7 And he called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. 8 He charged them to take nothing for their journey except a staff—no bread, no bag, no money in their belts— 9 but to wear sandals and not put on two tunics. 10 And he said to them, “Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you depart from there. 11 And if any place will not receive you and they will not listen to you, when you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them.” 12 So they went out and proclaimed that people should repent. 13 And they cast out many demons and anointed with oil many who were sick and healed them.
Perhaps what strikes me most in ministry is how little you are allowed to take with you. In the disciple’s ministry, in their sharing in Christ’s ministry, there is an austerity, a simplicity. There are very few things ministers have. There is a call to ministry, and irrevocable call to be sent as one of His own messengers. And there is a message, a proclamation that leaves signs and wonders in its wake.
And sandals so that ministers can wander.
But there are none of the reassurances we would take with us on an adventure: money so we are independent, extra food so we need not beg, and accommodations so we need not throw ourselves on the hospitality of strangers.
Perhaps the Lord makes it clear that to be in ministry is to be, uniquely and terrifyingly dependent on Him, on the one in under whose authority and by whose power we serve. Terrifyingly dependent on His power so that we might be saved from any snare that would say the power and the authority was ours.
Perhaps a greater than any outward threat of starvation or harm is the delusion that we could ever minister with any other authority and power than His.
Perhaps, uniquely in this passage it is made clear. That trust that is our participation in the reality of Christ and in his power.
A trust that must be rescued by Christ, by the power of His Word but must then be led by Christ into danger, into real and serious peril.
I once wrote in my journal something like it: “To depend on Christ is to make your life a wilderness of miraculous provision.”
It has struck me how often, in this ministry, how exposed and vulnerable I am. Most of my ministry is just me simply being willing to be in a place. Putting myself where I would not put myself except that I have been called and sent. Being placed where I would not have placed myself.
Perhaps we forget the ministry of Christ does irreparable damage to our dependence on ourselves. Christ, in taking these men from their jobs, in sending them with so little, had done irreparable damage to the life as they would have it, irreparable damage to their dependence on themselves, so that they might be ready for a ministry where the only power they had was their trust in His.
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