
He said to them, “Take nothing for the journey, neither walking stick, nor sack, nor food, nor money, and let no one take a second tunic.” Luke 9:3
Okay, now let’s see. I’ll need my bathing suit, flip flops for the boardwalk, an extra tee shirt, a hat for the sun, a water bottle and my phone, a beach umbrella and a blanket for the sand, and lots of sunscreen. And that’s just for one afternoon at the beach. When Jesus sent His disciples out with “neither walking stick, nor sack, nor food, nor money,” He expected them to walk the dusty roads of Galilee for months, sleeping wherever they could and eating whatever was offered to them. And for that journey, they didn’t need to pack a thing… no clothes, no food, no money, nothing! That really is traveling light. The idea is so foreign to us with our backpacks and roof racks, GPS and Google Maps. But Jesus was teaching His disciples, and us, an important lesson. He wanted them not only to preach the Good News, but to live it. The footnote for this verse in the New American Bible lays it out for us: “the absolute detachment required of the disciple leads to complete reliance on God.” Wow! For a great plan-making, list-writing, suitcase-packer like me, this is an incredible thought…complete reliance on God!
One afternoon, as Jesus sat on a hillside preaching, He told the gathered crowd how foolish it was to go on fussing and worrying about the future when all they needed to do was trust in the providence of Almighty God. He said, “If even the smallest things are beyond your control, why are you anxious about the rest?” (Luke 12:26). There have been times in my life when I realized that my situation was definitely beyond my control, sitting in the ER in a bloody sweatshirt with an ice pack on my head, or holding my mother’s frail hand in the ICU as her breathing grew weaker, or waiting to hear from my kids after a raging hurricane had passed through. Those times became moments of grace that made me realize that the only way to have any peace at all was to place all my trust in God, to lean with all my strength on the wisdom and power and goodness of God. For me, that is the very definition of faith.
Sometimes all the planning and fussing and worrying comes first, and then I remind myself that Jesus taught His disciples to travel light. “Take nothing for the journey,” He said. Even now, the only thing we really need is complete reliance on God.
Don’t leave home without it!
KEEP READING
- The Mission of the Twelve. Luke 9:1-6
Love this! Seem to need it, too, as I look at the large suitcase in my living room waiting to be unpacked.