Arulvakku

04.02.10 NOTHING FOR THE JOURNEY

He instructed them to take nothing for the journey but a walking stick– no food, no sack, no money in their belts. They were, however, to wear sandals but not a second tunic. He said to them, “Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave from there. Whatever place does not welcome you or listen to you, leave there and shake the dust off your feet in testimony against them.”
Mk 6,8-11
Jesus is sending his disciples as missionaries two by two. Probably one has to be a witness for the other. Or only when two bear witness together on anything, then the facts are acceptable. There is no time for dispute and verifications. Two together are already sufficient to verify. So what they preach has to be  accepted without much suspicion and doubt. 
The author here allows them to take a walking stick along with them and they are allowed to wear sandals.  So it is a journey and that too a long journey. Walking stick is a support when they are tired, yet they have to keep on walking with the help of the stick; They cannot give up because they are tired. Keep going and going. Sandals again are for a journey – that too a journey along difficult (rough, thorny) paths. 
So their missionary journey is long and difficult. 
They are not to take food, money, a second tunic etc. The journey is for an immediate return. There is no holidaying or picnicking along the way. It is not a leisure trip.  It is: go for a job, finish the job and return. That is why they are asked to shake off the dust if not welcomed.  There is no time to plead, argue, convince etc.
There is another interesting note on this:
It is said that when a Jew goes on a trip to a foreign land on his way back he stands at the border  and shakes off the dust  from his sandals before entering into his own land (Israel). He should not bring in the dust of another country thus bring another (land’s) god in. God is in the dust too. See 2 kings chapter 5 where in Naaman asks for two sacks of sand from the land of Israel to build an Altar for the LORD and to offer sacrifice for the LORD. God is mingled with the sand.
So if they do not accept your message then they do not  believe in the God whom you are presenting them with. Shake off the dust. Move to another.
So carry only the message and nothing for the journey