Take nothing for the journey

Luke 9:3-5

It was a game with me. Show up with less packed than them. When I lived in Taiwan and then Northwest China, I quickly noticed how much more the foreigners (like me) took with them on trips than did the locals. And how often the locals would comment, even if ever so subtly, as they observed us.

Traveling with government officials or a local team member, I noted how for a multi-day day trip, they’d come prepared with a small backpack-sized bag with everything, including a change of clothes, toiletries, and any extras. So I set out to out-local them in what I took. My prize? Warm, approving compliments for an unexpected accomplishment. They especially liked that they didn’t have to help load heavy suitcases into the upper storage compartments of trains!

Jesus sends out the Twelve, telling them to pack lightly. Take nothing – no staff, no bag, no bread, no money, not even an extra shirt. Even considering that common people of the day didn’t have a lot of extras and certainly didn’t carry all the modern toiletries and other accessories, this is a very limited packing list, certainly less than what esteemed teachers of the day usually traveled with.

What is going on here? First, their message is not in what they carry with them. It is simply in what they declare (what they have to say) and demonstrate (translated, not a lot of props needed for blessing people). Jesus is showing them that no matter how little a person has, he or she has all that is needed to do the job.

Second, they are going to “live off the land.” As soon as I say that, readers’ minds will go to hippies, bohemians, new agers or some such. Think what you like, the point Jesus is making is that his followers are to incarnate with the people they are going to serve. And he was sending them out to the common folk who lived very simply.

Third, they are to find housing with people who welcome them. To read it in an English translation, it sounds like they will just barge into the first house they see and stay unless kicked out. Harking back to village life in Jesus’ day, it wasn’t unusual for a stranger to show up in a hamlet and be invited to stay with one of the families, who all knew each other and everything that went on. When I was a kid, guest preachers usually stayed in our house, the parsonage (preacher’s home), as I did when I traveled as a single in my 20s.

The culturally translatable takeaway, however, lies with a much deeper issue going on here. In the following chapter, Luke includes Jesus’ training materials for a much larger group of followers who are sent out to in like manner. Wherever they go, they are to look for people of peace, who will welcome them and give them opportunity to bless those in that location. This is essentially what Jesus is saying here. Look for people who will invite you to remain among them. And if you don’t find such a person, keep moving on until you do.

The phrase “shaking the dust off your feet” in response to those who don’t welcome you can be a put off to our modern sensibilities, unless we have a bit more cultural understanding of what that meant in Jesus’ day. For the Jews, the phrase brought to mind what they did when they left a ceremonially unclean gentile city. The existing practice was more for their own benefit as they undefiled themselves. In Jesus’ instructions, the symbolism was notice for those who had rejected their message. It had cultural relevance.

But before we start shaking our feet at nonbelievers, it is important to note that the action was toward people who already worshiped the same God. Rank heathen were not expected to accept the good news so readily and when they did, their faith was considered remarkable (Luke 7:9). The quarrel, if you can call it that, was with supposedly likeminded people who were not open to hearing good news from their own God. Most of the disputation on the part of believers in the New Testament was with theologically near people, not with those who had limited or no understanding of their God and His scriptures.

At this point, the disciples were going only to the house of Israel, “proclaiming the year of the Lord’s favor” (Luke 4:19). Soon they would also be going to those outside. Even then, the practice of looking for a man or woman of peace continued, as the followers of Jesus sought out those open to receiving someone coming with a word of peace and blessing.

The key principle in these verses is that the disciples were to connect with, relate to, live among the people to whom they were sent. It is a principle that lasted well beyond the New Testament era among the followers of Jesus and is part of the reason why those followers increased so rapidly in those next few decades.

For more on my take on how this concept of “person of peace” can be applied in our day and age, see Night Shift: Crossing the Cultural Line for the Kingdom (Fanno Creek Press, 2011), pages 300-303.