Luke 10
CHAPTER 10
The sending of the 70
Now after these things the Lord appointed seventy others, and sent them two by two ahead of him into every city and place, where he was about to go. 2 And he said to them: The harvest indeed is plenteous, but the labourers are few. Therefore pray to the Lord of the harvest, that He send out labourers into His harvest. 3 Go your way. See, I send you forth as lambs in the midst of wolves. 4 Carry no purse, no wallet, no shoes; and greet no one on the way. 5 And into whatever house you shall enter, first say: Peace to this house. 6 And if a son of peace be there, your peace shall rest upon it, but if not, it shall return to you. 7 And in that same house remain, eating and drinking such things as they give. For the labourer is worthy of his wages. Do not go from house to house. 8 And into whatever city you enter, if they welcome you, eat such things as are set before you. 9 Heal the sick that are therein, and say to them: The kingdom of God comes near to you. 10 But into whatever city you shall enter and they do not welcome you, go out into the streets of it and say: 11 Even the dust from your city, that clings to our feet, we wipe off against you. Nevertheless know this, that the kingdom of God comes near. 12 I say to you, it shall be more tolerable in that day for Sodom, than for that city.
13 Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works had been done in Tyre and Sidon, which were done in you, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. 14 But it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the judgment, than for you. 15 And you, Capernaum, shall you be exalted to heaven? You shall be brought down to Hades.
16 He that hears you hears me; and he that rejects you rejects me, and he that rejects me rejects Him that sent me.
17 And the seventy returned with joy, saying: Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name! 18 And he said to them: I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. 19 See, I have given you authority to tread upon serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall in any way hurt you. 20 Nevertheless, rejoice not that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.
21 In that same hour he rejoiced in spirit, and said: I thank You, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You hid these things from the wise and understanding, and revealed them to babes. Yes, Father. For so it was pleasing in Your sight. 22 All things have been delivered to me by my Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is, save the Son, and he to whomever the Son wills to reveal Him.
23 And turning to the disciples, he said privately: Blessed are the eyes which see the things you see. 24 For I say to you, that many prophets and kings desired to see the things which you see, and did not see them, and to hear the things which you hear, and did not hear them.
The parable of the good Samaritan
25 And a certain lawyer stood up, and to test him, asked: Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? 26 And he said to him: What is written in the law? How do you read it? 27 And he answered saying: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbour as yourself. 28 And he said to him: You have answered correctly. This do and you shall live.
29 But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus: And who is my neighbour? 30 Jesus answered and said: A certain man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he encountered robbers who both stripped him and beat him, and departed leaving him half dead. 31 And by chance a certain priest was going down that road; and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. 32 And in like manner a Levite also, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he was moved with compassion, 34 and came to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on them oil and wine, and he put him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. 35 And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the host, and said: Take care of him, and if you spend more, I, when I come back again, will repay you. 36 Which of these three, do you think, proved a neighbour to him that encountered the robbers? 37 And he said: The one who showed him mercy. And Jesus said to him: Go and do likewise.
38 Now as they went on their way, he entered into a certain village, and a certain woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. 39 And she had a sister called Mary, who also sat at the Lord's feet and heard his word. 40 But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to him and said: Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me. 41 But the Lord answered and said to her: Martha, Martha, you are anxious and disturbed about many things. 42 But one thing is needful. For Mary has chosen the good portion, which shall not be taken away from her.
Commentary
10:2 The harvest of people for God’s Kingdom will not be reaped if there aren’t enough workers or we work poorly. The salvation of others has therefore been delegated to us, to some extent. Let’s go and reap the harvest and pray that others will assist the work.
10:3 Jesus was “the lamb of God”; in our preaching Him, we are Him to this world. And so in the context of their preaching work in the world, Jesus called His followers “lambs”. The principle is stated in v. 16- whoever hears us hears Jesus personally.
10:4 Greet no one- Greetings in the East took a long time. Jesus didn’t intend them to be rude, but to be urgent about their mission, and dispense with niceties to fulfill it. Do we have that intensity and urgency about our preaching the Gospel?
10:13 They would have repented- God knows all possible futures and possible pasts, and His Son had some of this ability. This knowledge of ‘what could have been’ must give God such huge sadness; for the reason why we weep is because of our sense of ‘what could have been’. It must be so hard being God.
10:18 Jesus has just used the figure of falling from Heaven to earth in v. 15. It means to lose power, and shouldn’t be read literally. The power of the adversary [‘Satan’ is a Hebrew word meaning ‘adversary’] had been taken away.
10:20 Our names are written in God’s book of life, but they can be removed from it if we fall away (Rev. 3:5).
10:35 Two denarii- The wage for one day’s work was one denarius (Mt. 20:2). Maybe the implication was that the Samaritan would “come again” (v. 36) after two days. If a day with God is as a thousand years, it could be that Jesus, the Samaritan, will return after 2000 years from when He first bound up wounded humanity and put us in the “inn” of the church.
10:37 Do likewise- The Samaritan was symbolic of Jesus and His saving work for sinners, which the representatives of the Jewish law did not do. But He asks us to not only benefit from His work, but go out into the world and do the same, taking risks and sacrificing our own safety to do so. The Jews claimed Jesus was a Samaritan- a mixed race of people whom ‘pure’ Jews despised (Jn. 8:48).
10:42 Here for all time we are encouraged to give more importance to hearing Christ’s word than to domestic duties.
