Daily Thought

Until now, our Lord has been the One who has taught and healed. Mark tells us He had chosen twelve ‘that they should be with him and that he might send them forth’, Mark 3. 14. Now our Lord makes a significant change by sending out His representatives - here those twelve disciples - to teach and to heal in His place. They have learned of and from Him. Now they are to go out and speak for Him. The message is the same - they are to preach the kingdom of God, calling their hearers to repentance and faith in view of the coming judgement of God.

Many another leader has sent out his ‘disciples’ to carry on disseminating his message. It is one thing, however, to endue one’s disciples with authority; it is quite another to endue them with accompanying power. Even Elijah was able to pass on a ministry to his successor, but he could not pass on to him his spirit and his power. But here our Lord, being God Himself, is able to give his disciples the authority and the power to heal. This ability to heal was to confirm that they were His messengers. It is salutary to notice that even the unbeliever, Judas Iscariot, went out with them, having the same power from our Lord.

Our Lord also endues them with a sense of urgency that was characteristic of Him. The disciples once commented that zeal for His Father’s work consumed Him. Here, He tells them they are to allow nothing to delay them in their task. No time was to be wasted on preparation of food and extra clothing for the task, and no time was to be wasted choosing the best accommodation once they were on the way. Even the work of healing was only to be a handmaid to that of preaching. They were to give utmost priority to the task of proclaiming the kingdom. Should they meet with opposition or unbelief, they were not to waste time with reasoning, but to make an immediate show of an eventual judgement by shaking off the dust from their feet as they left.

This zeal for God’s work is something we could do with learning. Our Lord was not teaching that they, or we, should go into His service irresponsibly, unprepared. But we should not put off the going and the doing, by spending so much time on meeting our own needs that His work is neglected.