Dealing with Dust

In Luke chapter nine, Jesus gives his disciples some rather strange instructions. First, he commissions them to go into the community and minister. Then he tells them in verse 3 to "Take nothing for the journey, neither staffs nor bag nor bread nor money; and do not have two tunics apiece.” That makes sense. Maybe he did not want them to become encumbered with a lot of stuff as they traveled or possibly he wanted to stretch their faith. But the strangest piece of instruction followed. “Whatever house you enter, stay there, and from there depart. And whoever will not receive you, when you go out of that city, shake off the very dust from your feet as a testimony against them." Why is Jesus preoccupied with dust? I think the answer can be found when you look at its definition. According to the dictionary it is “fine bits of dirt or other matter that hangs in the air and settles on surfaces.” When you think about it nothing is more aggravating than dust.  My wife battles it constantly in our home. It settles on floors, furniture, clothes, and especially your shoes. It builds so silently so imperceptibly.  But we know that Jesus has more in mind here than mere fallen particles that settle on sandals.  If that is not the focus then what is? The answer can be found in a question.  “What happens to us when we face rejection?”  Back in the early days of my ministry I did a lot of door to door evangelism.  When I faced rejection it would inevitably leave me with two impressions; fear of going to the next house, or anger because I thought the treatment received was totally unjustified. Either feeling made it difficult for me to move to my next assignment.  Why? I had been offended. So in essence Jesus is telling the disciples to “shake off the dust that is the residue of offense and move on.” If they let it build it would only get worse. They could not successfully go to the next community until they had left the last. Experience lets us know you cannot embrace the future while being bound to the past. They may not have understood the principle immediately but they soon learned that you get the best results if you adhere to the words of Jesus. Effective ministry can only transpire as we learn to “DEAL WITH THE DUST!”