Sent
Jesus sent them out two by two, not in large groups. Large groups have organizational costs which in turn support structures and hierarchies. With time, structures and hierarchies become attachments that hinder and slow the pace and the progress of the Kingdom. Jesus sends them out into the world with extraordinary power over unclean spirits, with the power to cast out demons, because He wants man to be free from evil within and free from the foolishness that ignores and fails to recognize the presence of the devil in our life. Jesus orders those guides of humanity to take nothing for the journey except for a walking stick, because there is no need for burdens and anxiety to inspire people. Nothing to eat and no bag, because inevitably something needs to be put inside it. No money in their belts, not even a spare tunic. Jesus does not just suggest total detachment from human security as a spiritual attitude appropriate to their status as spiritual guides; He literally orders it. It is an absolute condition for the success and effectiveness of their task. They are not guides of humanity because of their choice, their good heart, their personal compassion for humanity, their own particular predestined spirit of self-sacrifice. They are guides to humanity out of divine order, out of their positive response ("yes") to a command given by God, a supreme command, which always allows for a free choice, but which takes one's breath away because it is powerful, more shocking than a storm on a mountaintop, a storm so violent that a hypothetical "no" - even if shouted with all one's strength - is inevitably lost, silenced in the howling of the wind leaving behind and within only the pathetic sense of the ridiculousness of utter helplessness. They are not guides to humanity because of their goodness, but in the name of God and for the good of God's people. Compassion will arise, selflessness and courage during persecution will develop and even their hearts will expand with true love for the people, but these are not the starting conditions, they never are. The guides of humanity, as opposed to the whole humanity, cannot escape from the net thrown over them. There are no holes in the net for them. They are not perfect. They are moving forward like everyone else, but if that order is heard, they cannot stop, there is nothing on earth more powerful, more terrible, more imperious than that command. Nothing, absolutely nothing.
Whatever place does not welcome you or listen to you, leave there and shake the dust off your feet in testimony against them. Literally in the Greek text it is written: and whatever place shall not receive you, nor hear you, when departing, shake the dust from under your feet in testimony to them.
Those who act against the guides of humanity and try to stop them from completing their mission, those who seek to sow discord among the guides' followers, be they a city, an empire, and period in history, a person, will see their life become a living hell in the dirt. Diseases and wars will accompany them. Professional, sentimental, and family difficulties and separations and other disharmonies will invade their earthly existence. Nothing will be left of them, not even the memory of their dust, as they await the eternal darkness.
Those who insult the guides of humanity who God has chosen and lovingly forced to take on that task for the good of his people are stupidly insulting forces beyond human understanding and this insolence will turn into sadness. A deaf and mute sadness, an inner unparalleled sadness, piercing, chilling, inconsolable.