13. Take Nothing

"And he was amazed at their unbelief. Then he went about among the villages teaching. He called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. He ordered them to take nothing for their journey except a staff; no bread, no bag, no money in their belts; but to wear sandals and not to put on two tunics. He said to them, 'Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave the place. If any place will not welcome you and they refuse to hear you, as you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them.' So they went out and proclaimed that all should repent. They cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them." Mark 6: 6-13

*****

I can't help but think that forgiveness didn't come easy

when you were rejected in Nazareth--

by your own childhood friends and neighbors

who were probably gossiping about you while

sitting on the carved chairs,

eating at the wooden tables

you'd built in your father's shop.

Yet you were made to feel

less welcome

than anywhere else you'd been

since you left home.

Like you were going back home for a high school

reunion, having been voted most likely

to work for your dad,

and you shocked everyone by announcing

that since graduation

you'd gone out and made something of yourself

currently working miracles

for a living--

and no one was impressed.

No one even believed you.

So forgive me for thinking that maybe it was your human side

rather than your divine one

that hatched up this idea

to test the people in the villages near Nazareth

by sending out the twelve to make themselves at home

in any home they chose,

to put their dusty sandals up on those wooden tables

and to rely completely upon the kindness of strangers

bringing with them not one morsel,

not one coin, not one housewarming gift...

except, of course--

healing,

salvation,

and the promise that they could expect the same hospitality

at your Father's house

because you (unlike some people you could name)

know how to make a person

feel welcome.