And whoever will not receive you, when you go out of that city, shake off the very dust from your feet as a testimony against them

 

 Then He called His twelve disciples together and gave them power and authority over all demons, to cure diseases.  He sent them to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick.  And He said to them, "Take nothing for the journey, neither staffs nor bag nor bread nor money; and do not have two tunics apiece.  Whatever house you enter, stay there, and from there depart.  And whoever will not receive you, when you go out of that city, shake off the very dust from your feet as a testimony against them."  So they departed and went through the towns, preaching the gospel and healing everywhere. 

Now Herod the tetrarch heard of all that was done by Him; and he was perplexed, because it was said by some that John had risen from the dead, and by some that Elijah had appeared, and by others that one of the old prophets had risen again.  Herod said, "John I have beheaded, but who is this of whom I hear such things?"  So he sought to see Him.  

And the apostles, when they had returned, told Him all they had done.  Then He took them and went aside privately to a deserted place belonging to the city called Bethsaida.  But when the multitudes knew it, they followed Him; and He received them and spoke to them about the kingdom of God, and healed those who had need of healing.  When the day began to wear away, the twelve came and said to Him, "Send the multitude away, that they may go into the surrounding towns and country, and lodge and get provisions; for we are in a deserted place here."  But He said to them, "You give them something to eat."  And they said, "We have no more than five loaves and two fish, unless we go and buy food for all these people."  For there were about five thousand men.  Then He said to His disciples, "Make them sit down in groups of fifty."  And they did so, and made them all sit down.  Then He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, He blessed and broke them, and gave them to the disciples to set before the multitude.  So they all ate and were filled, and twelve baskets of the leftover fragments were taken up by them. 

 

- Luke 9:1-17 

 

Yesterday we read that when Jesus returned from healing a man from a Legion of demons across the Sea of Galilee, the multitude welcomed Him back to Capernaum, for they were all waiting for Him.  And behold, there came a man named Jairus, and he was a ruler of the synagogue.  And he fell down at Jesus' feet and begged Him to come to his house, for he had an only daughter about twelve years of age, and she was dying.  But as He went, the multitudes thronged Him.  Now a woman, having a flow of blood for twelve years, who had spent all her livelihood on physicians and could not be healed by any, came from behind and touched the border of His garment.  And immediately her flow of blood stopped.  And Jesus said, "Who touched Me?"  When all denied it, Peter and those with him said, "Master, the multitudes throng and press You, and You say, 'Who touched Me?'"  But Jesus said, "Somebody touched Me, for I perceived power going out from Me."  Now when the woman saw that she was not hidden, she came trembling; and falling down before Him, she declared to Him in the presence of all the people the reason she had touched Him and how she was healed immediately.  And He said to her, "Daughter, be of good cheer; your faith has made you well.  Go in peace."  While He was still speaking, someone came from the ruler of the synagogue's house, saying to him, "Your daughter is dead.  Do not trouble the Teacher."  But when Jesus heard it, He answered him, saying, "Do not be afraid; only believe, and she will be made well."  When He came into the house, He permitted no one to go in except Peter, James, and John, and the father and mother of the girl.  Now all wept and mourned for her; but He said, 'Do not weep; she is not dead, but sleeping."  And they ridiculed Him, knowing that she was dead.  But He put them all outside, took her by the hand and called, saying, "Little girl, arise."  Then her spirit returned, and she arose immediately.  And he commanded that she be given something to eat.  And her parents were astonished, but He charged them to tell no one what had happened.

 

  Then He called His twelve disciples together and gave them power and authority over all demons, and to cure diseases.  He sent them to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick.  And He said to them, "Take nothing for the journey, neither staffs nor bag nor bread nor money; and do not have two tunics apiece.  Whatever house you enter, stay there, and from there depart.  And whoever will not receive you, when you go out of that city, shake off the very dust from your feet as a testimony against them."  So they departed and went through the towns, preaching the gospel and healing everywhere. At this stage in Christ's ministry Jesus calls the twelve disciples together and sends them out as apostles on their first missionary journey.  Disciples and "apostles" are frequently used interchangeably for the twelve as a result.  In Greek the word for "disciple" means "learner"; "apostle" means "one sent out."  We note that Jesus gave them power and authority over all demons, and to cure diseases.  These things Jesus did Himself by His own power; but He gave power to the disciples.  Note how they are to comport themself, in all humility and in dependency upon God.  They take nothing for the journey, they do not dress ostentatiously.  In whatever home they are offered refuge first they are to stay, and not trade up for better place.  Finally, note that they are given power and authority over all demons, and yet should they be rejected their only retort is to shake off the very dust from your feet as a testimony against those who refuse to receive them.

