Shake the dust off your feet, and live and let live

The most important message I picked up from today’s readings overall is shake the dust off your feet, and live and let live.

My primary takeaway from each of the passages was this:

• Leviticus 15 & 16: The origin of the term “scapegoat.”
• Luke 9: Shake the dust off of your feet, and live and let live.
• Psalms 53: “The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God.'”
• Proverbs 22: More tidbits of wisdom for living a good and productive life.

The concept of the “scapegoat” is an idiom that is so embedded in our culture that nearly everyone uses the term but hardly anyone thinks about why. As we use it, a scapegoat is when all the blame for something is heaped on one person even though he isn’t the only one to blame in a situation. Everyone else who is to blame escapes any kind of punishment or consequences because the scapegoat takes the brunt of that for all involved. Chapter 16 of Leviticus is literally where that concept comes from.

However, that’s about the only thing in these chapters that is instructional, because once again we see that chapters like these have little to no relevance in terms of practical application for our lives today. They recount outdated ritualistic cultural practices that have long ago passed out of practice, and that’s a good thing. When I think of all the animals that died for the sins of Israel, I wonder how they didn’t go extinct. These chapters do continue to foreshadow the ultimate sacrifice made by Jesus so that animal sacrifice could become a thing of the past.

In Luke, Jesus gives the twelve disciples authority to perform the same miracles that he has been performing himself: healing the sick and casting out demons. He sends them out “to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal.” He also gives them instructions to not take any rejections of them or their message personally, and says “when you leave their town shake the dust from your feet as evidence against them.”

I like to remember this verse in situations where I have important things to say to people and it falls on deaf ears, or when anything important and meaningful I am doing is rejected. Shaking the dust off of my feet is the equivalent of just moving on and doing what I am supposed to be doing without being concerned about why I was rejected, or trying to convince those who rejected me or my message that I am right. Many people get invested in convincing others that they are right, but there is no benefit to that for either the the person who persists in trying to convince or the people that can’t be convinced. It’s a waste of time and energy. Later in the year we’ll read this in Isaiah chapter 55 verse 11: “So will My word be which goes out of My mouth; It will not return to Me void (useless, without result), Without accomplishing what I desire, And without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.” Anything we do or say that is inspired will never be for nothing. The only thing that is important is that we put it out there. It will be received by the people it was meant for, and if other people reject it, well that’s on them. Shake the dust off your feet and move on.

Also in this chapter of Luke, Jesus gives his disciples (and us) further clarity on this issue of trying to convince other people that we’re right and they’re wrong, and rebuking those we think are wrong. In verses 49 and 50, John becomes concerned because he sees people that they don’t know driving out devils in Jesus’ name. Apparently, they didn’t get the official training, but they had either seen or heard of Jesus and the disciples doing this, so they started doing it too. John says he tried to stop them, but Jesus says to stop trying to stop them, because, “anyone who is not against you is for you.” This is a powerful message of acceptance and a “live and let live attitude” on the part of Jesus. If someone is doing good things that help other people, let them do it. It is not necessary for them to get the official training or the advanced diploma. They are doing good in the world and alleviating the suffering of others, so leave them alone and let them do it. There is an unattributed Chinese proverb that floats around the Internet that says, “The person who says it cannot be done should not interrupt the person doing it.” That seems to be what Jesus was saying.

This chapter is packed with other important things that Jesus said. He speaks of the difficulties and hardships of a life dedicated to God and the work he gave his disciples. The story of the transfiguration is in this chapter, also–Jesus have a face-to-face encounter with Elijah and Moses. If I had any idea what that really meant I would speak to it, but I don’t think anyone can really understand what happened there, beyond the idea that Jesus had a supernatural experience that transcended time and space.

Psalms 53 begins with “The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God'” and goes on to describe the plight of those who live their lives without any faith in anything higher than themselves. If there is any direct message in the story of Jesus’ transfiguration, I believe it is what Psalms 53 is telling us: there is something greater than ourselves, and more going on in the Universe than we can possibly imagine. As Hamlet said in the Shakespeare play of the same name, “There are more things in heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.” Anyone who says with absolute certainty that there is no God, and there is nothing beyond what we can experience with our five senses, is speaking from sheer hubris. If modern science teaches us anything, it is that we still don’t know all that we don’t know.

That’s what I got out of it. What did you get out of the readings today?

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This post is part of the series, “Read the Bible in a Year.”

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