5 If people do not welcome you, shake the dust off your feet when you leave their town, as a testimony against them.
Sometimes you just have to let things go! The disciples are being sent out on a journey to prepare people to hear Jesus speak later. They are given some of the same power and authority that Jesus has. They can drive out demons and heal the sick. This is exactly what brought excitement to the crowds when Jesus was on the scene personally. And Jesus also gives them a reality check: not everyone will welcome this kind of message, and when they reject the message, don’t take it personally. That is a good message for us to hear and receive. There will be some who reject our message. We must not take it personally. The disciples were told to shake the dust off their feet, to rid themselves of the remnants of their visit. When someone rejects us, we need to shake off the dust. We have to learn to let it go. It does us no good to walk around with the dust hanging on us. We end up telegraphing all our past hurts and disappointments. Everyone can see the dust and know that something is wrong. They often assume that there is something wrong with us. Maybe we need to just shake off the dust! This might include talking to the offender. It might take an ‘intervention’ like we see on TV. It might involve going to talk to a counselor or pastor. Sometimes we have lived with the dust so long we don’t even know what life would look like if our clothes were clean. Jesus tells the disciples that removing the dust is essential to carrying the message from town to town. We can’t let one bad experience color every subsequent experience. We have to learn to shake off the dust. When divorce happens, often the dust from the previous relationship gets carried into the next. Shake off the dust. Perhaps a previous boss ‘did you wrong’. Shake off the dust. Childhood traumatic experiences. Shake off the dust. These kinds of dusts are not easy to work through, but work through we must. God’s grace will enable you to shake off the dust. God wants to forgive and cleanse, heal and restore. But we must be willing to let go of the dust and that can be scary.
The Arnold Journey 