Now Herod the tetrarch heard of all that was done by Him; and he was perplexed, because it was said by some that John had risen from the dead, and by some that Elijah had appeared, and by others that one of the old prophets had risen again.  Herod said, "John I have beheaded, but who is this of whom I hear such things?"  So he sought to see Him.  My study Bible comments that this is the same Herod (known also as Herod Antipas) to whom Pilate will send Jesus during His trial (Luke 23:6-7).  He is the son of Herod (known as Herod the Great) who slew the innocent infants in Bethlehem (Matthew 2:16).  The beheading of John can be found in Mark 6:14-28.

And the apostles, when they had returned, told Him all they had done.  Then He took them and went aside privately to a deserted place belonging to the city called Bethsaida.  But when the multitudes knew it, they followed Him; and He received them and spoke to them about the kingdom of God, and healed those who had need of healing.  When the day began to wear away, the twelve came and said to Him, "Send the multitude away, that they may go into the surrounding towns and country, and lodge and get provisions; for we are in a deserted place here."  But He said to them, "You give them something to eat."  And they said, "We have no more than five loaves and two fish, unless we go and buy food for all these people."  For there were about five thousand men.  Then He said to His disciples, "Make them sit down in groups of fifty."  And they did so, and made them all sit down.  Then He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, He blessed and broke them, and gave them to the disciples to set before the multitude.  So they all ate and were filled, and twelve baskets of the leftover fragments were taken up by them.  My study Bible cites Theophylact as seeing a liturgical parallel with the feeding of the five thousand.   Christ first healed and then spoke of the gospel, and then He fed the multitude with miraculous bread by the hands of His disciples, who've just returned from their first apostolic mission.  In the Church, he comments, a person is first healed through baptism; then at the Liturgy, the gospel is preached and the bread of life and the cup are received from the hands of the ordained clergy.  It's noted also that Jesus tells the disciples, "You give them something to eat."  This is a commission that is a type and preparation for the apostolic ministry the disciples will perform after Christ's Resurrection.  My study Bible says that they will feed the world with the word of God and with the Eucharist.  Of the five loaves and two fish, there is a commentary by St. John Chrysostom:  Christ is the same Creator "of both the earth and the sea, who in the beginning brought fruit from the earth and life out of the water."  Again, Chrysostom comments that Christ looked up to heaven "not as receiving power from elsewhere, but as honoring the Father who begot Him."  That Christ blessed and broke the bread teaches us "not to touch any meal until we have given thanks to Him who gives us food."  My study Bible adds that this blessing also presents a clear eucharistic image, and directs us to pursue spiritual food greater than that which is earthly (see John 6:26-27).  

In today's reading, we can observe a growing ministry of Christ which now begins to reach out past those of His immediate vicinity and home base.  His apostles are now sent out on their first apostolic mission, going to towns and cities announcing the gospel of the Kingdom, using the power and authority that has been shared with them by Christ over all demons, and to cure diseases.  This is a very important announcement of a kingdom:  note Christ shares His power and authority as a king or emperor would do.  But the nature of this kingdom is obviously quite different from an earthly kingdom.  Its power is not in armies or cavalry or chariots of military weapons, and its authority is not found in worldly structures but is given through Jesus, who holds no official institutional office.  This is the kingdom of God which is entirely dependent upon God.  The disciples are to practice no ostentation, no fancy clothes, not a lot of money, and not to court people who can offer them luxurious places to stay.  The appeal of this kingdom is to the faithful wherever they are found, and that is the key to Christ.  They are not to take vengeance upon those who don't receive them, but rather to leave testimony against them by shaking the dust of the place from their feet.  And at the same time, a worldly kingdom has begun to take note of Christ.  Herod Antipas, ruler of Galilee, has heard of Him.  Herod has beheaded John the Baptist, and wonders who Christ is when He hears of the miraculous signs which accompany His ministry.  Elsewhere we're told that Herod fears that Jesus is John returned from the dead, and that this is the explanation for the powers He displays in His ministry (Mark 6:16, Matthew 14:2).  We should make careful note that Christ's authority is about a Kingdom making its way into this world; in the next chapter of Luke, Jesus will send out the seventy, teaching them to preach as they go, "The kingdom of God has come near to you" (Luke 10:1-24).  Perhaps most significantly in today's reading, we're given the story of the feeding of the five thousand men (and more women and children).  This becomes a story about feeding the world, a prefiguring of the Eucharist, because now, having returned from their first apostolic mission, the disciples are taught to feed the multitude who comes to find Christ and will not leave.  The twelve baskets of leftover fragments tell us about the Twelve who will go out to the world and feed the world with the gospel of the Kingdom of God.  The fulfillment of the twelve tribes of Israel, this will expand God's kingdom out to the four corners of the world and bless the world as it does.  Jesus has come to claim the world for the kingdom of God, to share His authority and power in a conflict with the demonic already planted in the world.  We note how in the demonic encounters we've read recently, the demons fear Christ; they know who He is, they know His power, and they know their time is necessarily limited.  But He has come to claim a whole world, including us; that is, the multitudes, and the hearts and minds in which He will find the faith that enables the establishment of that Kingdom and the working of its power to heal in us.  This Kingdom does not work by coercion; it relies on God's timing and God's power (hence the disciples merely shake the dust off their feet in testimony to those who will not receive it).  But it is still at work -- the bread sent out with the Twelve across the land and seas of the world reminds us of Ecclesiastes 11:  "Cast your bread upon the waters."  It is worth reading the rest of that chapter in Ecclesiastes and consider how much of it we can find in the teachings of Jesus about reaping and sowing, and even about the harvest of judgment that will come.  The world remains a place where the seed of the Sower must continually go out, where we may choose to join in the work of the harvest, where we may rejoice to hear His word and play our part in His kingdom.  For the four corners of the world still need His blessings through the holy bread of the Eucharist, and His Kingdom must continually go out with its own authority and power -- even into a world of coercion, greed, and so much faith in material power. 

