During this time period Jesus toured cities and villages and went from Capernaum to Nazareth again. He had returned to his own country, to the people who had known him previously. He taught in the synagogue and people were amazed at his teaching, but they kept remembering him as a man who had grown up there. They knew his mother and his brothers. They reasoned, "How can he be someone special when we have known him just as another person in the community?"

Because of this, they rejected his teaching. Jesus observed that in other places he was honored, but among his own kin folks he was not.

Jesus sent out his twelve disciples, two by two. He told them not to take money or bread or any provisions with them. They were not even to take two coats. They were given special powers over unclean spirits. They could cast out devils and heal the sick.

They were to depend on the generosity of the people they met to sustain themselves. If certain people would not accept them, they were to "shake off the dust under their feet" and leave those people. Jesus said this rejection of his servants was a serious matter.