NOTES for Mar 6:7-13

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.