Calling the Twelve to him, he 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. Mark 6:7-13
“Jesus instructs the Twelve more about what not to take than what to take. With the exception of staff and sandals, He prohibits them from taking what would generally have been viewed as necessary travel provisions…this rigorous list deprives the missioner of any sense of self-sufficiency…and left the missioners dependent on God’s provisions for them through the beneficiaries of their ministry.”
Robert Guelich in Word Biblical Commentary on Mark 1-8:26 (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1989) 322.
This is a teaching weekend for me at TEDS and with the words of Jesus, I am reminding students that Jesus repeatedly deprives us of “any sense of self-sufficiency” not to try to bankrupt us but to teach us to trust in God’s faithfulness.