Shake it off
The act of shaking the dust off their feet as they left a gentile town was a common practice of Jews in biblical times. The ground they had walked on was unclean, and the Jewish travellers were separating themselves from the ‘unclean’ gentiles by cleaning off the dust.
In today's Gospel reading, Jesus is telling his disciples that they can shake off the dust from those places where their call for repentance has been rejected. He is using a symbol that the Jews would recognise quickly. How would it feel for a pious Jew, who had rejected the message of the Kingdom, to see themselves being treated in the same way they have treated the gentiles?
Jesus is commissioning his disciples to spread the news of the Kingdom and preach repentance. He gives them the authority to heal the sick and cast out demons; in this way they are not only using words, but also deeds. Even then, Jesus knows that there will be many who will reject the disciples, despite the evidence of their eyes.
By instructing his disciples to shake the dust off their feet, he is giving them permission to accept failure and let it go. It must be a relief; I know I find it so.
When I talk to people about faith, I always hope that the message will get through eventually, even if it doesn’t straight away. Who knows, maybe once the disciples are a few miles down the road, or even decades later, the person they have left behind in the dust will remember their words at just the right moment and believe.
We can preach the Good News, write about it, post about it, sing about it, and there will always be people who are obstinate in their atheism. There isn’t much we can do about that other than shake it off. There are plenty of others who are ready to listen, and after all, conversion is a God job. Jesus asks us to sow seeds; it is the Holy Spirit who makes them grow.
Today's Readings: Amos 7:12-15 Psalm 84 Ephesians 1:3-14 Mark 6:7-13
Photo Credit: Halfpoint Adobe Stock
Source: Fifteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time
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