This is another of Mark's "sandwich"or chiastic sections. The main event is Jesus' sending the Twelve on a preaching and healing mission that extended His own ministry. Within this story, between their departing and their returning, the writer inserted the story of John the Baptist's death. The main feature of that story that interested Mark was Herod Antipas' perception of who Jesus was. The identity of Jesus, which is the heart of this section, becomes the main subject of the sections that follow (6:31-8:30).
Jesus continued to minister in Galilee. His ministry to the Twelve was an important part of His ministry. It prepared the disciples for further future service. It also anticipated His ministry through them following His ascension.
6:6b This brief transitional statement introduces Jesus twofold ministry, personally and through His disciples. Mark's interest lay in the disciples' training, so he stressed that. Matthew gave a slightly longer explanation of Jesus' personal ministry (Matt. 9:35).
6:7 Jesus called the Twelve to Himself and then sent them out as His official representatives (cf. 3:14). Jesus was following Jewish custom and wisdom in sending the disciples out in pairs, which Mark alone mentioned (cf. Deut. 17:6; 19:15; Eccles. 4:9-12). The Twelve were to preach the kingdom of God (Luke 9:2) and to perform miracles to authenticate their message for their Jewish audiences (Matt. 9:1; Luke 9:1-2). Mark just mentioned casting out demons as the most powerful demonstration of Jesus' power at work through them. This was a mission that would prepare the Twelve for larger responsibility in Jesus' service later.
"Jesus authorized the disciples to be his delegates with respect to both word and power. Their message and deeds were to be an extension of his own."144
6:8-9 The Twelve were to take with them no food, no luggage, and no money. They were not even to take an extra tunic that Palestinians often used as a blanket at night. The Twelve were to rely on God to provide their needs, including the need for hospitable hosts. The urgency of their mission required light travel, and it prohibited elaborate preparations. They could take a walking stick, and they would need sandals, but they were not to take spares.
Matthew's account reported Jesus forbiding shoes whereas Mark said He permitted them (Matt. 9:10). Probably a spare pair of sandles was what Jesus forbade. Jesus was training His disciples to serve, not to lord it over others or to expect others to serve them.
"The particular instructions apply literally only to this brief mission during Jesus' lifetime; but in principle, with the necessary modifications according to climate and other circumstances, they still hold for the continuing ministry of the Church. The service of the Word of God is still a matter of extreme urgency, calling for absolute self-dedication."145
6:10-11 The 12 disciples were normally to stay in the home of a hospitable host, as long as they remained in that particular town, rather than moving from house to house. This would minimize distractions and tend to preserve the good reputation of the disciple whom others might consider greedy if he moved frequently.
The Jews customarily shook the dust off their clothes and sandals when they reentered Jewish territory from Gentile territory.146
"In the culture of the time the gospel was written, Jews made a distinction between Jewish and gentile territory. Jews considered their land to be holy and the gentile land unclean. Through this depiction of Jesus as a traveller among gentiles, the narrator portrays him as open to and compassionate toward gentiles."147
Shaking dust off their feet symbolized the defiling effect of contact with pagans. When the Twelve did this, it implied that those who had refused their message were unbelieving, defiled, and subject to divine judgment (cf. Acts 13:51; 18:6).
"It was a visible sign of acceptance or rejection of the Master and the Father Who sent Him (Mt. x. 40, Lk. x. 16), and therefore an index of the relation in which the inhabitants as a whole stood to the eternal order."148
This act would cause those who rejected the message to reconsider their decision.
6:12-13 The Twelve were to do the same three things that Jesus did in His ministry (cf. 1:4, 14-15, 32-34, 39; 3:10). Their mission was an extension of His mission (cf. 16:15-20). Mark did not mention that Jesus sent them only to the Jews. Perhaps he wanted his readers to view themselves as carrying on Jesus' ministry as the Twelve did then (cf. Matt. 10:5-6). The Twelve learned that Jesus' power extended beyond His personal presence and that God would work through them as He did through Jesus.
Mark alone mentioned the Twelve anointing people with oil. People commonly applied oil for medicinal purposes in Jesus' day (cf. Luke 10:34; James 5:14).149This ritual also symbolized God's coming on the anointed person enabling that one to serve Him and setting the anointed person apart for God's use. This, too, would have special significance for reader disciples who had experienced God's anointing with the Holy Spirit at conversion and who had a similar ministry in their (our) day.
This pericope shows Jesus continuing to train His disciples for the ministry that lay before them and continuing to extend His own ministry of service through them. In their duties, the manner of their service, and their responses to the reactions to their ministry, they were to conduct themselves as the servants of the Servant.
The writer of the second Gospel inserted this account into his narrative about the mission of the Twelve. It is similar to the filling in a sandwich (cf. v. 30). The incident probably happened during the mission of the Twelve just announced. It illustrates the mounting opposition to Jesus, and it provides helpful guidance for disciples of Jesus. Mark's is the fullest of the synoptic records.
This verse marks the conclusion of the apostolic mission of the Twelve that the writer introduced in verses 7-13. With that phase of Jesus' training of the Twelve completed, He moved on to the next stage.
This is the only time Mark called the Twelve apostles (Gr. apostoloi, lit. sent ones).160The 12 apostles now returned to the One who had sent them out. They reported to Him regarding what had transpired. Mark used "apostles"in the general sense of missionaries (cf. Acts 14:14; et al.) rather than as a technical title (cf. Eph. 2:20; et al.). These men, with the exception of Judas Iscariot, later became the official apostles. They evidently presented their report to Jesus somewhere in Galilee, possibly near Capernaum.
