Luke 10

1After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others as well. He sent them out in pairs ahead of him, to every town and place he was going to visit. 2He told them, “There is a great harvest, but only a few workers. So plead with the Lord of the harvest to send workers out to bring in his harvest. 3Go on your way. I am sending you out like lambs among wolves. 4Take no money bag, no pack and no sandals, and do not stop to greet anyone on the way. 5Whatever house you go into, begin by saying, ‘Peace be on this household.’ 6If someone there is a person of peace, your peace will stay with that person. If not, it will come back to you. 7Stay in that one house, eating and drinking whatever they give you, since a worker has earned their pay. Do not keep changing from one house to another. 8Whenever a town takes you in, eat whatever food they put in front of you. 9Heal those in it who are sick, and tell the people, ‘The kingdom of God has drawn near to you.’ 10But if you go into a town where the people do not welcome you, go out into its streets and say, 11‘Against you we wipe off even the dust of your town that has stuck to our feet. All the same, be sure of this: the kingdom of God has come near.’ 12I tell you, on that day Sodom will be better off than that town.

13How terrible for you, Chorazin! How terrible for you, Bethsaida! If the mighty deeds that were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, their people would long ago have sat down in sackcloth and ashes and repented. 14But at the judgment Tyre and Sidon will be better off than you. 15And you, Capernaum, will you be raised as high as heaven? No, you will be brought down to Hades.

16Anyone who listens to you listens to me. Anyone who turns you away turns me away, and anyone who turns me away turns away the one who sent me.”

17The seventy-two came back full of joy. “Lord,” they said, “when we use your name, even the demons obey us!” 18He told them, “I watched Satan fall from heaven like a flash of lightning. 19I have given you authority to trample snakes and scorpions underfoot, and authority over all the enemy’s power. Nothing at all will be able to hurt you. 20But do not be glad because the spirits obey you. Be glad instead that your names stand written in heaven.”

21At that very time Jesus rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have kept these things hidden from the wise and the clever, and have made them known to little children. Yes, Father, for this is what seemed good to you. 22My Father has put all things into my hands. Who the Son is, only the Father knows; and who the Father is, only the Son knows, along with anyone to whom the Son is willing to make him known.”

23Then he turned to the disciples and said to them alone, “Blessed are the eyes that are seeing what you see. 24I tell you, many prophets and kings longed to see the things you are seeing, yet never saw them; they longed to hear the things you are hearing, yet never heard them.”

25Then an expert in the law stood up to put Jesus to the test. “Teacher,” he said, “what do I have to do to inherit eternal life?” 26Jesus answered him, “What stands written in the law? What do you read there?” 27He answered, “’You are to love the Lord your God with your whole heart, your whole soul, your whole strength and your whole mind,’ and ‘your neighbor as you love yourself.’” 28Jesus told him, “Your answer is right. Do this, and you will live.”

29But the man wanted to show that he was in the right, so he asked Jesus, “And who counts as my neighbor?” 30Jesus took up the question and said, “A man was on his way down from Jerusalem to Jericho when robbers set on him. They tore off his clothes, gave him a beating, and went off and left him lying there half dead. 31It so happened that a priest was traveling down by that same road. He saw the man, but went past him, keeping to the far side. 32A Levite did the same. He came to the spot, saw him, and went past on the far side. 33Then a Samaritan, who was on a journey, came to where the man lay. When he saw him, his heart went out to him. 34He went over to him, poured oil and wine on his wounds and bound them up. Then he lifted him onto his own animal, took him to an inn, and looked after him. 35The next day he took out two denarii and handed them to the innkeeper. ‘Care for him,’ he said, ‘and if you spend anything more, I will pay you back on my return.’ 36Now which of these three, in your view, proved to be a neighbor to the man the robbers attacked?” 37He answered, “The one who was merciful to him.” Jesus told him, “You go, then, and do the same.”

38As they went on their way, Jesus came into a village where a woman named Martha welcomed him as her guest. 39Martha had a sister, Mary, who sat down at Jesus’s feet and kept listening to his words. 40But Martha was being pulled in every direction by all the work of serving. She came up and said, “Lord, does it not matter to you that my sister has left me to do the serving on my own? So tell her to give me a hand.” 41The Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are fretting and in a stir about so many things. 42Yet there is need of few things, or only of one. Mary has picked the good share, and it is not going to be taken from her.”