Chapter Nine

In the beginning of chapter nine, Jesus sends His disciples out into the world to tell everyone about the coming of the kingdom of God and to cast out demons and heal the sick. He tells them to bring nothing with them as they will be at the mercy of each village that they visit and will count on the hospitality of strangers. If the people won’t listen, Jesus tells them to shake the dust off of their feet and leave the village, an sign of abandonment of that village to its fate.

We notice that Jesus didn’t tell the apostles to call down fire and brimstone on the village as they left. In fact, the people of the village probably dismissed the apostles and didn’t think twice about rejecting them and their teachings. After all, there was no immediate retribution on the populace and further more, on the surface the apostles were homeless at that point without any resources and the villagers still had their homes, food, friends and community. Which of them had a better worldly situation as far as comfort and security?

If we look back in the book of Genesis, Cain murdered his brother, mouthed off to God and left His presence without any immediate retribution. Cain went on to be a rich man who founded cities and had children who invented ways to mass produce tools and weapons and made great contributions towards the arts by inventing musical instruments.

When we reject the Good News of Jesus and the accompanying salvation, we are emboldened somewhat because we seem to be able to go on with our life without immediate Godly correction. As followers of Jesus Christ, we share the message of salvation in Him with others that are close to us and are rejected all of the time. In fact, strangers who don’t know you all that well seem to be more apt to listen than those closest to us.