Pastor's Penpoint - "In the Dust of the Rabbi" - May 2014

And when you enter a town and are not welcomed, go into its streets and say,"Even the dust of your town that sticks to our feet we wipe off against you." Luke 10: 10-11

There were many parts of the April 27th Homecoming Service that made an impact. For me. one of the most significant was a comment made by Bishop Whipple while he was preaching. He mentioned the notion of walking so close to the rabbi, that you become covered in their dust. I had never heard this before, and it got me thinking of another time that Jesus mentions dust in scripture. But first, back to  the rabbi.

It was customary for a rabbi to select a group of disciples to be trained to follow and imitate him. His shoes were fitted with a flap which kicked up dust when he walked. His disciples would walk in a line behind him and the one closest to him would be covered in the dust kicked up by the flaps on his shoes.

It was such an honor to be covered with the dust of the rabbi that they would not wash it off but rather show it off. This dust symbolized the blessing of the rabbi's influence and it was used as a verbal blessing spoken over people, "May you be covered in the dust of your rabbi."

By contrast, Jesus instructed His disciples to wipe of the dust of a town that would not receive them. He did not want them to be influenced by the attitudes of hardness expressed by that town's rejection of them. They were His representatives. What they said and did was what He said and did because He identified with them completely in their ministry. Therefore if the people of a town rejected His disciples, hey rejected Him and His Father.

There is a lesson for us in this teaching of Jesus. If we are disciples of Jesus, we take part in His labor, His way of interpreting the scriptures and His way of living the Word of God. We will live under His influence, covered with His dust, if we walk close behind Him. But if we allow the influences of an ungodly world - their dust to cover us, we will shake off that dust on other people as we go through life.

Jesus said that we are to shake off the dust of an unbelieving world because it will affect the way we carry His dust in the world. We need to ask ourselves daily, "Whose dust am I covered in today?"

~ Pastor Todd