Day 943 - Shake Off The Dust That Is On Your Feet

A sermon Shared with the Urban Outreach Ministry, July 7, 2015, Chattanooga, TN

OT Reading: Ezekiel 2:1-8

NT Reading: Mark 6:1-13

Our passage this week includes two stories (again) with a likely connection to a passage in Ezekiel. Even though these two stories are actually quite intimately linked, most pastors will select a theme from one or the other to use as a basis for a sermon because of time constraint Sunday morning.

However, this passage marks beginning of a transition in the discourse and we should consider them both. Up until now, Mark has focused on who Jesus is, what is the nature of the Kingdom of God and public ministry. Now Jesus begins to focus on instruction of the disciples (who Mark shows clearly need it) and on Jerusalem. It contains valuable teaching for both the most conservative fundamentalist and the most liberal proponents of social justice.

As we have seen and will see again, the disciples (like us) may be charged by Jesus to embark on a mission of ministry but they clearly have not grasped everything Jesus has taught them by word and deed, and have much to learn.  In spite of this, here in this text Jesus sends them out in pairs without him on their first mission of ministry.

But before he does that, he returns to Nazaeth accompanied by his disciples where we surely anticipate a glorious reception by family, friends and townspeople. But things take a turn for the worse. 

Is Mark suggesting as we read this section we should also consider how are these two stories connection to the modern time of our congregations and our proclamation of the Good News?  What challenges and guidance do they offer for teaching and proclaiming the Gospel to the World? For example, how should we respond to those who fail to heed the Gospel or pursue what we think is equitable Christian justice for all? This can be fruitful thought and lesson on how to approach adversaries for those engaged in Christian social justice if true change is desired.

Let’s put this visit to Nazareth in context.  At the outset of this discourse on the Kingdom of God do you recall the events of Mark 3:31-35? Jesus' family had come to retrieve him from his obsessive ministry to the crowds, and even his disciples say he is deranged. 

Now, when he speaks in the synagogue at first it sounds as if his relatives and friends are favorably impressed.

Mark 6:1-2: "He left that place and came to his hometown, and his disciples followed him. On the sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astounded. They said, “Where did this man get all this? What is this wisdom that has been given to him? What deeds of power are being done by his hands!"

If we were reading this in Greek, we would know the verb translated as astounded is ekplesso that really conveys the sense of “amazed, or overwhelmed, practically out of one’s wits.” The people of Nazareth know there is some very serious spiritual work at play.

Mark does not tell us explicitly why they are astounded. (Does it mean they know they are in the Lord’s presence?) But there reaction seems is patently clear:

Mark 6:3: "'Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?' And they took offense at him."

His friends, relatives other citizens of Nazareth become derisive and hostile. They refer to him as a “carpenter”, a description that sounds more condescending than complimentary as in someone who has to work with his hands to get by. However the next question, “Is this …the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon…” is not obscure but pointed. In Israel, one is not referred to by the lineage of one’s mother, but of one’s father. This is a particularly insidious insult. It is a blunt implication of illegitimate parentage. 

They “took offense at him.” The Greek actually says they tripped themselves up, stumbled or sinned. We could paraphrase this event: “We know who this guy is, a mere woodworker and probably illegitimately born man. He could not be divine and the Son of God as we have heard. Rather he is possessed by a demon. We are righteously offended that he could say and do these things."

Jesus is amazed that in spite of healing people, no one has faith to know who he is. Is Jesus acknowledging the sad reality that for some people it is too hard to believe that the commonplace or familiar can be special? 

Often we look for God in the gilded tongues of polished speakers and preachers rather than in the acts and deeds of ordinary Christian people who carry faith in their heart.

Jesus could have been justifiably outraged by this outrageous treatment but his reaction carries far more power than rage. He dismissed them and went about the villages preaching to those who may have open ears and minds to the Holy Spirit.

