Some would welcome them, some would not. If people did not welcome them they were simply to leave. “Shaking the dust off your feet” is a proverbial way of illustrating God’s judgement against them. If they do not want anything to do with God then He will have nothing to do with them. This is actually the terrifying judgement that many people will receive on the last day, only they do not realise what the full consequences of this are. Jesus put this into practice in His own ministry. Where people welcomed Him He spent time with them, if they did not want Him, as in the case of the region where the demoniac lived, He simply left. The church today is not very good at evangelism (and I include myself in that!) and while we should seek to do a good job we do have a tendency to think that if someone doesn’t accept the gospel then it is our fault. This can lead to us putting too much effort into being “seeker friendly” rather than accurately presenting the gospel. The Bible makes it clear that the church has a responsibility to be a witness to the world, but some will accept the gospel and some will not.
9:7-9
“Tetrarch” was the correct term to use of Herod Antipas. Herod had been responsible for killing John the Baptist. He knew that John was a man of God, and that when he criticised Herod for his marriage to his brother’s wife (Luke 3:19) Herod first had him imprisoned, and finally beheaded. Herod knew he had acted against God. There was general confusion about who Jesus was, some thinking He was John the Baptist raised from the dead. Others thought He was Elijah, Malachi says Elijah will come back in the last days, and still others that Jesus was some other prophet come back to life. Herod was puzzled about Jesus and wanted to meet Him.
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