Reading for Monday, Oct 15: Mark 6

After being rejected in Nazareth, Jesus gathers His disciples together and commissions them to go out in His name. V12 tells us the content of the message: they preach repentance. Remember, the first words Jesus speaks in this Gospel are words of repentance (1:15). But this has never been a popular message and Jesus implores His followers to stay the course. “If you are rejected, shake the dust off of your feet and move on.” The teaching itself implies that there will always be opposition to the message of repentance.

But this message of repentance is as much about what we’re turning “toward” as it is about turning “away”. For Jesus, the message of repentance is joined by the proclamation of the Kingdom’s nearness. For these disciples, their preaching is accompanied with great signs of God’s power, confirming this mission as the initiative of heaven, not man.

I would say that our charge as Christ followers today is to proclaim this same message: a message of repentance and Kingdom acceptance. We should be calling people away from lives of sin, but also toward the glory and power of God’s Kingdom reign.