In a casual reading, the story at the beginning of Luke chapter 9 doesn't seem to have much relation to the events of the previous chapter. But, looking deeper, it does.

At the end of Luke chapter 8, when the little girl who seemed to be dead was brought back to life, Jesus commanded that her parents give her something to eat. In sacred scripture, giving someone “something to eat” is about spiritual nourishment. It refers not only to teaching, but also spiritually nourishing one another with words of encouragement that align with spiritual truth. To the extent that we do this for one another, we become God’s disciples and apostles, cooperating with Him in the work of salvation. We are “disciples” while in His presence, learning from His Word. And we are His “apostles” when we are being sent out to minister to others, through our words and actions.

It's appropriate, then, that chapter 9 begins with Jesus calling together His twelve disciples, and then sending them out to minister to others:

“Having called together His twelve disciples, He gave them power and authority over all demons, and to cure diseases. And He sent them out to preach the kingdom of God, and to heal the sick” (Luke 9:1-2).

In a deep sense, the gathering together of the twelve disciples, before sending them out as apostles, represents an important step in our spiritual development. This begins when Jesus “calls His twelve disciples together” in us, which represents that time in our lives when we begin to understand matters of the spirit more deeply. Every “disciple” represents an essential spiritual principle. As we “gather” these principles together in our minds, striving to see how they cohere and relate to the larger whole, we begin to see the connections between ideas, and we develop a keener discernment between what is primary and what is secondary. As a result, we can apply the truth we have been learning more usefully in our lives. ¹

After gathering the disciples together, Jesus sends them forth as His apostles, giving them specific instructions for the journey. “Take nothing for your journey,” He says to them. They are not to take a staff, or a backpack, or bread, or silver, or even an extra change of clothes. Every word has spiritual significance. They will not be needing a “staff,” because they will be relying on the Lord alone. They will not need a “pack” to store up what they have learned, because the Lord will give them what to say. They will not need “bread” or “silver,” because the Lord will provide all the goodness (“bread”) and all the truth (“silver”) they need. And they will not need an extra tunic because they will be clothed in truth from the Lord, and will not need anything additional from themselves.

In this case, less is more. When there is less of self, there is more of God. ²

Shaking off the dust:

Jesus then says to them, “And into whatever house you enter, there remain, and thence go out. And as many as shall not accept you, when you come out of that city, shake off even the dust from your feet for a testimony against them” (Luke 9:4-5). A “house,” as we have mentioned before, represents the human mind. It is the place where we think things over, consider our options, and dwell on those matters that are significant to us. Our “house,” then, is our spiritual residence, our “dwelling-place.”

Spiritually speaking, everyone has a dwelling-place — a set of beliefs about themselves, about others, and about God. Because of this, some people will accept the teachings of the apostles gladly, while others will reject them. Knowing this in advance, Jesus tells them that if their teachings are rejected, the apostles should leave the house, come out of the city, and “shake the dust from off their feet.”

In sacred scripture, the term “dust” refers to things that are low and relate to the world of the external senses. Just as dust settles to the earth, there is a tendency to remain focused on things that gratify our worldly senses without lifting our minds to higher things. In the Hebrew Scriptures, this is represented by the lowly serpent who deceived Eve. As it is written, “So the Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this … you shall eat dust all the days of your life” (Genesis 3:14). ³

Jesus’ instruction to “shake off the dust” is sound advice, not only for the apostles, but for each of us. Along the spiritual journey, as we are learning truth and putting it into our lives, we may, at times, find ourselves being dragged down to lower things — those things that are merely worldly and temporal. This is, spiritually, “the dust on our feet.” Whether the dust comes through the negative influence of others or the self-serving thoughts we entertain, Jesus tells us to “shake the dust from off our feet,” and continue our journey. ⁴

This is precisely what the apostles do. As it is written in the next verse, “And going out, they passed into the villages, announcing the gospel and curing everywhere” (Luke 9:6).

Фусноте:

6716. 'A man from the house of Levi went' means truth which has its origin in good. This is clear from the meaning of 'a man as truth, dealt with in 3134; from the meaning of being 'from the house' as the origin; and from the representation of 'Levi' as good. In the highest sense 'Levi' represents Divine Love, dealt with in 3875, and in the internal sense spiritual love, 3875, 4497, 4502, 4503; and since he represents love, he represents good, because all good comes from love. As regards truth which has its origin in good, meant here by 'a man from the house of Levi', it should be recognized that the verses which follow deal in the highest sense with the Lord, with the way in which His Human became the law of God, that is, real Truth. It is well known that the Lord was born like anyone else and that when He was a young child he learned to talk like any other young child, after which He grew in knowledge, and also in intelligence and wisdom.

[2] From this it is evident that His Human was not Divine when He was born but that He made it Divine by His own power. He made it Divine by His own power because He had been conceived from Jehovah, as a result of which the inmost core of His life was Jehovah Himself. For the inmost core of anyone's life, called the soul, is derived from the father, whereas that which clothes what is inmost, called the body, is derived from the mother. The inmost core of life derived from the father is constantly flowing into and having an effect on the external derived from the mother, endeavouring even in the womb to make it similar to itself. This may be recognized in the fact that children are born with their father's disposition, and sometimes grandchildren and great grandchildren with their grandfather's and great grandfather's disposition. The reason for this is that the soul, which is derived from the father, constantly wishes to make the external derived from the mother similar to itself and an image of itself.

[3] Seeing that this is what goes on with man, one may recognize that it was what went on especially with the Lord. The inmost part of Him was the Divine Itself because it was Jehovah Himself, for He was Jehovah's only-begotten Son. And since that inmost part was the Divine Itself, how, more so than with any man, could the Divine fail to make the external derived from the mother an image of itself, that is, similar to itself, so that the Human - the external, derived from the mother - would be made Divine? This He accomplished by His own power because the Divine, which was the Inmost by which He had an effect on His Human, was His in the same way as a person's soul, which is the inmost part of him, belongs to that person. And because the progress which the Lord made conformed to Divine order, He made His Human, while He was in the world, to be Divine Truth; but after that, when He was fully glorified, He made it to be Divine Good, and so one with Jehovah.

[4] How this was accomplished is what is described in the highest sense of the present chapter. But since the contents of the highest sense, which all have to do with the Lord, surpass human understanding, let what follows be an explanation of the things contained in the internal sense of the chapter. These have to do with the beginnings and the succeeding states of God's truth with a member of the Church, that is, with a person who is being regenerated, 6713, 6714. The reason why these are the things contained in the internal sense is that human regeneration is an image of the glorification of the Lord's Human, see 3138, 3212, 3245, 3246, 3296, 3490, 4402, 5688.