NOTES for Mar 6:1-13
Today's passage is devoted to the description of the preaching of Jesus and the apostles in Jesus' homeland, that is, in Galilee (v. 1). Paradoxically, it was precisely in Jesus' hometown that His preaching had, as it appears, the least success and trust (vv. 2-6). But this is not surprising: quite often it is external closeness, and especially family closeness, that prevents people from seeing a person's true greatness and the events that take place with his participation. This evidently happened with Jesus as well: for His household, as for the residents of His hometown, He was merely a well-known fellow townsman and relative, and in His homeland they evidently did not perceive Him in any other capacity. It was at this time that Jesus sent the apostles to preach, and the main theme of their preaching was to be a call to conversion (v. 12). At the same time, however, the most important fact was that the apostles preached not in their own name but as Jesus' disciples, and all their preaching thereby became testimony to Him as the One who had given them the power to do what they did (v. 7, 13). The ban on taking provisions on the road (vv. 8-9) recalls the custom of the ancient prophets, who likewise took no provisions with them on the road, relying on the hospitality of those they would have to pass by. Jesus commanded His apostles to act in the same way (v. 10). But of course there could be no question of imposing one's testimony on anyone: in case of rejection, Jesus commanded the disciples simply to leave the house or city where they were not received and forget about it (v. 11; "shake off the dust," that is, shake the dust from one's feet after leaving a house or city, was in the East a symbolic gesture meaning that the person who did this no longer wanted to have anything to do with that house or city). Such preaching undoubtedly had to make Jesus known throughout all Galilee.