Mark 6:7 – 13
My wife loves to take pictures,
especially of grandchildren. She has a digital camera and although
she hates computers, she can do all kinds of things with the pictures
before printing them out. The other day she painstakingly printed
out two pictures she took on our recent trip so that she could bring
them over to show our daughter. It suddenly occurred to me that she
has a very nice tablet computer, and Amazon lets you put all the
pictures you want in the cloud, and this means that you don't have to
spend gobs of money on ink for your printer, and you could just
download from the cloud when you wanted to show pictures. I realize
that for anyone older than I am some of those words don't make sense.
But that's not the point. As I was excitedly pointing out the
advantages of this approach to my wife, she stopped me and said that
I should write down the directions, then she would follow the
directions, and we would keep modifying the directions until she
could do it without my help. You see, for her, and for many people,
it isn't enough to have something explained, nor is it enough to even
read the directions. You have to actually do it over and over until
it becomes second nature.
That's what is going on in today's
gospel. Remember, we are only in the sixth chapter of Mark. So far
the apostles have watched as Jesus preached, healed, driven out
demons, and in at least one instance, raised the dead. And now it is
their turn. The only way they can learn to be what Jesus wants them
to be is by imitating him, by going out as he did.
He sends them in pairs, because each
can reinforce the other. Jesus would later say, “Where two or
three are gathered in my name, there I am”. That's still true
today. We make much better missionaries when we have companions.
When we are working together in His name, not only is he present, but
we draw courage from each other; and we begin to realize the
qualities of the other, some good, some bad; but we break out of our
own egos.. Jesus knew this, and so do the Jehovah's witnesses and
the Mormons and the seventh day Adventists. They go out together,
they go out reinforcing each other; and they succeed in now and then
winning converts.
He tells them that they can take a
walking stick and sandals. Walking stick were used in defense
against wild animals and sometimes bandits that you might meet out in
the woods. Sandals kept your feet from wearing out on the rocks and
stones and thorns. A walking stick could be leaned on, and could
help you get over obstacles. Matthew in recounting this same story,
has Jesus telling the apostles not to take walking sticks and Luke
has Jesus denying them sandals. They have their reasons but we are
going to concentrate on Mark. The point Mark is making is that there
is nothing wrong with being prudent, using things to help us in our
efforts as missionaries.
But sometimes we spend all our time
getting ready. A Presbyterian minister I know says that as our
country expanded westward, Presbyterian missionaries had to wait till
the railroads were bult because they had large collections of books
they needed to set up churches in the new territories. But when they
would get to these towns, the Methodists were already there. All
they needed was a horse a bible. So Jesus, who understands all of
this, tells the apostles not to take extra underwear, food, or money,
or whatever you carried around in your sack. If he had allowed that,
they would have asked, how much money is enough? Or maybe I should
take two changes of underwear. But the mission is urgent.
Finally, we have Jesus telling them to
depend on the goodness of others as they go – in other words, trust
that God will prepare the way. God will make some people well
disposed, who will offer hospitality. And when that doesn't happen,
just move on.
The apostles went out at Jesus'
command and as we learn later, they are elated when they return,
because they themselves were getting the hang of being apostles,
being sent by Jesus. By doing what he did, they could begin to see
results. And that of course is the best way to get someone even more
interested in being your disciple, in learning from you.
I think the lesson here is clear, but
unfortunately still hard to follow. The steps to be an apostle for
Jesus are first of all to be prepared. But that preparation does not
need to be a theology degree. However, we should know what we are
talking about, and we should be living a life that reflects our
Christian beliefs. No one will believe a hypocrite. Second, we
should be bold, and here is my particular hang up. I'm not bold. If
someone else brings up the topic, I can talk all day about Jesus.
But I don't seem to have the courage to just say to someone, even a
friend, “I'd like to tell you about the most important person in my
life”. Boldness has to be learned, and it is learned by doing what
the apostles did – going fourth. And who is to be our companion?
We married couples should be natural apostles, and you find a lot of
married couples who minister together in some area or other. But
most don't. And if you aren't married, it's still great to have a
companion in ministry, a dear friend, another person who like you is
just about ready to be an apostle, but needs a little push, so you
push each other. Finally, we always have to remember that we are
part of God's plan, not all of it. Maybe we are to sew the seeds and
someone else will harvest; and maybe the seed we try to sew will be
rejected. The important thing for an apostle is that the seed be
sewn. The rest is up to God.
You can only become an apostle by
doing what the apostles did. That's the real school, that's how the
first apostles learned their vocation.
