10
“The Lord Appointed Seventy-Two Others and Sent Them On ahead of Him”
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.”+
“And Who Is My Neighbor?”
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.”
“Only One Thing Is Needed”
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.”