And they went forth and preached that they should repent;
Jesus sends out the twelve, and His own town has just written Him off as a mere carpenter. The first thing recorded of their work is not a miracle but a message — so why is repentance their whole burden, and what does that word ask of a person?
The demand the twelve carried was not new with them. One writer traces where it had already been heard.
This sequence shows one unbroken testimony. Man must repent, because the kingdom is coming. What John the Baptist declared, the Lord emphasised, and the twelve echoed: unless men repented they would all perish. But if only one sinner on earth repents, heaven rejoices over it, as the Lord Himself declared (Luke 15).
Two refusals had come just before this call. The leaders judged His works; His own townspeople judged His background.
The substance of their preaching was repentance. The presence of the King, and the good news of the Kingdom, had already been proclaimed. The result was that the leaders rejected Christ because His claims were so great, while the people refused Him because His position was so lowly. The leaders accused Him of doing His mighty works by the power of the devil; the people said He is only a carpenter. The nation is called to repent of this wickedness. This was also a final testimony, for God would pronounce judgment on those who rejected this mission.
People define repentance in several loose ways. One writer says none of them reach what Scripture means.
Some say it is sorrow for sin. Some say it is a change of mind, dwelling on the literal meaning of the word. Others say it includes the decision to give up sin and to do the will of God in the future. In truth it is none of these, nor all of them combined... Scriptural repentance is nothing less than this. We side with God in His judgment of our sins. We take His part against ourselves. We bow in the dust before Him in true self-judgment.
Such self-judgment sounds crushing. One writer names what makes it possible at all:
Repentance would not be possible but for the thought of mercy in God. It is the goodness of God that leads to repentance. Rom. 2:4.
Christ gave the twelve power over evil spirits, and He supplied what they needed on the road. Yet the verse puts the word first. The wonders follow as confirmation.
Going out, sent in this way, they preached — this was their business. Christ's authority in sending them showed in two things. He had power over all the power of evil, and He could give that power away, since He was the Lord come among them. He also controlled providence, so He took care of everything they might need. Still, what they preached was the same badly needed message: that people should repent. The evidence followed, confirming the word, casting out demons, anointing and healing many sick.
Mark records that they went and what they said, but not one sermon and not one convert's name.
That mission bore fruit in temporal blessing to many an afflicted one. The twelve did report back to the Master, as Luke tells us. But Scripture records no details of their preaching, and nothing of the success they met with. The day will declare it; it is not forgotten on high.
One writer traces weak preaching today to a change of starting point.
Let me add this. Here is one chief cause of the loss of power and effect in gospel preaching today. Preachers hardly touch the conscience. Instead they appeal to the religious feelings of the natural heart and work on those. True gospel preaching always begins with "Repent."
One writer carries this into service today.
We may certainly take great comfort from the thought that He does not send His servants out without giving them power for the service before them. If we are to cast out demons He will give us power to do it. And if our service is not that but something else, then power for the something else will be ours.
- Sent — the twelve go out when Christ is most despised. They carry His authority, not their own resources.
- One message — John declared it, the Lord pressed it, the twelve echoed it: repent.
- Self-judgment — repentance is not sorrow or good resolutions. It is taking God's side against ourselves, and His goodness makes it possible.
- Word first — preaching was their business; the miracles came behind it as confirmation.
- Recorded in heaven — Scripture names no sermon and no convert from this mission, yet nothing of it is lost. The Sender still gives power for the service He asks.
and they cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many infirm, and healed them.
The twelve went out under the Lord's orders, and this verse reports the result. The oil raises two old questions: what was the anointing for, and should anyone copy it today?
This mission follows the rejection of His service in His own country. One writer sees the sending of the twelve as grace that keeps flowing:
The rejection of His service may stop any mighty work in His own country, but it cannot stop the grace of His heart. So the Lord sends out the twelve as a fresh witness to His presence in grace and power for the blessing of men. He "gave them power over unclean spirits," and that bears striking witness to His glory as a Divine Person. Anyone can use power and perform miracles if someone gives it to them — but who except God can give the power?
Darby dwells on the grace of being used at all:
What grace there is in the sending out of the gospel! God not only gives us to enjoy salvation and His love, but employs men as the instruments of the activity of His love. How we ought to bless God that He stoops to make use of us! He uses us to carry the testimony of His indescribable love and of His truth to men's hearts — at least to their ears, so that He Himself may cause it to reach their hearts in His grace!
The twelve looked helpless, yet they drove out demons. Kelly holds those two facts together:
What could seem more helpless or more dependent than their condition? Yet none the less the King sent them out as His messengers, and He clothed them with His own power. One remarkable proof of it was the power given them over unclean spirits... The main thing in the Lord's mind was dealing with the power of Satan. There is much unbelief among men about this. The world has grown old in material inventions. Time passes, and men get used to the power given to man over external nature. These very circumstances make them likely to forget and deny the unseen power and schemes of Satan.
Oil was the ordinary medicine of that world. Several writers read the anointing at that plain level:
We know that people throughout the East used oil as a remedy... Isaiah refers to soothing wounds with oil (Isa. 1:6). Is it not reasonable to suppose that the disciples and the elders of the church applied oil to sick people as a natural remedy? It was a simple treatment within the reach of those with no medical knowledge or skill. And they did so, relying on the power and blessing of the Lord to make the means effective. Beyond this we have no warrant for imitating their example in these days.
The Lord never commanded the oil here. The twelve brought it from common practice:
Anointing the sick with oil was a general practice... Would the sick not have been healed if no one had anointed them with oil? The anointing with oil was an old custom which the disciples used. But when the Lord commissioned them with the kingdom message, He did not tell them to anoint the sick with oil. They did it because such was the universal practice.
Some use this verse to defend the last rites given to the dying — an anointing called extreme unction. The text points the other way: these sick people got better.
Scriptural anointing was for the miraculous healing of the body, and the lengthening of the days of the living. Roman unction is for the soul. It is a permanent sacrament for conveying grace, pardoning sin, and gaining salvation, in the hour of death. Apostolic unction was for the recovery of health; extreme unction is the last preparation for death.
Commentators differ on how far James 5 repeats this scene. Darby separates the two, while still holding out hope:
The elders were only a sign of God's special intervention, as we see in Mark 6:13. There Christ specially sent men to perform miracles, and gave them power for that purpose. Here it is the blessing of God within the assembly, given through its elders, if faith was there. The original order no longer exists; but Christ does not forget His assembly... if there is faith in those who watch over them, God will answer in a similar way.
Judas was one of the twelve who did these works:
He was one of the twelve to whom the Lord gave power over unclean spirits... Yet the miracle-working Judas was all the while a "son of perdition" and not a saved man at all.
Later the same men failed at a case they could not handle:
When the Lord sent out the Twelve, He "gave them power over unclean spirits," and for a time they used this power... Here, however, their faith failed. They could not cast out the mute spirit. There was power present to work miracles and overcome all the power of Satan, but man could not profit by it, and the disciples had no faith to use it.
- Given — only God can give authority over unclean spirits. The power in the twelve's hands pointed back to the glory of the One who gave it.
- Sent — rejection in His own country did not shut down His service. It multiplied it, and God still stoops to use people as instruments of His love.
- Aimed — that power aimed at Satan's grip on people, which modern minds are quick to forget or deny.
- Applied — the oil was the common remedy of the day. The twelve used it without a command, and the sick got well — it prepared them to live, not to die.
- Tested — Judas cast out demons and was lost. Power in the hand proves nothing about the state of the heart.