Luke 9:1-5: a reflection

1He called the twelve together and gave them power and authority over all demons, and to cure diseases. 2He sent them out to preach God’s Kingdom and to heal the sick. 3He said to them, “Take nothing for your journey—no staffs, nor wallet, nor bread, nor money. Don’t have two tunics each. 4Into whatever house you enter, stay there, and depart from there. 5As many as don’t receive you, when you depart from that city, shake off even the dust from your feet for a testimony against them.”

When Jesus sends out the twelve to preach the kingdom and heal, he gives them a striking instruction: Take nothing for your journey, no staff, no bag, no bread, no money, not even a spare tunic. He sends them out deliberately unequipped, without the resources and provisions they would naturally want for such a journey, so that they would have to depend entirely on God's provision and the hospitality he would supply along the way. Their mission was to be carried out in dependence, not self-sufficiency.

Notice why Jesus sent them out with nothing: to make them depend. He could have had them pack provisions and prepare thoroughly; instead he sent them deliberately without resources, so that they would learn to rely on God to provide as they went, rather than on their own supplies and preparations. The lack was intentional, a means of teaching dependence, of forcing them to trust God for each day's needs in the work he had given.

That is a pattern worth pondering in our own service to God. We naturally want to be well-equipped and self-sufficient before we serve, to have our resources and preparations secure. But God sometimes calls us to serve in a way that requires dependence on him, without all the security and resources we would prefer, so that we learn to rely on him rather than ourselves. Do not insist on being fully self-sufficient before you serve God. He may call you, as he called the twelve, to step out in dependence, trusting him to provide what you need as you go. Learn to serve not from your own abundant resources, but in reliance on the God who supplies what his servants need.

Lord Jesus, you sent out the twelve to serve carrying nothing, no bag, no bread, no money, so that they would depend entirely on God's provision rather than their own resources. Teach me that dependence in my own service to you. I naturally want to be well-equipped and self-sufficient before I serve, to have my resources and preparations secure. But you sometimes call me to serve in a way that requires reliance on you, without all the security I would prefer. Keep me from insisting on self-sufficiency before I serve you. Help me step out in dependence when you call, trusting you to provide what I need as I go. Teach me to serve not from my own abundance, but in reliance on you, who supply what your servants need. Make me willing to depend on you.