All the Synoptic Gospels mention the instruction Jesus gives His disciples when He sends them out to preach. In Matthew it turns out to be the most...
All the Synoptic Gospels mention the instruction Jesus gives His disciples when He sends them out to preach. In Matthew it turns out to be the most detailed and vivid; in Mark, as in Luke, we see more of a retelling of the Savior's words than the words themselves as they sounded. Of course, with regard to the Gospel of Matthew, one can also speak of editing, but here the color of Jesus' Jewish speech is nevertheless better preserved.
Thus, in Matthew Jesus tells the disciples to take "neither sandals nor staff" for the road, whereas according to Mark He tells them, on the contrary, to take only a staff for the road and to wear simple sandals. This difference obviously presupposes Mark's interpretation of the Savior's words. By forbidding the disciples to take a travel bag, sandals, and staff, Jesus is allegorically comparing their mission to standing before God in the Temple court: when entering the Temple court, one had to leave the travel bag and staff at the entrance, along with the sandals.
Jesus calls His disciples to remain constantly in the same inward standing before God in which a person should be near the altar during sacrifice. This inward standing before God was the main meaning of their ministry. Only in such a state could they fulfill the chief task entrusted to them: to reveal to the world the breath and power of the Kingdom. It is no accident that the Savior endows the apostles with power to do the same things He Himself does.
Only in this way could people be made to understand, or at least to feel from their own experience, what the Kingdom is. Words alone about the Kingdom, which, as Jesus Himself says, "has drawn near," were not enough here. Theological arguments do not work in such cases; witness is needed. And the possibility for Jesus' disciples to manifest the same power of the Kingdom that their Teacher manifests became the witness that the Kingdom really had "drawn near."
If it were otherwise, no one except Jesus Himself could have manifested its power, and no one else could have performed either miracles or healings. The Kingdom would have remained the possession of the One who brought it into the world, and of no one else. Meanwhile, in practice it turned out that the most ordinary people could share in it, provided, of course, that they were ready to entrust themselves to the One who brought the Kingdom into the world. Such witness spoke better than any arguments, because it was truly living and effective.
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6:1 Mat 13:54; Luk 4:16.
6:3 Is not this the carpenter? - There can be no doubt, but in his youth he wrought with his supposed father Joseph.
6:5 He could do no miracle there - Not consistently with his wisdom and goodness. It being inconsistent with his wisdom to work them there, where it could not promote his great end; and with his goodness, seeing he well knew his countrymen would reject whatever evidence could be given them. And therefore to have given them more evidence, would only have increased their damnation.
6:6 He marvelled - As man. As he was God, nothing was strange to him.
6:7 Mat 10:1; Luk 9:1.
6:8 He commanded them to take nothing for their journey - That they might be always unincumbered, free, ready for motion. Save a staff only - He that had one might take it; but he that had not was not to provide one, Mat 10:9. Luk 9:3.
6:9 Be shod with sandals - As you usually are. Sandals were pieces of strong leather or wood, tied under the sole of the foot by thongs, something resembling modern clogs. The shoes which they are in St. Matthew forbidden to take, were a kind of short boots, reaching a little above the mid - leg, which were then commonly used in journeys. Our Lord intended by this mission to initiate them into their apostolic work. And it was doubtless an encouragement to them all their life after, to recollect the care which God took of them, when they had left all they had, and went out quite unfurnished for such an expedition. In this view our Lord himself leads them to consider it, Luk 22:35: When I sent you forth without purse or scrip, lacked ye any thing?
6:10 Mat 10:11; Luk 9:4.
6:12 Luk 9:6.
6:13 They anointed with oil many that were sick - Which St. James gives as a general direction, Jam 5:14-15, adding those peremptory words, And the Lord shall heal him - He shall be restored to health: not by the natural efficacy of the oil, but by the supernatural blessing of God. And it seems this was the great standing means of healing, desperate diseases in the Christian Church, long before extreme unction was used or heard of, which bears scarce any resemblance to it; the former being used only as a means of health; the latter only when life is despaired of.