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If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, leave that home or town and shake the dust off your feet.

- Matthew 10:14

The gospel.  What is it? For the disciples at this point in time, it was the message that the kingdom of heaven is at hand. They were given authority to back it up with signs of healing and deliverance.  But he warned them - that they would not always be received, in spite of what they had to offer.

Have you ever communicated the gospel, only to be rebuffed or blown off?  What was your reaction? Jesus' instructions enabled the disciples to "test the waters".  "Let your peace be on the place you enter."  In Hebrew, a traditional greeting is kinetic in nature: "Shalom aleichem", meaning peace be upon you.  If it is not received, let it return to you.

How then did Jesus encourage his disciples to react when they were rebuffed? They were to let their peace return to them, and in peace shake off the dust and move on.  Shaking off the dust, in peace, basically means don't let the rejection get on you; let the rebuff be like water off a duck's back.

In football, if a cornerback gets beat they can't afford to let it effect them; they' got the rest of the game ahead of them, and if they keep thinking about how they got beat that rest of the game will be like Nightmare on Elm Street!  They must be focused on the next play.

In the same way, we need to remain in peace and move on to the next opportunity to communicate the kingdom of heaven.  We must be focused on the next play. 

The stakes are too high not to remain at peace.

NK IV

the turning of one soul
ushers a fresh dawn on a darkling land
while kings have made their stand
this heart was turned
at the touch of one Hand

now what becomes
of those so long blinded from the Son
may they run to be known in the light
and delight in the bright-shine
of this new day

 - revel8r

photo © Jim White 2018

Nothing Like This Has Ever Been Seen in Israel

And when the demon was driven out, the man who had been mute spoke. The crowd was amazed and said, “Nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel.”

- Matthew 9:33

The crowds had seen demons cast out.  They had seen paralytics healed and dead raised. What was it they had not seen?  The healings and the exorcisms that the Israelites were seeing was the result of something that had never been seen in Israel before this moment.  What was that?

When Jesus healed, it was always with a very human act of touch.  And often He touched people who were, by law, unclean.  When He cast out demons, it was always with authority.  These two things - compassion and authority were unheard of, never witnessed before, until this Son of Man walked among these mortal, very human beings.

Authority without compassion is easy to wield.  Jesus completely and effortlessly wielded authority with compassion.  And He did so because of one thing: He is the original authority.  He is the Creator of those upon whom He had compassion.  All others that Israel had known before Him - priests, scribes, Pharisees, et al, were acting on behalf of the Ancient of Days.  They were wielding as an acting authority.

The True Shepherd, even their Messiah, had arrived, an nothing like this had ever been seen in Israel.