And he calls the twelve to [him]; and he began to send them out two [and] two, and gave to them power over the unclean spirits;
His hometown took offence at Him, but the Lord does not withdraw — He calls the twelve and sends them out. Two questions follow: why in pairs, and what does it mean that He can hand men authority over unclean spirits?
The sending comes right after that refusal. One writer reads it as the Lord's reply to their scorn.
Now He acts on that appointment of the twelve which we saw He had made in Mark 3. "He called the twelve and began to send them out." He gave them their mission in the face of the thorough contempt that had just shown itself. The most extreme scorn had fallen on Him, so that He could do no mighty work there. He answers, as it were, in the most gracious and conclusive way. His answer shows that this came from no lack of power in Him, because He sends them out two by two on their new and mighty errand. Someone who could give power to many men, the twelve, to go out and do any mighty work did not Himself lack inner energy.
Another writer sees the same moment as love that rejection could not stop:
The "Prophet in His own country" was rejected. How wonderfully the Lord then rises in a widening, supreme, and therefore patient love that still pursues its purpose... No wrong or injury stopped His love. Instead it might become the occasion for His love to overflow the banks that had held it in — for the source was inexhaustible.
The gap between their choosing and this moment was not empty time.
The reader may notice that although they are chosen in Mark 3:14-19, they are not sent out to preach until Mark 6:7. The part of the gospel in between teaches them what God was doing, to fit them for their work for God and for the Lord.
One writer traces the pairing to their weakness rather than their strength.
The sending out of the twelve began an extension of the Lord's ministry and service. Up to now everything had been in His own hands, with the disciples looking on; now they are to act for Him. He was fully sufficient in Himself; they are not, and so they go out two by two. There is help and courage in companionship, for just where one is weak another may be strong, and the One who sent them knew exactly how to pair them together. Companionship is a special help in pioneering work.
The pairing also carries weight before those who hear.
He now sends out the twelve as well, extending His personal testimony; two by two, the number needed for valid witness, and no doubt for mutual help.
The verse says He gave them authority. That one word proves who He is.
That He "gave them authority over the unclean spirits" bears striking witness to His glory as a Divine Person. Anyone can use such power and do miracles if the power is given to them — but who except God can give the power?
Because He handed them the authority, no one could mistake it for something they had earned:
This handing over of authority is very significant. Because it was given to them, no one could think it came from the character of the men themselves. They were only the delegates of Another, yet as such they were clothed with power from God.
Authority over unclean spirits met what mattered most in the Lord's mind.
Yet all the same, they went out as the messengers of the King, clothed with His own power. One remarkable proof of it was the power given them over unclean spirits... The paramount 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. As time passes, men get so used to the power given to man over the outward world that these very circumstances tend to make them forget and deny the unseen power and schemes of Satan.
The mission sends them straight into enemy territory:
They were sent into the domain of the prince of this world to announce that the kingdom of Jehovah and His anointed was at hand. In the commission for this service the Lord showed His divine power and Godhead by giving His followers authority over the demon-servants of Satan.
- Rejected, He widens. Contempt at home did not shrink His service; it became the moment He multiplied it through twelve others.
- Trained, then sent. They were chosen in Mark 3 but sent in Mark 6 — the space between held the teaching that fitted them for the work.
- Paired, not solo. Two by two supplies mutual help where one is weak, and gives testimony that stands up before those who hear it.
- Given, not earned. He handed them the authority, so no one could credit it to their own character — and only God can give such power.
- Aimed at the enemy. Dealing with Satan's power was the Lord's chief concern — a power the modern world is quick to forget.
and he commanded them that they should take nothing for the way, save a staff only; no scrip, no bread, no money in their belt;
His own hometown had just refused Him. Jesus does not stop. He sends the twelve out in pairs, with authority over unclean spirits and almost nothing else. Two questions follow. Why send messengers out with nothing? And why does Mark allow a staff when Matthew and Luke forbid one?
The orders about bread and money follow the scorn Jesus met in Nazareth. One writer reads the sending as His reply to it.
He gave them their mission while the contempt was still fresh. The most extreme scorn had fallen on Him, so that He could do no mighty work there. He answers in the most gracious and decisive way: it was from no lack of power in Him. He sends them out two by two on their new and mighty errand. ... They were servants called after His own fashion; and so He commanded them to take nothing for their journey except a staff only. They were to go out in the faith of His resources.
