Two by Two

Some people like to see the Bible as history. Others like to see the bible as a rule book for the way we live our lives with which they can beat people over the head until they conform to society’s rules, whatever those rules are. I like to see the bible as a collection of stories that teach lessons about the nature of God and the universe. And I don’t think it matters much if all the stories are true, or if they happened in the way they are described. The stories still have something to teach.

But those stories can sure be hard to understand sometimes. You read those words and you wonder why in the hell did they do that? Some of it we chalk up to it being a very long time ago and perhaps people just did things really differently back then. Much of what is written in the bible becomes a lot easier to understand if you understand the times in which it is written and what is going on at the time. In the Gospel According to Mark, which, although it is the oldest gospel, comes second in the New Testament, in the sixth chapter, Jesus calls his students together and sends them out into the countryside

“He summoned the Twelve and began to send them out two by two and gave them authority over unclean spirits. He instructed them to take nothing for the journey but a walking stick–no food, no sack, no money in their belts. They were, however, to wear sandals but not a second tunic (cloak) . He said to them, ‘Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave from there. Whatever place does not welcome you or listen to you, leave there and shake the dust off your feet in testimony against them.’ So they went off and preached repentance. They drove out many demons, and they anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them.”

Now some of this story is pretty easy to understand. He sent them off in groups of two. That makes sense. Things are better if people have support. But two, according to Moses, was the legal number of witnesses required to testify to something in court. So two is the number of adequate witness. If two people said that something happened, it probably happened. But I always thought it was weird that they weren’t allowed to take anything with them. In fact, I always thought much of their traveling instructions were a little odd. But there were good reasons for them.

At that time in Palestine, there were other groups of itinerate teachers besides the Jesus’ buddies. They were the Cynics. Now people often accuse me of being cynical, but the original Cynics were REALLY cynical. They followed the teachings of the ancient Greek, Antisthenes. Antisthenes was a contemporary of Socrates. He was so enamored of Socrates’ teachings that he founded his own school in Cynosarges. He had no use for pomp or pride of the world. Antisthenes wore a cloak and carried a staff and a bag as a sort of a uniform, a badge of his philosophy. This costume became uniform of his followers, but so ostentatiously as to draw from Socrates the rebuke, “I see your pride looking out through the rent of your cloak, O Antisthenes.” These itinerate Cynics also went about teaching the philosophy of Antisthenes (and so indirectly of Socrates).

By telling his disciples not to wear a cloak and not to take a bag, Jesus was making sure that nobody would confuse his followers for the followers of Antisthenes. He wanted people to know that his followers were teaching a message of love and faith in God. Antisthenes taught a love of wisdom and taught that people must perfect themselves through self-development. Jesus was teaching a message of connection to God and faith in the love of the creator, a very different message. He wanted no confusion. That is why he sent them off with no money and no food, to further contrast them by their poverty.

When he told them to stay at the first house to which they were invited, he wanted to do two things. First, he wanted to give them a stable base of operations from which they could go out and teach and then return. He also wanted to make sure that his followers didn’t go house hopping. Back in those days, there was a certain amount of prestige gained by having a teacher stay at your house. If people knew there was a teacher in town, they would have tripped over each other to offer an invitation. Jesus’ followers would have been sorely tempted to trade up to a nicer house, and this would have damaged the image of the teaching. He also wanted to make sure that people would know where the teachers could be found, if they were needed.

Many people see Jesus’ instructions to depart any village where the people will not listen and to shake the dust from their feet as a bit petulant and vengeful. However, shaking the dust from your feet was a ritual that indicated sorrow that you were not accepted. It was not meant to be a way of showing anger. Moreover, it was Jesus’ way of telling his students not to beat people over the head with the teaching. If they wanted to listen, fine. If they didn’t want to listen, that was okay, too. It’s a shame many of his followers today don’t take the same advice. I wish I had a dime for every Jehovah’s Witness who refused to leave me alone. (I must point out here that I have know many fine Jehovah’s Witnesses who wouldn’t dream of annoying anyone)

Sending his guys off with nothing also forced them to rely on the kindness of others and faith in God. It’s one thing to say you believe that God will provide for you, it’s another to actually expect God to come through. A lot of us say we believe God will provide for us, but we still try to keep some extra money in savings just in case. Jesus was requiring his students to put their faith into practice. I also find it interesting that he gave them the authority (the King James version says he gave them the “power”, but the Greek word more is more accurately translated “authority”) to cast out demons and to heal diseases.

He didn’t convey special powers on them. He simply gave them authority. He gave them permission. This implies that they already had the power to cast out demons and cure diseases. And I think that is an important point. I think we all have that power. Being connected with the ultimate power in the universe gives us that power. We just have to believe that we have that power and have the faith that we can wield it. And that means no looking back. That means you have to really believe. As I have pointed out before, the Greek word for faith, pisteo, is a verb. It is something you do, not something you have. That would mean that faith is an action based upon a belief. If you believe something is going to happen and you act on that belief, then you are faithing and what you expect to happen will happen.

And that faith could be in anything, faith in God, faith in money, faith in your own abilities. But what is required is absolute faith. And there is no such thing as a little faith. It’s like a light switch. Either the lights are on or they are off. You either have faith, or you have unbelief. If there is any doubt at all, then there is no faith. And we all have faith. We have faith in science. We have faith in medicine. That’s why we take the medicine the doctors give us. We have faith in machinery and technology. When I turn on the TV, I expect it to go on. I have no faith in my computer, however. It has burned me too many times. We all have faith. What Jesus taught, and what the bible teaches, is that our faith is often misplaced.

I have always found it interesting that in spite of this mission in which the apostles went off healing diseases and performing these miracles that in the end they lacked the faith to believe that Jesus had risen from the dead. The same story in the Gospel According to Matthew has Jesus giving them authority to raise the dead as well. And that does seem to be our nature. In spite of all the times we see something happen, it seems to take a long time for us to learn the cause and effect relationship. It is not easy to have faith. It is not easy to have that childlike trust in something. I think that’s why Jesus said we have to be like little children. Only children seem to have that total trust and even they learn pretty quickly to lose that trust. Jesus taught that the way to be connected to God is to regain that trust in spite of our “common sense” and what we think we know about the world.

So the bible story is not so weird after we look at it in the context of its times. But what does it mean for us today? Well, Jesus said at the end, before he left, that he was sending out his followers to spread the word, just in the same way he sent out the twelve before, long ago, to spread the message and to heal diseases. So who are his followers? We are, those of us who believe in the teachings. And like the apostles, it doesn’t matter that we don’t have the message quite right, yet. They certainly didn’t. It was still early in the ministry. They were learning as they went along, just like we are. So we are called to go forth and spread a message of love and forgiveness and connection and faith. Everything is going to be okay. We will get whatever we need. We can achieve whatever we set our mind to do. We have the power. Take care of one another. And if we do that, if we really carried that message with us, then everything really is going to be okay. Pass it on.