By: Mr. George Varughese

“Leave Your Baggage Behind” Mark 6:1-13

If any of you have traveled by airplane recently you may be familiar with the new travel game that many people are playing. For many people the definition of a “carry-on” has broadened to include a large rolling suitcase, an overstuffed backpack, a purse that is bigger than a small-child. The truth is there are many reasons why we carry too much stuff when we travel: We may fear we’ll end up needing something that we’ve left behind.

In our gospel reading, we hear Jesus’ familiar command to the disciples that they must travel lightly as they journey out to spread the message of the coming of the Kingdom of God. They were sent out not in groups, but in pairs, and they had to travel through potentially hostile territory of Samaria, where possessions would not only weigh them down but would also make them vulnerable to the bands of robbers.

But while Jesus may have been concerned about the safety of his disciples, it’s likely that the primary reason why he instructed them to travel lightly was to force them to rely on the hospitality of strangers.  They had to rely on the kindness of the local residents to take them in and feed them, and it was through these trust-building interactions that they would ultimately spread the message of God’s love that Jesus had commissioned them to share. It’s likely that Jesus wanted the disciples to take the time to get to know the people they were teaching and ministering to - to eat with them and spend several days and evenings with them, to learn their children’s names, to listen to them talk about their joys, and their frustrations…because we’re much more likely to listen to what someone has to say, and trust that their words are spoken with sincerity, when we’ve taken the time to get to know them, and when they’ve taken the time to get to know us.

Jesus instructed his disciples to travel lightly, and we are called to do the same. To step outside of the bubble of familiarity and comfort that we normally travel in and to, instead open our hearts and our space to include what is unfamiliar and uncomfortable.

Jesus calls us to leave behind our emotional and spiritual baggage as well. We are reluctant to discard our spiritual burdens - the religious baggage that we’ve picked up and carried over the course of our lives.

The belief that we are too sinful and broken to be redeemed.

The belief that God’s love, grace, and forgiveness is offered only to a select few.

The belief that we have no power to enact change in the world, and we can only sit back and pray for God to make things right.

God loves you. God loves us all, and we are to love God, and each other, as we love ourselves.

But this is what Jesus calls us to do - To set it all down at his feet.  To release our burdens to God and carry only God’s love into the world. Realistically, we will not be able to let go of it all at once, but as we journey forward we can work on letting go of one burden at a time, and trust our family, our friends, and God to help us to release our grip on what we no longer need.  

With each burden that we release, we come closer to understanding what it means to truly feel God’s love, and what it means to reflect that love back into the world. We come closer to walking in the footsteps of Jesus. We set out on an unknown road; carrying only what Jesus has given us. The promise of God’s grace, the wisdom of the Holy Spirit, and the compassion of Christ’s presence. And as we grow into seasoned travelers, we will discover that this all that we need.