How the twelve travelled was itself part of the message. Their empty hands pointed to the One who sent them.
He "gave them authority over the unclean spirits," and that bears striking witness to His glory as a Divine Person. Anyone can use power and work miracles if that power is given to them. But who except God can give the power? Further, the manner in which they went out was in itself a witness to the presence of the Lord of all... They were to rest in the care and protection of the Lord who was present on earth. He would move the hearts of men and govern circumstances, so that they would lack nothing.
The twelve carried coins in the belt, and now they were to carry none. They could not buy their way out of a single difficulty.
The apostles were also forbidden to take any bread, any bag to carry food, or any money in their belt to buy even the basics... They had unmatched power over unclean demons. Even so, their circumstances would make them openly dependent on the "cold charities" of a selfish world.
Set side by side, the three accounts appear to clash.
Using the readings the Revisers adopted, the difference in wording can be set out like this: (1) Matthew: Do not get a staff. (2) Mark: Take a staff only. (3) Luke: Do not take a staff.
The answer turns on one difference. Using what you already own is not the same as getting kit for a trip.
The "discrepancy" only looks like one. Notice that the ban covers only what they were to get ready for the journey ahead. The staff stands in the same list as the bag and bread and money: "Take nothing for your journey, no staff, nor bag, nor bread, nor money." The twelve were not to obtain even the commonest article for their mission. They might use the ordinary walking staff, but they were not to get one for this new work.
The bare kit was a training exercise. The twelve later reported the result themselves.
These directions prepared the apostles to learn by experience the basic but vital lesson of spiritual service: dependence on God for the things the Gentiles keep seeking (Matt. 6:32). During their mission they would find that their Master controlled providence as well as winds and waves and demons... 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?" They said, "Nothing."
These orders fit one moment only. The Lord Himself withdrew them later.
Then the Lord tells them to provide themselves with a moneybag, a knapsack, and a 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 those special circumstances went. His goodness and love to them would remain, and so would their walking in wisdom and harmlessness. But the particular character of this mission ended at the death of Christ.
What does carry over is the attitude, not the packing list.
Trust in the Lord, who sends out the labourer, is another principle which belongs to this age as well. All disappointment and discouragement comes to the servant of Christ when he looks to man instead of the Lord. The Lord never disappoints.
- Rejected, then sending. Contempt at Nazareth did not stop His service. That was the moment He sent out twelve more messengers.
- Sending proves the Sender. Anyone can use power that is handed to them. Only God can give it. Their authority over unclean spirits showed who stood behind them.
- Empty belt, full supply. No bread, no bag, no coins in the belt — they had nothing to lean on but His care.
- Staff, not stocking up. Mark allows the walking stick already in hand. Matthew and Luke forbid getting one for the trip. The ban is on preparing, not on owning.
- Proved, then changed. They confessed they had lacked nothing. Then the Lord cancelled the arrangement. What remains for servants today is the trust, not the packing list.
but be shod with sandals, and put not on two body-coats.
This verse is part of the orders the Lord gave His twelve disciples as He sent them out to preach. Why would the Son of God set rules for His messengers' shoes and clothing, and do those rules still bind His servants today?
The word points to the plainest footwear of the day, not to anything made or bought for the occasion.
"Sandals" are soles bound to the feet by leather thongs. As Roman luxury spread, men wore shoes or half-boots… The New Testament uses the word for "shoes" as well as "sandals". But it does not seem likely that this luxury had reached the disciples. Its writers used two words for the same thing, so by "sandals" the reader should understand those soles tied to the feet with leather thongs.
They take the plain item, not the finer one. The same pattern runs through the whole list.
He sends them out in a way that shows their complete dependence on Him — with no provision of either food or money. They are to be shod with sandals, not the more luxurious "shoes"; and not to wear two coats.
The missing second coat had reasons behind it. Travelling light sped them up, and keeping a spare would have cut against what they told others to do.
