Mark 6:7-13 Doing as the Master

Jesus has set an example of “declaring the Good News”

English Standard Version Chapter 6

Jesus Sends Out the Twelve Apostles

7 And he called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. 8 He charged them to take nothing for their journey except a staff—no bread, no bag, no money in their belts— 9 but to wear sandals and not put on two tunics. 10 And he said to them, “Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you depart from there. 11 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.” 12 So they went out and proclaimed that people should repent. 13 And they cast out many demons and anointed with oil many who were sick and healed them.

The sending out has been the intent since Jesus first called the disciple.

And he appointed twelve (whom he also named apostles) so that they might be with him and he might send them out to preach 15 and have authority to cast out demons. Mk 3:14–15

The disciples have been with Jesus for a while, encountered a variety of experiences. Jesus has shown them how to be accepted and how to be rejected.

How did he send them? He sent them with a Partner. He sent them with Power. He sent them a Policy. He sent them with Persistence. (mission) Jesus also sent them with a Pattern.

The disciple went to various directions over a wide and vast region. This pattern of conduct was to be consistent wherever a disciple was to go.

The “charge”: Take nothing.... wear sandals, 1 tunic. How to ‘lodge’ with the people.

There was another reality that the disciples were to experience. This was the reality of the Kingdom living. They had no need to ‘take’ extra provisions… God would Provide. They were a typology of the Israelites coming out of Egypt. Wear what you have, it will not wear-out. God will provide the food, the drink. God will be with them. They were to be living a new identity… a prophet.

This is more than an exercise of conduct, but of faith. To live what Jesus has been modeling. It is simple, it is gracious and it is not belligerent.

Later, in Gethsemane, Jesus, having first ascertained that his disciples had thoroughly learned this lesson of not trusting to material helps, told them to take with them all the helps that they had: purse, bag, even sword (Luke 22:36). This shows no lack of faith, for they have already learned that none of these things is necessary for the one who goes in simple trust, obedient to the Lord’s command, and looking to God to supply all needs.39 Poverty is never an ideal in the Bible, although, if need be, it must be gladly embraced in God’s service and for Christ’s sake.

Cole, R. Alan, Mark: An Introduction and Commentary, Tyndale New Testament Commentaries (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1989), II, 173

What is this ‘anointing with oil’? V. 13

in short— a tangible expression of an declaration of faith. it may have been a predecessor to the Baptism expression used in the book of Acts. From Allen Cole’s commentary on the book of Mark:

Mark: An Introduction and Commentary v. The Sending out of the Twelve (6:7–13)

The anointing by the disciples practised here seems to be the matter-of-fact anointing of James 5:14, which, accompanied by prayer, can heal the sick. Oil is a biblical symbol of the Holy Spirit’s presence (1 Kgs 1:39), and so the very anointing is itself an ‘acted parable’ of divine healing by the Spirit’s power. It seems in the New Testament as if there are two sorts of healing practised. The first is the dramatic use of healing as a ‘sign’, often giving an opening for evangelism: the second is unspectacular pastoral healing, as in the letter of James, a healing which seems to find a place quite naturally in the ongoing ‘body life’ of the church alongside many other activities of the Spirit.