and why remarkable good still comes through the obedience of clearly inadequate messengers.