All these instructions of the Lord point one way: He wanted simplicity to mark them as His servants. So Paul wrote to Timothy, "No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him" (2 Tim. 2:4). Having no luggage would let them travel faster. Their work was among the simple country people of Galilee. There, signs of wealth would have made people less willing to hear them. Besides, if they owned two coats, would it not have been their duty to give one to the man who had none (Luke 3:11)?
Sandals and a single coat left them looking like nobody. Yet the King sent them out carrying His own power.
There was a combination of two elements in them hard to reconcile. The Lord put them in circumstances that left them open to everyone's contempt. They were to have no money in their belt, not even two coats, not shoes but sandals; they were to be without bag or provision for the way. What could seem more helpless or more dependent than their condition? Yet even so, they went out as the King's messengers, carrying His own power.
Their empty hands pointed past themselves to the One who sent them.
Further, the very way in which they went out was itself a witness to the presence of the Lord of all. They were to go out taking nothing for their journey. They were to rest in the providing care and protection of the Lord present on earth. He would move the hearts of men and govern circumstances so that they would lack nothing.
Mark's wording here differs from Matthew's. Commentators trace the difference to the verbs, not to a contradiction.
There is a slight difference in the details given. Mark's "except a staff" might seem to conflict with Matthew's "or a staff", since all critical authorities read the singular. But the point is that in Matthew they were not to "provide" or get these things. In Mark they may take for their journey what they already had. They were to "be shod with sandals," not "shoes" as in Matthew.
These orders went with a commission given on earth. Those who serve now stand on different ground.
Those who serve today do not hold their commission from Christ on earth, but from Christ in heaven. This brings in certain changes… They went without travelling necessities because they represented the Messiah on earth. He had nothing, but He was well able to support them… Yet we may take great comfort from this: He does not send His servants out without giving them power for the service in front of them.
- Sandals. The word means soles tied on with leather thongs — plain footwear, not the finer "shoes".
- Simplicity. No spare coat, no luggage. They travelled fast, showed no signs of wealth, and lived what they told others to do.
- Dependence. Stripped of provisions, they had to rest on the care of the Lord who sent them, and they lacked nothing.
- Power. They looked helpless, yet they carried the King's own power. That contrast is the point.
- Change. Christ on earth sent them. Christ in heaven sends His servants now, and He still gives power for the work.
And he said to them, Wheresoever ye shall enter into a house, there remain till ye shall go thence.
The Lord sends the twelve out in pairs. They carry authority over unclean spirits, but almost nothing else. So where will they sleep? This one sentence settles it, and the reason behind it reaches far beyond lodging.
The messengers were not to arrange their own lodging.
How wise His directions were! Where should they lodge? Was that even a question? It would settle itself as they went: "Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you depart from there." Their welcome by the host would show them where to stay.
How could that be safe? Everything rested on the One who sent them.
More than this: the Lord not only has power to give His disciples authority over evil spirits, He can also move human hearts. The disciples were to set out without taking anything for their journey. And yet, as we read in Luke, they told the Lord that they had lacked nothing. The power of Emmanuel reached everywhere, and it held them up. Armed with His authority, they were to stay in the house they had entered until they left each place.
Contentment was only half of the instruction. The mission also carried a warning.
They are also to be content with whatever lodging they find in the first house that opens its doors to them. On the other hand, He pronounces judgment on every place that will not receive or listen to a testimony backed by divine power.
One writer puts the same rule in sharper words.
"In the same house remain." We had this in the mission of the twelve — "Do not be looking out for better fare." What a defiling thing, to see the followers of Christ trying to make themselves comfortable here!
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The rule also guarded how His messengers appeared to those they preached to.
How wise this direction was, and how careful of the dignity of His messengers! He was watching so that the message would not be spoiled by the self-seeking of those who carried it.
Receiving support was right; shopping around for better support was not.
There was to be no covetousness and no self-seeking. They were to rest on their loyalty of heart to the Messiah and take whatever people gave them. The Messiah acknowledges the worth of the labourer — the labourer is worthy of his wages. Those who were His would feel that and own it. They were not to go from house to house. That would take away from His glory, because people could accuse them of self-seeking.
There was another danger in moving around.
Their mission was not to sink into a social round of visits. They were on the Lord's service, and so they were to stay in the same house in any particular place. The substance of their preaching was repentance.
