For some of us, letting go of the past is hard. I cannot tell you how many times I have found myself cringing or wincing over some mistake or cruelty I committed years ago. I’m 63 and I still ache with shame when I think of how my 6 or 7 year old self treated a little boy who came to my door and asked if he could be my friend. I imagine he was new in the neighborhood and didn’t know any other children. I remember telling him I already had one, and closing the door. As if he were trying to sell me a set of encyclopedias or another sister. Why would I be so heartless? I think I was afraid of his need for a friend. His vulnerability—as if it might be contagious. That memory still haunts me. And there are so many more. I have done my share of being a jerk.
And I have done my share of stupid things as well. Letting people down, breaking promises… Had my share of disappointments, failures, and probably more than my share of successes. But, living in the past, whether it is recalling the highs or the lows, the hurts or the happinesses, is not healthy. And this little bit of advice about shaking the dust off your feet seems like quite good advice not just for the apostles, but for all of us. Reading this passage, it occurred to me that what Jesus is telling His disciples is good coaching advice. He is telling them, shake it off. Let it go. Don’t get focused on that last play, that last pitch, that last swing. Let it go. Pick up your bat, dust yourself off, and get back in the box; get ready for the next pitch. And remember, Babe Ruth struck out almost twice as often as he hit homeruns. Just saying…
So, what is the context for this piece of advice? It appears in all three synoptic gospels. Jesus is sending the disciples out on their own and giving them advice about how to behave. This advice is related what might feel like a failure, like a strike-out; specifically, it is related to being rejected by a town: “Whatever town you enter and they do not make you welcome…shake the dust of that town off your feet as you leave.” (cf. Mt. 10:14, Mk 6:11, Lk 10:11).
I like to think of this advice as especially necessary after last week’s gospel reading. Last week we read the passage from Luke 9 in which James and John ask Jesus if He wants them to call down fire from Heaven on a Samaritan village that wouldn’t welcome them. James and John are holding onto the hurt of the rejection. They want revenge. They want to strike back. They want to lash out at the hurt they felt… the hurt they still feel. Because they are clinging to the hurt. They are holding onto the memory of that painful moment. But Jesus says, no to such behavior. Jesus always says no to living in the past. Instead—He reminds us again and again to be present to the grace of the moment. This moment. Right here. Right now.
As Bob Dylan once sang:
“Shake the dust off of your feet,
There’s nothing that can hold you down
Life is full of disappointments, and sadly too often we ourselves may be the cause of that disappointment. No matter how hard we try to be good, we are human. We will fail. We may thoughtlessly reject someone, and (in our turn) we too will probably be rejected. Don’t cling to the hurt. Don’t cling to the painful memory. Don’t wallow in it and grow bitter or resentful.
As Fred Astaire, another great American singer, once sang: “Pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and start all over again.”