I often wonder, given Mark’s literary mastery of describing the Messiah, if he using this visit to his home and family a symbol of his coming to Israel as the Messiah? If so, what do we make of his reaction? Did he get angry and persist in trying to convince them to understand who he was after he healed a few people and no one believed?

If we read Ezekiel 2:1-8, or Jeremiah 4:1-4, we might expect Jesus to launch a tirade against the people of Nazaeth. But he does not. The interest of Jesus is more in finding those receptive to the Spirit. (We will find more on this theme in Mark 7:24-30, the Syrophoenician woman.)

       This action, to go about among the villages teaching rather than rail against the unbelievers is both a message/teaching and an introduction to the next section where Jesus sends his disciples (Apostles) on their first ministry without him. The charge that he gives here remarkably dovetails with his experience in Nazareth.

This action is remarkable in several ways.

We have read from our previous passages in Mark that the disciples remain clearly unaware of the true nature of Jesus, even after he gives them detailed explanations. And this lack of understanding will continue if not get worse. Yet here is Jesus sending his twelve out on their own on a mission trip, with power over unclean spirits!

The charge to the disciples itself is remarkable. Why would he send them out with no money, no food, no beggar’s bag, or extra clothing? Is this a challenge of the disciples to entrust their welfare to Jesus? Is it an act of confidence of Jesus that the disciples will find hospitality in open minds and ears who will bring even the penniless and barely clothed into their own homes and discover the grace of the kingdom of God?

Even more remarkable is his next charge, “Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave the place. If any place will not welcome you and they refuse to hear you, as you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them.”

The expression, “shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them,” is an old Semitic way of dismissing someone. (Remember the arabic fellow at a news conference who tossed his shoe at President George Bush?) It may have a sense of contempt to it, but more likely in this case, given Mark’s attention to the apocalyptic future, it is a warning paralleling the amazement of Jesus in the unbelief of his family and townspeople. It is a clear echo of His reaction with the implicit command to move on from the face of rejection. Move on. Go about among the villages teaching (Greek = preaching). We probably have to assume there is a bit of all these flavors in the action of shaking the dust from your feet.

There seems to be a fundamental message in Jesus coming home, and sending the disciples on their ministry trip about how we proclaim the Gospel and seek justice for the oppressed. Jesus brings the Good News (Gospel) and grace to everyone who has ears to hear, eyes to see and a mind to understand the Holy Spirit’s call. 
He brought it in person as he walked in the World, and then through his disciples, and now through us, his ministers today. The message for us seems to be not only that we have an obligation as ministers to spread the word, but to do it in a graceful way that invites the receptive into fellowship rather than condemn the unbeliever.

I recall the woman, a religious fundamentalist, who stood in the middle of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga daily spewing condemnation to all she felt were sinners and apostates. I also see it in the comments and on occasion in the actions of my fellow activist friends who are so angry at the Tennessee legislators who have refused to extend heath care to the needy, and over the people who defend the Confederate battle flag to reinforce their racist outlook.

Both the poor woman on the university square and my activist friends all seem to want to wear the robe of the prophet Ezekiel, but heavy is the burden for the one who aspires to be a prophet.

I think this charge by Jesus to shake the dust from your shoes at those who are not welcoming does reflect the central point of Ezekiel’s charge, “They shall know a prophet has been among them, whether they hear or refuse to hear.” In this case they shall know they have heard the Good News "whether they hear or refuse to hear.”

There is no need or benefit to attack those who oppose our preaching the Good News and asking for justice for the oppressed. To attack them only cements their ears and eyes shut and closes, not opens their minds. We become stumbling blocks to them ourselves.

It is a fine line to know how to take on our obligation to proclaim the Good News. We cannot ensure its reception. We will be dismayed at unbelief and persistent injustice, but it should not stop our work as clarions of the Good News and Holy Spirit. Spread the grace around with your own two hands, not opprobrium. Let the wind blow understanding of the Good News and the dust from your feet where it chooses.

Amen