Commentators are careful to note that the outward terms of this commission belonged to a Messiah then present on earth, and were later changed. The spirit of the instruction, however, still stands.
Utter simplicity was to mark them — and us too: no running about from house to house in search of something better. They represented Him. He acted through them; and so to refuse them was to refuse Him. Those who serve Him today are not apostles, yet in a lesser degree the same thing doubtless holds good. God's message is no less His message because it comes through weak lips.
- Sent. The twelve went out carrying nothing. Whoever welcomed them decided where they stayed.
- Sustained. The One who gave them power over unclean spirits also moved the hearts of their hosts. They lacked nothing.
- Settled. "Stay there" meant contentment with the first open door and no looking out for better fare.
- Shielded. Moving from house to house would look like self-seeking. That would take away from the Lord's glory.
- Sober. The mission was not a round of visits. It was a final appeal, and its message was repentance. To refuse the messenger was to refuse the One who sent him.
And whatsoever place shall not receive you nor hear you, departing thence, shake off the dust which is under your feet for a testimony to them.
The Lord sends out His twelve disciples, two by two, to preach. He warns them in advance that some towns will shut the door. This verse tells them what to do then: leave, and shake the dust off their feet. It is an act of separation, and a warning that the town will answer for its refusal.
Why the dust, and why the feet?
It was as if the dust of the place they lived in defiled them, and so had to be shaken off as a testimony against them.
The town was meant to feel it. This was no quiet exit:
"Shake off the dust of your feet" — that is an insulting thing to do. Ah, this shows how serious the message is! If they will not receive it, let them learn in the most solemn terms you can find how much danger they have put themselves in.
"As a testimony against them" marks an ending, not an argument. The disciples were not to stay and press a town that had refused them:
He sent His disciples out to preach with this commission: to shake off the dust from their feet if they were not received. It was a sign that the last testimony had been given, and that those people were given up.
The mission came after the nation had already turned Christ down:
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. It was also a final testimony, for judgment awaited those who rejected this mission.
Many manuscripts add a line here that compares such a town with Sodom, and the parallel accounts carry it too. Why would Sodom, a city known for its wickedness, come off better than a town that simply turned some preachers away?
Sodom's judgment would be more tolerable than God's judgment on a city that rejected them. Sodom never had the witness of the Lord Jesus present in person, and so was not as responsible as these cities.
The same principle runs through the Lord's warnings elsewhere, where the towns He worked in most are held to the highest account:
Privileges despised or misused bring only a deeper ruin on those who reject or twist them.
What tips the scales is not the scale of the sin, but the kindness turned away:
What brought down His judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah? The moral filth of those wicked cities is not as bad as the guilt of grace slighted!
Commentators differ over whether that Sodom sentence belongs in Mark's text. One weighs it both ways:
The second half of Mark 6:11 looks like it was adapted from Matthew 11 and Luke 10, with changes. Yet the ancient evidence for it is very full: eleven of the oldest manuscripts, almost all the later copies, and some of the best early translations. It is surprising that the Revisers left no note of such a difference in their margin.
Another writer weighs the same evidence and points to what all three Gospels agree on:
It seems incredible, then, that the received text in Mark 6:11 should carry so many marks of originality if it were not genuine. And we may still weigh this striking fact. All three Gospels agree that not only issues for this life, but eternal issues, hung on whether people accepted or rejected the apostles' preaching.
Should Christians do this today? One writer draws the line:
It was to be a solemn act of separation. They were to have nothing more to do with the city that rejected their Lord. Preaching the gospel today does not call for any such action, because the gospel goes to people in an evil world, not to cities. The gospel has saved people out of many wicked cities, and given them a heavenly inheritance.
- Refusal — Some towns will not receive the message. The messengers are to leave, and to say plainly how much danger the town has put itself in.
- Dust — Shaking off the dust says the place has defiled them. It is a public act of separation, not a quiet exit.
- Testimony — The act is a last witness. It marks the point where the pleading stops and the place is given up.
- Privilege — Sodom never saw the Lord Jesus in person, so it was less responsible. A town that turned His messengers away answers for more.
- Today — The gospel now goes to people, not to cities, so believers do not repeat this act. The warning stands: slighted grace brings the heaviest guilt.
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.