 

 

O you of little faith

 

 Then the Pharisees and Sadducees came, and testing Him asked that He would show them a sign from heaven.  He answered and said to them, "When it is evening you say, 'It will be fair weather, for the sky is red'; and in the morning, 'It will be foul weather today, for the sky is red and threatening.'  Hypocrites!  You know how to discern the face of the sky, but you cannot discern the signs of the times.  A wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign shall be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah."  And He left them and departed.

Now when His disciples had come to the other side, they had forgotten to take bread.  Then Jesus said to them, "Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees."  And they reasoned among themselves, saying, "It is because we have taken no bread."  But Jesus, being aware of it, said to them, "O you of little faith, why do you reason among yourselves because you have brought no bread?  Do you not yet understand, or remember the five loaves of the five thousand and how many baskets you took up?  Nor the seven loaves of the four thousand and how many large baskets you took up?  How is it that you do not understand that I did not speak to you concerning bread?  -- but to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees."  Then they understood that He did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

 

- Matthew 16:1-12 

 

Yesterday we read that Jesus departed from the region of Tyre and Sidon where He healed the daughter of the Canaanite woman, skirted the Sea of Galilee, and went up on the mountain and sat down there.  Then great multitudes came to Him, having with them the lame, blind, mute, maimed, and many others; and they laid them down at Jesus' feet, and He healed them.  So the multitude marveled when they saw the mute speaking, the maimed made whole, the lame walking, and the blind seeing; and they glorified the God of Israel.  Now Jesus called His disciples to Himself and said, "I have compassion on the multitude, because they have now continued with Me three days and have nothing to eat.  And I do not want to send them away hungry, lest they faint on the way."  Then His disciples said to Him, "Where could we get enough bread in the wilderness to fill such a great multitude?"  Jesus said to them, "How many loaves do you have?"  And they said, "Seven, and a few little fish."  So He commanded the multitude to sit down on the ground.  And He took the seven loaves and the fish and gave thanks, broke them and gave them to His disciples; and the disciples gave to the multitude.  So they all ate and were filled, and they took up seven large baskets full of the fragments that were left.  Now those who ate were four thousand men, besides women and children.  And He sent away the multitude, got into the boat, and came to the region of Magdala.

 

Then the Pharisees and Sadducees came, and testing Him asked that He would show them a sign from heaven.  He answered and said to them, "When it is evening you say, 'It will be fair weather, for the sky is red'; and in the morning, 'It will be foul weather today, for the sky is red and threatening.'  Hypocrites!  You know how to discern the face of the sky, but you cannot discern the signs of the times."  My study Bible explains that a sign from heaven means a spectacular display of power.  It says that the time of the Messiah among the Jews was expected to be accompanied by signs, but these hypocrites have not recognized the signs already being performed because their hearts were hardened, and they ignored the works which were happening all around them.

"A wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign shall be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah."  And He left them and departed.  An adulterous generation is an echo of the illustration used by the prophets when Israel was unfaithful to God (see Jeremiah 3; Hosea 2:2-13).  Jesus refuses to prove Himself in some spectacular way -- a sign is not given to those whose motive is to test God.  (See also Matthew 4:5-7).  The sign of the prophet Jonah is Christ's veiled prediction of His death and Resurrection (Matthew 12:40), the ultimate sign that He is the Christ.  

