Chapter 10
While they are on the road to Jerusalem, Jesus calls a brief halt to do some ministry work. He picks out 72 disciples, sorts them into pairs, and sends them out to preach to every town that Jesus plans to go to. He tells them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.” The 72 disciples are to be the workers, spreading the word of the kingdom of God. Jesus says he is sending them out “like lambs among wolves”. He tells them not to take a bag, extra sandals, or anything else with them on the road. They are also not to greet anyone on the road. When they enter a house, they are to say “Peace to this house”, and if a man of peace is there the disciple’s peace will rest on him; but if not, the peace will return to the disciple. They are to stay at one house the entire time they are in a particular town, and not move around from house to house. They are to accept whatever food their host gives them, heal the sick, and preach the message that “The kingdom of God is near you.” If they enter a town and the town doesn’t welcome them, they are to go into its streets and say, “Even the dust of your town that sticks to our feet we wipe off against you. Yet be sure of this: The Kingdom of God is near.” (cf Matthew 10, Mark 6, Luke 9)
Jesus says that on judgment day, it will be more bearable for the evil city of Sodom than it will be for such a town. Jesus gets angry at the towns of Bethsaida and Korazin, saying that if the miracles he had worked there had been done in the heathen cities of Tyre and Sidon instead, the heathens would have believed instantly and repented in sackcloth and ashes long since. On judgment day, it will be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon than it will be for Bethsaida and Korazin. The town of Capernaum has also disbelieved Jesus’ message and miracles, and will “go down to the depths” come the day of judgment. Jesus tells the group of disciples, “He who listens to you listens to me; he who rejects you rejects me; but he who rejects me rejects him who sent me.” (cf Matthew 10, 11)
When the 72 disciples return from their mission, they are overjoyed and tell Jesus that “even the demons submit to us in your name.” Jesus replies that Satan has suffered a defeat by having his demons driven out. Jesus says that he has given the disciples “authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you. However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”
Jesus then praises God because he has “hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children.” He says that all things have been committed to him by the Father; no one knows who the Son is except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son, and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. Jesus says that the disciples are blessed, because they are seeing things that many prophets and kings wanted to see but never did. (cf Matthew 11)
Later, a teacher of the law asks Jesus, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus counters, “What is written in the Law?” The teacher quotes a passage from the law that says, “Love the Lord your God with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind,” and another passage which says “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Jesus tells him he’s correct, and if he does that he’ll live. (cf Matthew 22, Mark 12)
But the guy isn’t happy with this answer, and demands that Jesus define “neighbor”. Jesus replies with a parable: One day a man is traveling when some robbers mug him on the road, beat him up and steal all his stuff, and leave him for dead. A priest happens to be going down the same road and sees the injured man, but crosses to the other side of the road to avoid him and continues on. A Levite comes down the road a little while later and also sees the man, but also passes him. Later, a Samaritan passes by and sees the man too. He stops, bandages the man’s wounds, puts him on a donkey and carries him to an inn. He gives some money to the innkeeper to look after the man until he’s better, and promises that if the cost of caring for him comes out to more than the money he’s given, he’ll pay the extra when he comes back. Then Jesus asks the teacher of the law, “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?” The teacher of the law says the Samaritan was the man’s neighbor, because he had mercy on him. Jesus tells him, “Go and do likewise.”
Jesus and the apostles and disciples then start back on the road to continue their trip to Jerusalem. They arrive at a village a few miles outside the city, and stay with two sisters named Mary and Martha. While everyone is settling in, Jesus is teaching and Mary sits and listens to him. That leaves Martha as the only one to get everything prepared for all the guests, and she gets mad at Mary for not helping her with all the work. Jesus calms her down, and tells her that although she is worried about many things, there’s only one thing that matters. He says that Mary has chosen what’s best, and that it shouldn’t be taken from her.
Commentary
It doesn’t actually say in the text that Jesus called a halt, but given that in the previous chapter it said that the trip from where they were to Jerusalem was only 2-3 days long, and that the 72 disciples must have taken quite a bit more time than that to go on their mission trip if they went to all of the nearby towns, and that Jesus & crew don’t arrive in Jerusalem until the end of the chapter after the 72 get back, it seems clear that he must have stopped on the way while the 72 were out preaching, and then resumed the journey once they returned. That was also the longest sentence ever.
The notes say that some manuscripts say that Jesus picked out 72 disciples, whereas other manuscripts say it was 70. The NIV here obviously went with 72; the KJV gives the number as 70. I don’t think it really matters, but there it is. Also, in case it isn’t clear enough from the context, here’s the basic breakdown of disciples: The 12 Apostles are the lead disciples. They’re basically the most important ones, the ones who follow Jesus the most closely, live with him, occasionally receive special training/teaching from him, and for the most part have been following him the longest. There’s also an uncounted number of lesser disciples, who are generally described as a small crowd that sort of follows Jesus wherever he goes and listens to his preaching. They don’t live with him like the Apostles do, though, and their number shifts as people come and go. Out of this milling crowd of minor followers, Jesus picks 72 of the most loyal ones and assigns them to do the mission work described in the chapter. It’s basically a promotion for them. It also gives the 12 Apostles a small break, as previously they were the only ones helping Jesus out in this way.
The mission trip of the 72 disciples sounds almost exactly like the mission trip of the 12 apostles from the last chapter. Most of his speech to the 72 disciples on their trip is verbatim from the speech he gave to the apostles on their trip. It’s hard to tell whether there was really only one trip, that simply got told twice. OTOH, maybe there really were two separate trips, and Jesus just gave the same speech at both. However, Luke is the only one who mentions the mission trip by the 72 disciples. Neither Matthew nor Mark mention it.
Re: The line saying, “However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” That’s some win right there.
Re: the good Samaritan. This story (along with the story about Mary and Martha) is one of the few that is unique to Luke and not copied from Matthew or Mark. It doesn’t say in the notes, but from a quick google apparently a “Levite” is someone who is from the Israelite tribe of Levi, which generally acted as priests or assistant priests. Samaritans were a non-Jewish tribe who disliked the Jews, a feeling which the Jews returned with interest.
biblereread 