Mark 6:7-13 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time July 14, 2024 “Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave. Whatever place does not welcome you or listen to you, leave there and shake the dust off your feet in testimony against them.”
Mark 6:1-6 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time July 7, 2024 Is he not the carpenter, the son of Mary, and the brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him.
July 6, 2024
15th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Amos 7:12-15
Ephesians 1:3-14
Mark 6:7-13
A. Text/Context
• So we heard that the 12 disciples were sent by Jesus on a mission. What Jesus can do, the disciples can now also do!
• In their missionary journey God accompanied them by giving them the power to heal, the power to cast out demons
• Many things happened and they have performed miracles indeed; the lame can walk, the dumb can talk, the blind can see, the deaf can hear, the sick is healed, and the possessed are now freed
• And so the disciples no doubt could be very happy and excited about their achievements that their mission is successful. A huge spiritual boost as they are the new recruits of Jesus
• But at the end of the gospel Jesus said whatever place does not welcome you or listen to you, leave there and shake the dust off your feet in testimony against them or in other versions, if the people will not believe you, go out from that house or town and shake off the dust from your feet
• So that they will not be influenced by their unpleasant attitude, so that not even the dust of their uncharity clings to their person
• In the 1st reading Amaziah, priest of Bethel, said to Amos: Off with you, visionary, flee to the land of Judah! There earn your bread by prophesying
• The mission of Amos is a threat to the king’s sanctuary. How many missionaries have their blood shed just to proclaim the kingdom of God?
B. Human Situation
• So what is the impact of the mission of the disciples?
• So they went off and preached repentance, drove out many demons, and they anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them
• If the disciples were successful in their mission it means that the sick who were healed could have undergone conversion
• Because usually after a physical healing, the spiritual healing follows or sometimes it happens the other way around. Spiritual healing followed by a physical healing
• In other words, the spiritual return in listening to the preaching of the missionaries about the KOG is really spiritual peace
• Like giving hope to those who have become so hopeless because nobody works in the family anymore
• The pastoral or agricultural setting of Palestine at that time depends largely on the man in the family. If the sick husband or son is healed from sickness then he can work again in the farm or pasture the animals for survival in the family
• Apart from that is the mindset that people who are sick or possessed are guilty of their sins against God and so they are punished
• The benefits of the healing of the sick and freedom from possession have tremendous effects on the spiritual and economic life of the family as they are now vindicated before God and freed from the social stigma of sin as the 2nd Ephesians puts it: In him we have redemption by his blood, the forgiveness of transgressions, in accord with the riches of his grace that he lavished upon us
• The reminder that they should not bring anything for the journey is an indication that they have to trust in God’s providence in their day to day needs because the needs are difficult in the missions
• In the documents of the Didache during the 1st century, missionaries are very common
• The Church has to make rules because the people find them a little problematic as they are obliged to accommodate them. The document even specified that they must only stay for 2 days
• In fact the difficulty is mutual, on the part of the host the room in the house is already a big problem as most houses have single rooms only divided by curtains and they have the strict segregation of the genders
• So they have to be creative enough how to make things work
• So the ones who receive the missionaries really exert sacrifice and so God blessed them. Their efforts are rewarded by blessings that returned to them
• On the part of the missionaries, their situation is equally difficult. No walking stick— no food, no sack, no money in their belts
• They were, however, to wear sandals but not a second tunic! Can you imagine the difficulty? The faith and the total trust in the abundance of the good and providential God is present in the hearts of the disciples.
C. Challenge
• There are two virtues emphasized here in the gospel in response to the sending of the disciples to the missions: obedience and full trust in God
• As Christians we are reminded that in our own little missions that we do we consider and reflect why would Jesus tell his disciples to shake off the dust from their feet?
• If we do our mission, in the form of work, duties, and obligations that we do and we do them with clean hands, and we do them faithfully and heartily according to the precepts of God wherever we are, we bear in mind that God protects the obedient, faithful and holy people
• The people who tried their best to do what they have committed as a mission are made use by God to spread his kingdom
• Amaziah, the idolatrous priest in Bethel who banished the prophet Amos received his own curse in the end as he was tortured to death by his own subjects
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