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Meditation on Mark 6:7-13
Lectio: Mark 6:7-13
1) Opening prayer
Lord our God,
2) Gospel reading - Mark 6:7-13
Jesus summoned the Twelve and began to send them out in pairs, giving them
authority over unclean spirits. And he instructed them to take nothing for the
journey except a staff -- no bread, no haversack, no coppers for their purses.
They were to wear sandals but, he added, 'Don't take a spare tunic.' And he said
to them, 'If you enter a house anywhere, stay there until you leave the
district. And if any place does not welcome you and people refuse to listen to
you, as you walk away shake off the dust under your feet as evidence to them.'
So they set off to proclaim repentance; and they cast out many devils, and
anointed many sick people with oil and cured them.
3) Reflection
• Today's Gospel continues what we have already seen in the Gospel yesterday.
The passage through Nazareth was painful for Jesus. He was rejected by his own
people (Mk 6, 1-5). The community which before had been his community, now, it
is no longer such. Something has changed. Beginning at that moment, as today's
Gospel says, Jesus began to go round the villages of Galilee to announce the
Good News (Mk 6, 6) and to send the Twelve on mission. In the years 70's, the
time when Mark wrote his Gospel, the Christian communities lived in a difficult
situation, without any horizon. Humanly speaking, here was no future for them.
In the year 64, Nero began to persecute the Christians. In the year 65, the
revolt or uprising of the Jews in Palestine against Rome broke out. In the year
70, Jerusalem was completely destroyed by the Romans. This is why the
description of the sending out of the disciples, after the conflict in Nazareth,
was a source of light and of courage for the Christians.
• Mark 6, 7. The objective of the Mission. The conflict grew and closely
affected Jesus. How does he react? In two ways: 1) Before the mental obstinacy
of the people of his community, Jesus leaves Nazareth and began to go round the
neighbouring villages (Mk 6, 6). 2) He extends the mission and intensifies the
announcement of the Good News calling other persons to involve them in the
mission. "He summoned the Twelve, and began to send them out in pairs, giving
them authority over unclean spirits". The objective of the mission is simple and
profound. The disciples participate in the mission of Jesus. They cannot go
alone, they have to go in pairs, two by two, because two persons represent the
community better than one alone and they can mutually help one another. They
receive authority over unclean spirits, that is, they have to be a help for
others in suffering and, through purification, and they have to open the door
for direct access to God.
• Mark 6, 8-11. The attitudes which they should have in the Mission. The
recommendations are simple: "And he instructed them to take nothing for the
journey except a staff; no bread, no haversack, no coppers for their purses;
they were to wear sandals and not to take a spare tunic. And he told them: If
you enter a house anywhere, stay there until you leave the district. And if any
place does not welcome you and people refuse to listen to you, as you walk away,
shake off the dust under your feet, as evidence to them". So they set off. It is
the beginning of a new stage. Now, not only Jesus, but the whole group will
announce the Good News of God to the people. If the preaching of Jesus caused
conflict, much more now, there will be conflict with the preaching of the whole
group. If the mystery was already great, now it will be greater since the
mission has been intensified.
• Mark 6, 12-13. The result of the mission. "So they set off to proclaim
repentance, and they cast out many devils, and anointed many sick people with
oil and cured them." To announce the Good News, produces conversion or a change
in persons, it alleviates persons in their suffering; it cures illnesses and
casts out devils.
• The sending out of the disciples on Mission. At the time of Jesus there were
several other movements of renewal. For example, the Essens and the Pharisees.
They also sought a new way of living in community and they had their own
missionaries (cf. Mt 23, 15). But these, when they went on mission, they had
prejudices. They took with them a haversack and money to take care of their own
meals, because they did not trust the food that people would give them, which
was not always ritually "pure". On the contrary to other missionaries, the
disciples of Jesus received diverse recommendations which helped to understand
the fundamental points of the mission of announcing the Good News, which they
received from Jesus and which is also our mission:
a) They should go without taking anything. They should take nothing, no
haversack, no money, no staff, no bread, no sandals, not two tunics. That meant
that Jesus obliged them to trust in hospitality. Because one who goes without
taking anything, goes because he trusts people and thinks that he will be well
received. With this attitude they criticized the laws of exclusion, taught by
the official religion, and showed, by means of the new practice, that they in
the community had other criteria.
b) They should eat what people ate or what the people gave them. They could not
live separated providing their own food, but they should accept to sit at the
same table (Lk 10, 8). This means that in contact with the people, they should
not be afraid of losing the purity as it was taught at that time. With this
attitude they criticized the laws of purity which were in force and showed, by
means of the new practice, that they had another type of access to purity, that
is, intimacy with God.
c) They should remain in the first house that welcomed them. They should live
together in a stable way and not go from house to house. They should work like
everybody else and live from what they received in exchange, "because the
labourer deserves his wages" (Lk 10, 7). In other words, they should participate
in the life and in the work of the people, and the people would have accepted
them in the community and would have shared the food with them. This means that
they had to have trust in sharing.
d) They should take care of the sick, cure the lepers and cast out devils (Lk
10, 9; Mc 6, 7.13; Mt 10, 8). They had to carry out the function of "Defender" (goêl)
and accept within the clan, in the community, those who were excluded. With this
attitude they criticized the situation of disintegration of the community life
of the clan and they aimed at concrete ways of getting out. These were the four
fundamental points which had to give impulse to the attitude of the missionaries
who announced the Good News of God, in the name of Jesus: hospitality,
communion, sharing and acceptance of the excluded (defender, goêl). If these
four requirements were respected, they could and should cry out to the four ends
of the world: "The Kingdom of God has come!" (cf. Lk 10, 1-12; 9, 1-6; Mk 6,
7-13; Mt 10, 6-16). Because the Kingdom of God revealed by Jesus is not a
doctrine, nor a catechism, nor a law. The Kingdom of God comes and becomes
present when persons, motivated by their faith in Jesus, decide to live in
community to give witness and to manifest to all that God is Father and Mother
and that, therefore, we human beings are brothers and sisters among us. Jesus
wanted that the local community would again be an expression of the Covenant, of
the Kingdom, of the love of God the Father, who makes all of us brothers and
sisters.
4) Personal questions
• Do you participate in the mission as a disciple of Jesus?
• Which point of the mission of the apostles is more important for us today?
Why?
5) Concluding prayer
Great is Yahweh and most worthy of praise in the city of our God,
Source: ocarm.org
help us to love you with all our hearts
and to love all men as you love them.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
the holy mountain,
towering in beauty,
the joy of the whole world. (Ps 48,1-2)
See Also:
Sermons and Bible Commentaries for the 11th Sunday after Pentecost
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