Now when His disciples had come to the other side, they had forgotten to take bread.  Then Jesus said to them, "Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees."  And they reasoned among themselves, saying, "It is because we have taken no bread."  But Jesus, being aware of it, said to them, "O you of little faith, why do you reason among yourselves because you have brought no bread?  Do you not yet understand, or remember the five loaves of the five thousand and how many baskets you took up?  Nor the seven loaves of the four thousand and how many large baskets you took up?  How is it that you do not understand that I did not speak to you concerning bread?  -- but to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees."  Then they understood that He did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and Sadducees.  The leaven of the Pharisees is their doctrine and their hypocrisy (Luke 12:1).  My study Bible teaches that the reason the disciples are painfully slow to understand is that they have such little faith; in fact, they would not fully grasp Christ's teachings until Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit was given.

Why do we think the disciples are so slow to learn?  Christ addresses them, "O you of little faith."  He has to remind them about the feeding of the five thousand from five loaves, and the seven loaves that fed the four thousand on another, more recent, occasion (see yesterday's reading, above).  How does faith correspond with what we understand?  Clearly today's reading expresses that link for us.  Faith is also linked to the activity of the Holy Spirit, as my study Bible points out that the disciples would not really understand Christ's teachings until Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit was given.  We understand that the word faith is rooted in "trust" -- but in today's reading there is a link expressed between the growth of this trust in Christ and an understanding of His life, His works, His teachings.  It is as if the more full participation in the life of Christ is the one correlation with our understanding of it.  This, then, makes perfect sense out of why Christ will not give a miracle "on demand," won't acquiesce to the demand for a sign by the religious leaders.  There are all kinds of signs happening in His ministry, and they manage to ignore them anyway.  Any such proof would still be denied or explained away, just as they have already sought to explain miraculous healings by Jesus as the work of the demonic (Matthew 12:24).  We seem to be given a great clue to human nature in today's reading, since we're given to understand that so much depends upon what we put our faith into.  Human beings are capable of rationalizing away all kinds of things, of deluding themselves about relationships and other realities in order to empower beliefs that make life easier than the stark reality we'd rather not face.  In this case, the power of Christ's presence and work in the world is not easily acceptable.  We might understand the gospel of the kingdom of heaven as good news, but imagine being confronted with such shocking and powerful reality in the flesh, right in front of you.  For the Sadducees and Pharisees from Jerusalem, the reality of Christ is like an earthquake in their establishment, one that rocks their positions as the regulators and keepers of the faith.  How can they possibly assert a greater authority than One such as Christ if He's really divine, if He "casts out demons by the finger of God" (Luke 11:20)?  Their own faithlessness is self-protective in this sense:  what Christ brings into the world shatters their illusion of their own ultimate authority, for a greater authority is present here.  And what do we make of the disciples, who are so slow of comprehension that even Christ seems to be somewhat amazed?  They are witnesses to two miraculous feedings, and still they misunderstand His words about "leaven."  This teaches us, first of all, not to be afraid of our own "little faith" or comprehension, because faith is not a one-time-only declaration or experience.  It is a journey, and today's text clearly indicates that faith is something that grows and is dynamic within us, and parallel to it is our own understanding of the things of God, of Christ's action in our own lives.  To understand salvation as a one-time declaration of faith is belied by the text:  even though these men have left everything behind to follow Christ as disciples, they still have an enormous amount of growth to do as far as their spiritual lives and their faith is concerned.  And so it is with us.  There is no comparison between individuals, but all of our lives must be on a track going one way or the other.  We are on a road somewhere, and there are times when we will grow in faith and dependency upon God, and other times when our more comfortable understanding of life will do battle within us against the things to which God seeks to open up our eyes, about which we need a deeper faith, and a greater enlightenment.  Perhaps we feel highly secure with certain beliefs that need to be shaken up, perhaps faith calls us to relinquish a sense of control we don't really have -- such experience can be extremely disconcerting although our faith gives us a more true sense of reality.  There are times when we'll have to open up our eyes to the unreliability of particular relationships or certain things we take for granted in our lives; and again, that will spark a time when our faith will be at war with our fears, and that struggle for faith taking place within our souls.  These times can shake up our sense of ourselves and our place in the world, but we can usually count on them to be times when our faith is being challenged, our depth of faith being called upon to grow through the experience.  We will certainly be called upon to an even greater dependency upon God.  One way or another, there is a choice we're being asked to make.  It may seem like a strange quandary:  our understanding increases with faith, and not the other way around.  But this is the way that spiritual growth happens, the ways that challenges to faith will work in our lives.  So much depends upon that struggle within, and how we come to respond.  For this is the ongoing work of salvation.