Whole Lot Of Shaking Going On

Mark 6:7-11 (NIV)
⁷ Calling the Twelve to him, he sent them out two by two and gave them authority over evil spirits.
⁸ These were his instructions: "Take nothing for the journey except a staff--no bread, no bag, no money in your belts.
⁹ Wear sandals but not an extra tunic.
¹⁰ Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you leave that town.
¹¹ And if any place will not welcome you or listen to you, shake the dust off your feet when you leave, as a testimony against them."

He was preparing them to follow Him in His footsteps. Everything He did had that goal in mind. The teaching, healing and time with Him all served to impart the gospel of hope and forgiveness to these men. After the resurrection and the subsequent coming of the Holy Spirit, they were able to finally understand what happened and spread the good news.

He instructed them to take nothing. He came into this world the same way, except when one considers what He left behind in heaven. It takes the idea of traveling light way beyond our conception. In doing so, He became the light to our world.

Jesus told the twelve to shake the dust off their feet of any place that rejected them. Jesus had just been rejected by His hometown. While He routinely faced rejection and opposition, this must have been particularly painful at the hands of friends and family in the place He grew up. Anytime a person returned from a Gentile land, considered unclean, the traveler was to shake the dust of that place off their feet, lest it pollute their home.

The implications would have been well understood by the Jews that would turn them away. That was the testimony against them. The same applies today. Rejection of Jesus will serve as testimony that will lead to being rejected. I fear there is a “whole lot of shaking going on”.