Eighth Sunday after Pentecost

“And [Jesus] called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits.” +In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.            
 
In today’s Gospel lesson from St. Mark, we Jesus sending His apostles out for the first time on their own: He gives them specific instructions on what to do and not do, what to take and what to leave behind. This is a preview of the Great Commission that Jesus Christ has given to the Church: to go out into the world with Jesus’ power and authority, and proclaiming the Gospel, healing the sick, and casting out evil spirits.

What we see here in Jesus’ instructions to His apostles is not a detailed blueprint for the Church as it does ministry, but an outline of principles that we are to keep in mind as we work to carry out Jesus’s Great Commission.

First, Jesus sends them out two by two. Jesus takes the twelve and splits them up into smaller groups. This allows the twelve to cover more ground and minister to more people. Although Jesus is Lord and God, during His earthly ministry He is limited by time and space. He can only go where His two feet can take Him. But through the ministry of His Church, Jesus’ ministry is multiplied. He can go wherever His followers go, and the more followers He gets, the more He can spread the message and the ministry. But note that Jesus does not send the disciples out individually. He sends them out in pairs. In this way, Jesus demonstrates that none of us as His followers operate on our own. We are part of a community. We do ministry alongside others. We support and encourage one another. Jesus underscores here that our ministry is not our own individually, but it is the Church’s ministry, done under the authority and commissioning of Jesus Himself.

Second, Jesus gives them authority over unclean spirits. One of the things we constantly see Jesus doing in the Gospels is performing signs to accompany His message. The signs remind us of Jesus’ power and authority as the Son of God, and they serve as a visible reminder that the work of evangelism, the work of ministry, is not principally intellectual, but spiritual. Furthermore, by giving the disciples authority over unclean spirits, He is showing the disciples that they are to act in the name and power of Jesus Christ Himself. They are not simply random people trying to copy Jesus’ ministry. They are ambassadors, acting in Jesus’ name and with His authority.

Third, Jesus charges the apostles to travel light, and accept the hospitality of those to whom they minister. Here Jesus emphasizes that it is God who provides for the ministry. They are to take only what they need immediately and rely on God to provide for the rest. Here, Jesus is underscoring the need to get on with the ministry, and not get bogged down in logistics. Do what you need to do to get launched, and then let God fill in the rest. And by accepting hospitality, Jesus is telling the disciples that a key part of ministry is relationship—building relationships with those to whom you minister. It is also an encouragement by Jesus that God will use the people to whom you minister to help provide for your needs as you work in Jesus’ name.

Fourth, Jesus admonishes the apostles, “And if any place will not receive you and they will not listen to you, when you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them.” Here, Jesus is instructing the apostles to remember that since they are going out in the name and the power of Jesus Christ to proclaim Christ’s message, then they don’t need to fret when the message is not received. Rather than feel rejected, that they have somehow done it wrong, they are to remember that the responsibility for rejecting the Gospel is on those who reject it. They are not to water down or alter the message simply because people reject it. Remember that ministry is spiritual and supernatural, not intellectual. If there is resistance to the message, it may be that this is not the place nor the people to whom the message and the ministry is to be given. It might be a sign that it is time to move on. That’s what St. Paul did on his missionary journeys. Wherever the message was rejected, he would move on to a different place and people. On the other hand, it may mean simply that more prayer and fasting needs to take place before the message and the ministry will be received. Only spiritual discernment can tell one way or the other.

One of the greatest errors that the modern Church in the West has made over the past 60 years is to think that if the world is rejecting its message, then the message is wrong and must be changed or watered down. The result has been that the Church has abdicated the power and authority that Jesus has given it. Rather than please God by proclaiming the message with power and clarity, the Church has tried to pander to the sensibilities of the modern world and has abandoned the message. One of the most encouraging things I am seeing from younger people is the desire for a Christian faith and message that is not watered down, but pure and powerful.

If the Church is to recover its confidence both in its ministry and its message, then we must remember the words of St. Paul in his letter to the church in Ephesus. In his magnificent introduction Paul reminds us of the great spiritual blessings we have in Christ: God chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, in love He has predestined us for adoption to Himself as sons through Jesus Christ, In Christ we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, and are the recipients of God’s lavish grace.  St. Paul reminds us that we are the beloved sons and daughters of God. We need not be ashamed of anything; not our past, because it has been healed and forgiven through Jesus Christ, nor of the message, for it comes from God Himself and is the source of life and truth for all who believe. 
 
+In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.