Duty and Dependence

In Luke 9:1-5, Jesus is commissioning his disciples to go out and preach the Gospel and heal people. In this commissioning he gives them a specific set of duties to fulfill, ranging from not taking any thing to meet physical needs (food, money, etc) to shaking the dust of their feet when their message is rejected.

Many times we can look at Jesus' list and see a litany of rules and regulations that would certainly be hard to follow. But why did he give them this set of extras? Was it so they could talk about how well they were able to keep them?
I don't think so.
Think about the disciples; many of them were rugged fishermen, at least one of them was a tax collector who would have known how to make a buck, and we can reasonably assume this group was a collection of men who knew how to take care of themselves. This not only drives a stake in the heart of self-suffiency and self-reliance of the disciples, but it gives we "can do" Americans something to take a closer look at.
You see, Jesus isn't giving these duties to his disciples as a means of self-reliance and a way of instilling a "can do" attitude, he is giving these duties as a way of learning dependence upon God.

There is an underlying assumption that there will be needs: physical, as well as the emotional/spiritual dynamic as well. In these times where they are hungry, or they are tired and would love a walking stick, those are the times they realize that they are sent by God and granted authority from God and need to depend and rely upon God for their needs. Also, when the time comes where they experience the sting of rejection, the principal still rings true: depend upon God, not only in the times where the Gospel is accepted, but where it is rejected as well.