1 After these things, the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them on ahead of him two by two into every town and place where he himself intended to go. 2 He said to them, “Though the harvest is vast, the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest. 3 Go now, but take note! I am sending ᵖyou out like lambs in the midst of wolves. 4 Don’t carry a moneybag, or a traveler’s bag, or sandals, and don’t stop to exchange greetings with anyone along the road. 5 Instead, whenever you enter someone’s home, you are to say, first, ‘Peace to this home!’ 6 And if at that home there is a person of peace, your blessing of peace will remain on him. Otherwise, it will return to ᵖyou. 7 Now, that same home is where ᵖyou are to remain, eating and drinking whatever they give you, because a worker is of his wages certainly deserving. Don’t move around from home to home. 8 Likewise, whenever ᵖyou enter a town and the people there welcome you, eat whatever they serve you; 9 heal those in the town who are sick and say to the people there, ‘The Kingdom of God is drawing near to ᵖyou!’ 10 Whenever ᵖyou enter a town and the people refuse to welcome you, however, go into the town’s main streets and say, 11 ‘We wipe off against ᵖyou the very dust from your city that clings to our feet! Just know this: The Kingdom of God is drawing near!’ 12 I tell you this: It will be truly more bearable in that Day even for Sodom than for that town! 13 Woe and calamity to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles that took place in ᵖyou had taken place in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago sitting in nothing less than sackcloth and ashes. 14 Yet it will be truly more bearable even for Tyre and Sidon at the judgment than for ᵖyou! 15 And what about ˢyou, Capernaum? Will you be lifted up to the sky? No! You will descend into the very depths of Sheol. 16 If someone listens to ᵖyou, he is actually listening to me, and if someone rejects ᵖyou, it is me whom he is actually rejecting. And if someone rejects me, he is actually rejecting the one who sent me.”

17 The seventy-two returned full of joy. “Lord,” they said, “even the demons submit to us in your name!”

18 “I was watching Satan fall from heaven like lighting,” Jesus said to them. 19 Listen carefully: I have granted ᵖyou the authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and on the entire army of the enemy, and he will not in any way do ᵖyou harm. 20 Nevertheless, don’t rejoice in this: That the spirits submit to ᵖyou. Rejoice, rather, in the fact that your names are written in the heavens.”

21 At that moment Jesus was full of joy in the Holy Spirit and said, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and learned and made them known to the simple. Yes, Father, I thank you that this is the way you chose to carry out your plan. 22 The Father has entrusted to my care the entire creation, and no one truly knows who the Son is, except one: The Father. And no one truly knows who the Father is, except for these: The Son and those to whom the Son decides to make him known.” 23 Then turning to his disciples, he said to them privately, “Blessed are the eyes that see the things ᵖyou are seeing. 24 For I tell ᵖyou this: Many prophets and kings themselves wanted to see the things that you are seeing, but did not see them, and to hear the things you are hearing, but did not hear them.”

25 Just then there stood up a certain expert in the Torah, who put a question to Jesus to test him. “Teacher,” he said, “what must I do to inherit life in the coming age?”

26 “In the Torah,” Jesus said to him, “what is written? How do you recite it?”

27 The man replied, “ ‘ˢYou are to 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, ‘love ˢyour neighbor as yourself.’+”

28 “You have answered correctly,” Jesus said to him. “Do this and ˢyou will live.”

29 Wanting to show himself to be in the right, the man asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

30 In reply Jesus said, “A certain man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho when he fell into the hands of some thieves, who stripped him of his clothes and beat him and then took off, leaving him half dead. 31 Now it just so happened that a priest was traveling down that same road. When he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. 32 In the same way, a Levite, too, when he arrived at the place and saw the man, himself passed by on the other side. 33 Now, there was also another person who was traveling that way and happened upon the man: A despised Samaritan. When he saw the man, his heart went out to him, 34 and he went up to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring olive oil and wine on them. Then setting the man on his own mule, he took him to an inn and took care of him. 35 The next day, he took out two silver coins, each worth a day’s wages, and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Take good care of him,’ he said to the innkeeper, ‘and if you end up spending more than this, I, when I return, will repay you.’

36 “Which of these three do ˢyou think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the thieves?”

37 “The one who showed mercy to him,” the Torah-expert replied.

Then Jesus said to him, “ˢYou go and do the same.”

38 Now as Jesus and his disciples continued on their way, Jesus went into a certain village, where he was welcomed into the home of a woman named Martha. 39 Martha had a sister named Mary, who, having also sat down at the Lord’s feet, was listening to him as he taught. 40 Martha, meanwhile, was busy and anxious trying to get the food and drink and everything else ready. Finally, she went up to Jesus and said, “Lord, surely ˢyou care, don’t you, that my sister has left me to do the work all by myself? Please tell her, then, to come and give me some help.”

41 “Martha, Martha,” the Lord replied, “you are worried and upset about many things. 42 Only one thing, however, is needed. Mary, you see, has chosen for herself the best portion, and it will not be taken away from her.”