and sent them to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal the sick.
The twelve had watched the Lord preach and heal. Now He sends them out with the same errand: a message to announce, power that is not their own, and a claim every town must answer.
Older translations render "proclaim" as "preach." Luke's word is the word for a herald.
To "preach" (kerussein, to herald) "implies a solemn announcement" (Darby-Smith). Compare Luke 9:2 and Acts 28:31. When Luke speaks of the simple gospel of grace, he uses another word, euangelizein: Luke 4:18, Luke 7:22, Luke 9:6, Luke 20:1.
The kingdom of God means God stepping in Himself, instead of leaving man to run the world.
The word here is, "Preach the kingdom of God." The central thought of God's kingdom is that divine power steps in, rather than man being left to himself. Man is not left to his own resources and wisdom to win and keep the upper hand in the world under God's providence, as if he held some settled right over nature. God will Himself take up this scene, to bring His own power and goodness into it in the person of Christ.
Verse 1 gave them power over demons and disease; verse 2 tells them what to say. The order is deliberate.
The Lord gave His disciples power and authority over demons and diseases (v.1). His own power and authority had already shown itself in these very things, so He told them to do what He had done. Yet His first purpose in sending them was to preach the kingdom of God, which is above all a matter of God's authority. Only there can the miserable condition of the world find a right answer.
The cures were tied to the message. They showed in advance what the kingdom does to a broken world.
The Lord now sends out the twelve as messengers of His mercy in a needy world. They have authority over the power of Satan and over disease, and they are to preach the kingdom of God. The miracles are signs and previews of that kingdom. This authority was handed to them, and that fact matters: since someone else gave it, no one could trace it to the character of the men themselves. They were only the delegates of Another, yet God clothed them with power.
One name among the twelve shows where this power came from.
In the foreground here stands the power and authority the Lord gave the apostles over all demons and to cure all diseases. Did Judas have this power too? Certainly, for he was an apostle. The Lord granted them this authority and power. It was not for any faith, virtue or merit on the apostles' side. They went out preaching the gospel and healing everywhere. They are the messengers of the compassionate friend of sinners.
The twelve carried the same mission the Lord Himself was carrying out. That gave their visit a weight no town could shrug off.
In Luke 9 the Lord gives the disciples the same mission in Israel that He Himself carried out. They preach the kingdom, heal the sick, and cast out demons. But something more is added: their work takes on the character of a final mission. Not that the Lord had stopped working, for He also sent out the seventy. It is final in this sense: if the people rejected it, it became a clear testimony against them.
The verse says He sent them. That right, one writer notes, has never changed hands.
The Lord Himself "sent" the Twelve and the Seventy (Luke 9:2; Luke 10:1) when He was here. Now that He is above — alive again for evermore — He, by the Spirit of God, gives and sends out those He has qualified for His work, whatever that work may be. He has not given up His rights or handed them over to the church, or to any people in it.
- Sent — the twelve go on the Lord's errand, not their own; He kept the right to send then, and He keeps it now.
- Given — the Lord handed them power over demons and disease. They did not earn it; even Judas held it, which shows the source.
- Said — their first business was to herald the kingdom of God. That means God Himself stepping into the world in Christ, instead of leaving man to manage it.
- Shown — the healings were signs and previews of that kingdom. They backed the message; they did not replace it.
- Settled — the message carried the Lord's own authority. Every town had to decide, and refusal became a testimony against them.
And he said to them, Take nothing for the way, neither staff, nor scrip, nor bread, nor money; nor to have two body-coats apiece.
The Lord gives the twelve the power of the Kingdom, then strips them of everything else they might lean on. That raises two questions: why send messengers out empty-handed, and does the rule still bind His servants today?
The command comes with a commission. The twelve go into Israel as the King's representatives, and their empty hands are part of the message.
This chapter gives us the twelve entrusted with the same testimony. They were to go out everywhere as representatives of Christ, given the power of the Kingdom... They were to depend on the King, and everyone was to see it... But the word is, "Take nothing for your journey, no staff, nor bag, nor bread, nor money." What carried them had to be plainly the resources of God, however He might work through men. They were not to look after themselves, not even to have two coats each.
The list names ordinary travel supplies. The ban also had a matching duty on the other side: the people were to care for the men their Messiah had sent.
He told them not to take supplies for their journey. They were to have no walking stick for support, no shoulder bag for carrying food, no money and no extra clothing (v.3). The Messiah of Israel was sending His servants to His own people, Israel, who were responsible to care for His messengers completely. Those who received them as genuine servants of Jehovah would supply their needs for that reason.
The word for "money" points to the readers Luke had in view:
"Money" here means silver, because Luke is writing for Greeks. Mark has "copper," because he writes for Romans.
Mark's account allows a staff; Luke's list forbids one. Commentators answer the tension by looking at what the command covers: not gear in general, but gear gathered up for this trip.
At first sight Luke's wording raises a difficulty. It appears to say, Do not take a staff at all, which contradicts Mark. But the "discrepancy" is only apparent. Notice that the ban covers only what they were to prepare for this journey, and the staff stands in the same list as the bag and bread and money... The twelve were not to get even the most ordinary item for their mission. They could use an ordinary walking staff, but they could not provide one specially for their new task.
Going out with nothing taught them one thing by experience: the One who sent them controls more than storms and demons. They said so themselves later.
These directions prepared the apostles to learn by experience the basic but vitally important lesson of spiritual service: dependence on God for the things the Gentiles are always chasing. During their mission they would find that their Master controlled providence as well as winds and waves and demons. And their own words tell us that the Lord did care for them without fail. On the night of His betrayal He said to them, "When I sent you out with no moneybag or knapsack or sandals, did you lack anything?" And they said, "Nothing."
Commentators differ here. Some point out that the Lord Himself later cancelled these arrangements, and that this mission ended at His death.
In Luke 22:35 the Lord looks back on this very mission and asks, "When I sent you out with no moneybag or knapsack or sandals, did you lack anything?" And they said, "Nothing." Then He tells them to provide themselves now with moneybag, knapsack, and sword. The very things they were not to do before, they were to do from that time on. The Lord cancels what He had commanded before, as far as the special circumstances went. His goodness and love to them would remain, and so would their walking in wisdom and harmlessness. But the special character of this mission ended at the death of Christ.
Others draw out the principle underneath the packing list and carry it forward:
They were to go out with nothing provided for them. That made them completely dependent on the Lord who had sent them. Trust in the Lord, who sends out the labourer, is another principle, which belongs to this age as well. All disappointment and discouragement for the servant of Christ comes in when he looks not to the Lord but to man. The Lord never disappoints... The Lord who calls His servants and sends them forth always keeps them when they walk in simple dependence upon Himself.
- Sent. The empty hands follow a commission. The twelve go as the King's representatives, and their poverty is part of the testimony.
- Stripped. Staff, bag, bread, money, spare coat — the Lord withheld every ordinary traveller's item, so that what carried them would plainly be the resources of God.
- Staff. Mark allows a staff and Luke forbids one. They agree once you see the ban as covering what was packed for the trip, not an ordinary walking stick.
- Sustained. They learned by experience. On the night of His betrayal they confessed they had lacked nothing — their Master governs providence as well as winds and waves and demons.
- Since then. Commentators differ. The Lord Himself cancelled this particular arrangement, yet others hold that the trust it trained belongs to this age as well.